[naut]

Originally Posted by Blr_RK

For vehicles with Airbag (as in my ZXI), he does not remove the steering wheel. He has the measurement templates for all the models of vehicles. Accordingly, he cuts the leather and makes the basic framework ready. He goes back to the vehicle, ensures that the leather has been cut to the exact measurement and then starts the stitching work in the car.

In case of no airbags, he removes the steering wheel from the car and then takes it to his workshop for stitching.

Unfortulately, I dont have the WIP photos. I was really busy watching him do the stitching on a very hot sweaty afternoon. Sorry

Rgds
Suhas

Hey RK,

The steering work done for your Ertiga looks awesome! Can you please post the pics of your Ertiga's gear knob done up in Brown? Did you get the seat covers done up from him? Any further updates? How's the leather holding up now that it's been a year. Your reply will be highly appreciated.

[joshguy]

Originally Posted by Blr_RK

.

Originally Posted by gurudutt

Hi Guys,
After searching quite a bit, we (my friend prashu and me) found this guy on JC road who does all kinds of leather work for you car. I got done a hand stitched steering wheel grip and he did a great job, its comparable to a company fitted one which most of the high end car variants have. I will upload a few pictures soon, he has templates for most of the cars and hand stitches it.

Thank you Both of you !

I bought a pre owned Ertiga ZDi a month back and i was keen on the leather wrapping the steering wheel as i was used to it in my i20 and was also worried of the beige getting dirty soon.

I enquired in Chennai and i could not find a single place where they make customised ones , the ready made ones (branded) were very thin and people quoted a bomb for it.I came across this thread and actually planned the trip only for this (which my family was not aware..LOL)

Since it was a long weekend,i planned it on Saturday (24th Jan) and called Devraj two days back. started at 8 am from chennai and reached bangalore at 2.30, left the family at room and immediately went to JC road.

Met Devraj at around 330,he took me to his shop and since mine was a airbag version he said stiching has to be done sitting in the car.

i was actually having single colour in mind, but in his shop I saw two colours hanging togetherand combination looked good.Asked devraj if it will go well he said it will go very well.I told him that I want dark colour in the places where hand is mostly kept and yes within next 20 mins cutting and stitching was done.

Once done we walked to the car , he took another 20 mins to stitch it and wow ! i was really happy with the results.

Over all Rating 8/10

• Stiching - 9/10 (OE kinds)
• Leather - 8/10 (looks like 2nd quality but at this price is , it is awesome)
• Workmanship 9/10
• Fit and finish 7/10 (there is a reason behind it)

Fit and Finish is rated low because, while i met him it self i told him that i am in a hurry and you have to do it in 1 hour. may be devraj was in a hurry and he was gettign lots of calls in between for business,because of it the finish behind the steering was left unnoticed and i felt it only after travelling some distance.
Also the glue which was put in the leather some how got stuck to the audio controls and guess it is a strong glue due to which the coating on top pealed off and shows black colour. (Devraj did apologies for it but damge was already done and if he had been little careful it could have been avoided)

NOTE - If you have airbag or steering mounted controls ,i would suggest you to get the steerign wheel removed at an authorised workshop and take it to devraj so that fitting is perfect.Stiching comfortably on a table VS inside the car makes a huge difference. Devraj is scared to touch airbag since it is something related to electrics and sensors.

Cost - Rs 900

Now the pictures will speak

[joshguy]

Devraj is one hard working guy and wish his workmanship and rates are as "Value for money" as it is now.

Usually once these people get recognition they start charging more and become greedy (that's what i have seen in the past)

Adding the Pictures of Devraj's shop,you can see the steering wheel templates and different colours of leathers hanging.

[gurudutt]

Originally Posted by joshguy

Devraj is one hard working guy and wish his workmanship and rates are as "Value for money" as it is now.

Usually once these people get recognition they start charging more and become greedy (that's what i have seen in the past)

Adding the Pictures of Devraj's shop,you can see the steering wheel templates and different colours of leathers hanging.

I have known him over the years and he mostly gets customers through other shops in JC road. We went to him directly and got a better price. One thing is for sure, even if he starts charging more, it will be inline with the shop guys. He will never charge beyond that since people will find other alternatives.

[Blr_RK]

@naut,
extremely sorry for the very late reply. The steering grip and the gear knob is holding on very well even after 1 year. here are the pictures.

Rgds
Suhas

[adg_andy]

Hi,

If anyone can give me google coordinates/directions to this place in JC road, it would be helpful

[vnidta]

Originally Posted by adg_andy

If anyone can give me google coordinates/directions to this place in JC road, it would be helpful

Hi,

This place is pretty small and I myself got the steering cover done yesterday. Google coordinates wouldn't help since you need to call Devraj and then drop by. He would take you to one of the garages he knows where you get to park your vehicle. From there, he takes the steering wheel (and gear-knob if you opt for it) off and it's a walk of around 200 meters from that spot.

