Steering Wheel Restoration
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✅ Material: Bakelite (Phenolic Resin over Steel Core)
Main composition: molded Bakelite over a metal (usually steel) ring and spokes.
Why Bakelite?
Luxurious feel but highly durable.
Could be molded into elegant shapes with finger grooves, decorative ribs, or inlays.
Took paint, dyes, and fillers well — allowed Packard to match interior aesthetics.
✅ Colors:
Early 1930s: typically black or dark brown.
Mid-to-late 1930s: some marbled colors (ivory swirl, chocolate, caramel tones), depending on model.
Senior Packards (Super Eights, Twelves) sometimes had more elaborate colorations or two-tone marbling.
✅ Problems seen today:
Crazing, cracking, shrinkage.
Surface oxidation (“blooming” of the surface turning chalky).
Occasional steel core rusting if cracks allowed moisture penetration.
1934 Packard wheel, here’s a very clear assessment:
This is Bakelite (phenolic resin), with marbled filler.
The distinct woodgrain-like swirl pattern you see in the brown tones is very typical of dyed Bakelite mixtures from the early-mid 1930s.
Packard loved using these marbled phenolics to give an upscale, “organic” look while keeping the manufacturing advantages of molded plastic.
The fracture near the hub area is also typical of aged Bakelite — clean chip lines rather than tearing or crumbling like rubber.
The smooth, high-gloss surface originally would have had a polished shine.
That finger groove pattern on the rim and the way the filler swirls are distributed further confirm it was a high-end molded Bakelite part.
Short version:
Your ’34 Packard steering wheel was factory Bakelite with marbled filler, molded over a metal core.
This type of material was used on:
1933–1936 Packards (Super Eight, Twelve, and many juniors too)
Some Cadillac and Buick models also used similar marbled Bakelite for their luxury lines.