Wrapping the Citroen DS steering wheel

The Citroen DS is known for its single spoke steering wheel. It is one of the many things that make this car so unique.

The steering wheels up to the 1971 model year were thin wheels wrapped in black plastic tape.   (I understand some very early cars had a different system).  Later cars had the soft ‘safety’ steering wheel.   My car, being a 1970 model, has this steering wheel.   At some point the tape had been removed and some rubber coating added.   The rubber coating didn’t feel right, so I had wanted to restore the wheel to how it is supposed to be.

I had found a thread on the Aussie frogs forum that detailed not only how to get the tape, but how to install it as well.   I ordered a wheel of this tape from Citroen Classics in the UK a few months ago, and finally got to installing it today.   It is a two man job, so I had to wait to find an assistant who was willing to spend an hour or two wrapping the Citroen DS steering wheel.

The tape comes in a wheel, and you get more tape than you actually need to do the job. This allows for a few mistakes.  There are two holes in the wheel to start and finish the tape.  You have to cut the it to a tapered end to fit in the holes and the wind the wheel.   I ended up using a 3M trim adhesive that I had available and using plenty of masking tape along the way to let it set.

I can’t say I did a perfect job wrapping the Citroen DS steering wheel. It is quite difficult to get a perfect and even wind.  I am pretty happy overall and the job is well worth doing.   The 3M adhesive also seems to be working well at this point. I will leave the wheel taped for a few days before I remove the masking tape just in case.