BTW, coming back to my story.., I always wanted to get a decent steering wheel cover to my Pocket Rocket since the day I bought it (second-hand of course). I was searching all over the internet and with people I know of and finally, came across this thread.

I sincerely thank Gurudutt for the information and pictures posted which motivated me to go ahead and get the work done from Devraj.

It all started last Monday when I finally made up my mind to get the cover fitted to the steering wheel since it had lost most of the grip on the 3 O'clock position (It is supposed to be a single-hand driven car when it was with the previous owner. I mean, literally!) I started seriously browsing over the internet and visited multiple websites and threads and finally landed here. Saw the first set of posts and made a note of Devraj's number. At around evening 6:30PM, I called up Devraj. I checked with him if it is possible for him to pick the steering wheel from my place itself since I stay at Chamarajpet and I noticed someone posting here that there is a seat-cover factory right here. He told me to drop by to JC Road shop itself as the factory here at Chamarajpet is only for Seat Covers and not for Steering Wheel Covers. Finally, the appointment was fixed for Saturday the 25th of April 2015 early morning. He just told me to remind him once more on Friday.

Come Friday and I called Devraj again to confirm my appointment. He requested me to come a little late at around 10AM since he has got some other appointment early in the morning. I myself was having a family function to attend to and I requested him to make it a little early. The appointment got fixed at 8:30AM

Had a good night's sleep and got ready to drop by to Devraj's place by 8:20AM. Called him up to confirm the appointment. Here was a change since he wasn't done with the other appointment. I was also in a bit of a hurry and did not wish to get things done in an awkward manner. I rescheduled it at 3:45PM.

At exactly 3:50PM, I reached the small street next to JC Road and called him up. He came by in around 15 minutes and took me to the parking space. Since it is an open-field garage maintained by someone, we need to shell out Rs.30 as parking fee during the exit time. He mentioned to me that there's a Government maintained parking facility nearby which would charge Rs.90 for the same amount of time (did not bother to ask for the details anyway). He took the steering wheel and gear-knob off the car. His shop is about 200 meters from there. It's in 2nd floor (if I'm not wrong since the building is pretty cramped).

He suggested me to go for the dual-tone since it would match the seat cover that I already have. He showed me the colors and with my agreement, he started working on it. Took around an hour and a half to get all things done. It started raining heavily and he took me to the nearby ATM (I have a habit of not carrying cash 95% of the times) . Payment done, steering wheel fitted back and I came back home after being one really happy customer. Now, let the pictures do the talking...

This was how it was before getting the cover






The dismantled steering wheel


Devraj taking measurements


Getting the first set of stitches through the machine. This is the ground-work for the hand-stitching which he does at the end.


The completed work. Apologies for the grainy pictures since it was raining extremely heavily and the ISO got an auto-boost




The Gear-Knob




Close-up of the leather and the stitches done





The Cost :
For the Wheel : 900
For the Gear-Knob : 200
Total : 1100

But I just went ahead and asked him "astena? kammi illva?" (Translation for those who do not know Kannada. 'astena?' = 'Is that it?' and 'kammi illva?' = 'no discount?'). He said "Thousand kodi saar" (meaning "Give a Thousand Sir") and rounded it off to Rs. 1000

The workmanship is extremely brilliant. Almost (if not perfectly) matching to the quality of a factory-fitment.

[raveesh_k]

Hi,

I have a 25,000 KM/4 yr old i20 Asta, which had started showing signs of wear and tear on its leather wrapped steering wheel since Dec-14 and was sticking out as a sore thumb in an otherwise immaculate in-cabin quality of my car. I tried going for an off the shelf leather cover but was simply not happy with the fit and finish of the product compared to the super-premium factory fit leather my i20 had come with. I was looking for ways to discard the bought cover and that is when I hit this thread - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/bangal...bangalore.html.

It was exactly what I was looking for!...but for JC Road! That area of Bangalore gives me the creeps. Driving (read crawling) through those narrow lanes with traffic and crowd literally running onto you is not to my liking and obviously so, the motivation and enthusiasm took a backseat. To top it all, after going through the thread above, the bought cover started looking uglier and it started hurting my eye to such an extent that it was discarded instantly. There on wards, the wear/tear of the steering kept getting worse till it started looking like below. The picture is a close up and hence its looking much worse than it does to a human eye when driving but nonetheless, it had become an epidemic and cried for an operation.



I called up Devraj last week finally, and fixed an appointment for Sunday assuming that the madness in JC Road would be much less compared to other days. I planned my appointment for 11 am because I had photography class at Lalbagh from 7 am to 11 am but you can get the appointment as early as 8.30 am. Please note that he is off every second Sunday of the month.

