nardi steering wheel (dialup b.warned)
 

bought it used from a member on another forum. the condition was not the greatest, but its not the worst either. just a few nicks and scrapes, but the leather for the most part looks awesome. supple and comfortable to hold. now i know ive gotta keep it clean and conditioned like mad cuz my palms sweat all the time. everything from holding on to a video game controller to writing something with a pen and paper.

the installation was pretty straight forward; straighten the wheel out, disconnect negative terminal, unscrew the airbag component, disconnect airbag & the cruise control/horn connectors, unbolt the single lock bolt holding the steering wheel in place (it is on there good! you will have to work it unless you have an air tool). the official mazda work manual says to use the correct "puller" so i guess there is a specific way to pull out the wheel itself, but i just pulled hard and kinda wiggled it at the same time. it came out with a lot of force. the nardi wheel fit right into place but it is physically incompatible with the cruise control buttons, so i will have to figure out a way to attach it. somebody wrote a how-to on another forum so i will take a look at his method.

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel4.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel5.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel6.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel7.jpg

some closeups of the nicks/scrapes. most didnt show up well in the pictures, but they are definitely noticable in person. again, the leather overall seems to be in great condition i have no complaints about the steering wheel itself.
http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~ptan/stwheel2.jpg

Are those Rota Subzeros in your signature? I was just looking at those rims and found a pretty good deal on them.

indeed they are rota subzeros. 45 offset, custom center hub for proteges, got the deal from autornd. unfortunately cuz of the center hub the normal wheel caps dont fit. the wheels are off the car for now, i hit a massive pothole and dented both driver side rims. so i either have to find a wheel repair shop or get some new wheels.

at first i thought u said Ro_Ja subzeros.... i always get them confused....
but then again, Ro_Ja's are way expensive... along with volks

Got any more pics of them on the car? I was looking at getting a set of black 17x7.5 with a polished lip, and that seems to be exactly what you have on. If you could post some pics for me that'd be great!!

I really wanna see what they're like and if I would like them better than my MSRs.

Heres a pic of my P5 on 17x7.5 subs. I kinda miss those wheels.
http://www.msprotege.com/members/Natey/p5subzero.JPG

What did you do with your stock steering wheel? If you're thinking about selling it, let me know. :) The one in my RX-7 is pretty toasted.

I like the way the rims look, and I love the fact that you can get them in +45/+48 offset to prevent rubbing. The only thing that's keeping me from them is the lack of a center cap..

my wheels are actually "royal gun metal" which is the gun metal with a polished lip. i didnt want to go with black because i thought it would be too much of a contrast. the gun metal is a nice deep color which looked better on the car than i thought.

i think i have some pics posted somewhere, if not i'll upload some again!

The centers of the rim will have to be bored out a little bit, but you can keep the centercaps intact with Subzeros. I was just pushin' the 'no centercap' look. :)

Here's a pic with them on (1028x 850...133kb):

Why would you switch steering wheels? No cruise control now.

vastly superior leather and workmanship overall :)

cuz leather steering wheel feels awesome. i got this cuz it was a good deal for a used wheel, although you can see some of the wear and tear. the airbag remained, ive lost the cruise, but if i decide to get off my lazy but im sure i can remount the controls. an alternative is to remove cc altogether and the strut towers would be more compatible with other strut bars w/o necessary hardware to relocate the cc. but i digress. i just like the feel and its a nice visual upgrade.
-meGrimlock