Beetle steering wheel

When I first got my '61 Beetle in 2004 it came with the early sixties steering wheel - the one with the recesses on either spoke to clear the half circle horn ring. It was in a bad way with cracks all over it and chunks of the bakelite (polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride - yep, that's its real name) missing.

I removed it with the promise to restore and refit it to the car at a later date. In the mean time I fitted a Grant 10-inch wheel that I had knocking about from my previous Bug. Not ideal and far too small but quite an attractive wheel non-the-less.

More recently I decided to get on to restoring the original wheel. Could I find it? Of course not! I've searched high and low for the damn thing and it's nowhere to be seen. I'm a little gutted about it because one can only assume that it got confused for junk when my parents were clearing out their garage (only fair I guess). I did however find the original horn ring and some of the contact pins.

Well, I've been harping on about getting another wheel for a few months and even looked on various German sites to get a used original on the cheap. Cheap? Absolutely not! One guy wanted 250 EURO for one not including the 100 EURO shipping. While there were cheaper versions to be had, none were like the £5 that James Peene paid for the one pictured above.

The thoughtful chap that is Mr. Peene went to Brighton Breeze last weekend and spied this wheel on a stand. He inquired about the price and purchased it without hesitation. Come the following Monday he left it on my desk as a surprise. A welcome one at that given the trouble I've had protecting my Beetle from thieves of late - more on that another day.

So now I have a genuine early sixties wheel again and better still it's in much better condition than my lost one, with only two cracks to repair.
A small winter project me thinks!