Some quick points about Lalbagh that you may consider when fixing your appointment:

1. Try reaching Lalbagh between 6.30 am to 7 am on a Sunday.
2. Entry is through East gate on Hosur road and you can take your car straight in and park where you find space
3. If you reach so early, you need not pay for car parking
4. Take your camera along to capture early morning nature. No camera fee till 8.30 am.
5. After spending 45 mins to 1 hour, walk to the east gate, take a rick and hit MTR for breakfast. Fare is 25 bucks.
6. Depending on the time you hit MTR, you might hit a long waiting, so try being there before 8 am. Enjoy your breakfast.
7. Come back to Lalbagh east gate in a rick from MTR. Again fare is 25 bucks.
8. Walk to your car. If you are entering after 8.30 am please be reminded that in case you have your camera in hand they might ask for camera fee that is 50 bucks.
9. Drive out your car to hit JC road. You wont be checked for parking tickets on your way out of Lalbagh.

Getting there:

1. Assuming you passed Lalbagh East Gate on your left, keep driving straight and you will pass the Main gate on your left.
2. Drive further down till you see Ganesha temple on the right.
3. Take the right after that and head to the first crossing.
4. Just before the crossing, on the right you will see JC Road BBMP parking, a desolated building so it appeared on a Sunday.
5. Take a left from that crossing and then take the third left.
6. Its the 3rd Cross road and mind you, this road is very narrow, so narrow that it can only have one vehicle pass through it in one direction at a time. Mostly this road is used as one way for vehicles entering into the 3rd cross but many a times cars come out in opposite direction if they see a clear pass through.
7. I don't exactly remember but his is probably the 5-6 shop on the right after AK Traders. But this would mostly not matter because he will not miss you once you enter the 3rd cross. Its a small stretch of road, maybe 500 m and ends in a T-junction.

Before you enter 3rd cross, please check with Devraj if there is any space there for you to park. Generally on a Sunday you will find a place but still better to check with him before you take that left.

Getting out:

1. 1. Once your job is done, go straight till you hit a T-junction.Take a right
   2. Again you a hit a t-junction. Take a right from there.
   3. You will hit Mudaliar road, take a right from there.
   4. Continue straight till you hit Lalbagh main road.Take a right and MTR will fall on your right.
   5. Go straight to hit Lalbagh main gate.
   6. Stop by at MTR for their wholesome lunch if you can Sneak peak below:

In-between:

The picture below shows the condition of my steering wheel. I would say that it lasted me a good three and a half years before signs of wear came up. Reasons could be anything like abrasion from finger rings, nails of the thumb which most likely rests on the front side of the wheel when driving, sweat etc. It was just a matter of getting the first spot of abrasion, and it grew thereon into adjacent areas as and how hands moved across the spot when taking turns and this continued till the entire wheel was 'infected'.



Another close up below. Notice the fine stitching out of the factory. We will compare this with the after job stitch quality.



This is Devraj, the man in action. One important point is that in case of a vehicle with no airbags, he takes out the steering, takes it to his workshop, completes the job there and then installs the steering back into your car. But in my case since my car had airbags, he had to do the job in the car!

First he asks you for your choice of leather color. In my case I wanted to go with the closest match to factory fit so it was chocolate brown for me. Next he comes with 4 cut pieces of leather and starts his measurements.



As per the measurements he uses a white pencil to record his marking on the leather. This takes around 20 minutes.
Post the measurements he goes inside his workshop and completes the stitching work that takes around 10 minutes.



After the basic cover has been machine stitched in the workshop his assistant comes in, and starts fixing the cover. Here you also see a custom stitched leather tool bag on the co-passenger seat. Good attempt at marketing. Just in case you do not know, he also does leather seats, gear knobs, door panels etc.



As a first step after adjusting the alignment of the cover with the wheel, he starts applying glue to the inside of the cover, so that its sticks and holds onto the wheel better.



Once the glue has been applied, he starts sticking it hard. You can see the outline of the wheel cover take shape now. Application of glue takes about 10 minutes.



Post that he starts hand stitching with a thread (color of your choice). I again chose the factory fit combination.



Stitching continues...



Almost 25 % done. When doing his job at his super speed he was very careful not to scratch the wheel.



Another angle. Total time taken to complete the stitching take about 20 minutes.



So what does the result look like? One word - Excellent job done! The fit is so snug that it just feels like a skin on top of the wheel and not a cover off the shelf. The quality of stitch is very fine with 1-2 blemishes that the eye would not even notice (the camera does however).



All the loose ends of the thread were burnt using a match to give this even finish.



