Our Story

Welcome to Steering-Wheels.co.uk.

Back in the 1950's and 60's leather was becoming a more prevalent luxury option in cars. At that time the UK supplied most of the worlds cars from manufactures mainly based in the Midlands. A leather manufacturer called Connolly Bros became synonymous with luxury leather used in Jaguar, Austin, Jensen, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati and Rolls Royce cars. (Note :Other manufactures leather was used) During this time a simple process of re-colouring leather became know as re-connolising and suppliers like Woolies made kits for people to do it themselves.

However in the late 1970's a lot of harmful chemicals were outlawed by the European Union and all manufacturers of cars and leather switched to colour their leather using the 'pigmented method '. Since then until now most leather for vehicles is produced this way. Modern leather restoration uses the same process (by hand) to repeat the original manufacturers finish. Specialist chemicals and techniques also allow leather wear and damage to be repaired.

My journey in leather restoration began back in 2011 when I owned a lovely Jaguar whose Ivory leather interior was looking tired. I researched the market for a solution and found that the UK has the best suppliers in the world for leather restoration product and techniques. I purchased some chemicals from the best UK supplier and proceeded to restore my seats. I have to say that my first attempt whilst OK was not great. I quickly realised that you had to understand the leather restoration process. , how the chemicals interacted and how the environment affected the finish.

After restoring a few cars I strangely liked the process, even though it involved unpleasant chemicals and work. After being asked to work on lots of friends cars I decided to get professionally trained and set up Leather-Restoration Ltd to restore car leather.

I've now been restoring for 10+ years and have completed 500+ restorations and over that time I've realised my love of leather steering wheels (yes odd I know!) hence Steering-Wheels.co.uk. All of the rare and special steering wheels on this website has been personally restored by me. I sympathetically restore the existing leather (better quality than today's leather) using the same number of finishing layers that the manufacturers applied to leather during the 1980s / 90s. This ensures the leather coatings will be more durable than today's leather, ensuring you can enjoy your steering wheel for many years. I hope you enjoy my website and please do get in-touch if I can assist you source and restore a rare steering wheel.

Regards, Colin.

P.S. You can see my work on my YouTube channel.