This is the part where some bit of improvisation is done for cars with airbags. He could have also replaced the leather above the mounted control panel till the horn pad also but that needed him to remove the steering which could have possibly deployed the airbags and hence we stuck to the improvised bit. Post job completion, results were fabulous with safety aspect of the car untouched. Here in the picture you can see some fresh glue trying to bond the two covers together but as I write this, glue has dried up and the two surfaces have bonded well.



This is how the whole steering looks post the operation. Isn't it looking great! A good thing that has happened is that the wheel is a bit more meatier now(a missing attribute in a factory fit car) and with each passing day the cover is setting up better on the wheel take the shape of the contours and curves.
Just in case you are guessing, the part of the leather cover over the V part of the wheel spoke was nudged beneath the surface of the matte panel using a screw driver.
Please keep a watch out for any spilled glue onto your steering body. It being a strong adhesive, needs to be cleaned up quickly otherwise taking it out later can become a challenge.



A few comparisons of then and now.





To sum it up:

Total cost of breakfast at MTR = 200 bucks
Total time taken for the steering wheel job = 1 hour
Total cost of the operation = 900 rupees
Total cost of sumptuous meal at MTR = 220 rupees
Satisfaction on a productive Sunday = PRICELESS!

Address of the workshop is adjacent to:
A K Traders
22/23, 1st Floor, Seethalakshmi Complex, 3rd Cross, Journalist Colony, Near-J C Road Circle
J C Road
Bengaluru, Karnataka 560002

Contact: Devraj -09964031960

A good thing that the whole exercise did to me was to remove my inhibition to drive to that part of the town and I am really happy about it. My next visit to JC road will happen shortly to put a close to another thread of mine on T-BHP - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ery-drain.html



Cheers

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, Raveesh! Moved your post to an existing thread on Devraj.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by raveesh_k

Hi,

I have a 25,000 KM/4 yr old i20 Asta, which had started showing signs of wear and tear on its leather wrapped steering wheel since Dec-14 and was sticking out as a sore thumb in an otherwise immaculate in-cabin quality of my car.--------SNIP--------------



Cheers

Same problem with my 5 year old and 70K kms done i20. My car steering is also in the same shape as yours. Will definitely go there for the retro fit. After doing yours i am sure doing mine will be a cake walk for him!

[paragsachania]

Couple of months before I visited Devraj to get the steering grip done for my Ertiga. Since I own a VDi (no Airbags), I removed the steering wheel at home and drove to JC road in my WagonR, parked at the MLCP at the signal and walked to his shop.

The job was done in under 30 minutes and I walked back holding the steering wheel in one hand, drove home and fixed it on the Ertiga!

Here are a few Work-In-Progress pictures:

The choice of color for me was obvious. I didn't need back and wanted the cover to match the upholstery & seat covers.

The overall fit and finish is excellent for the price Paid. I may have already driven at least 15,000 kms after this and its holding up really well.

Took up a long drive to Ahmedabad in May and felt good holding the steering grip all through those 1500 kms in one go in May summer heat!!!

[IndigoXLGrandDi]

Originally Posted by raveesh_k

I have a 25,000 KM/4 yr old i20 Asta, which had started showing signs of wear and tear on its leather wrapped steering wheel since Dec-14

Was the factory fitted Cover removed before fitting this new one or the new one was fitted on the older one?

[Ritesh_Dogar]

Hi. I got a leather cover stitched on the steering of my XUV. The finish is no where near to as shown in the pictures. Can anyone tell me where can I find a person in Chandigarh who does a satisfactory job.

[condor]

Originally Posted by IndigoXLGrandDi

Was the factory fitted Cover removed before fitting this new one or the new one was fitted on the older one?

It will depend on the particular Steering wheel. I had got my OE steering grip of my Sumo replaced here. The OE part had worn out, and we removed the old one before getting the new one in.

In this thread:
Post 23 - for my Sumo. Replaced OE cover since it had worn out. No pics
Post 27 - for my cousin's Tavera
Post 29 - for my Storme. Extra layer, over the OE material.

[SunnyBoi]

My car got the Devraj treatment few days back as well

The leather on my steering wheel was in decent shape and I didn't want it to be removed. Thus I bought a spare steering wheel and horn pad, gave it to Devraj to be wrapped.

I wanted a full OEM finish which included the whole steering to be wrapped in leather and not just the contact area. I also told him to wrap the horn pad in leather. His advice was not to, but I wanted it anyway.

I gave it to him on a Saturday and got it back on Tuesday. He however was busy that day and couldn't wrap the gear lever and handbrake like we had spoken earlier.

Before :



The steering wheel. Finish is splendid.



Stitching is a bit inconsistent. Docking half a point for it.





I changed the steering wheel myself at home. I know why Devraj did not recommend the horn pad to be wrapped, it was super tight and very difficult to put it back in! However I persevered and its worth the effort



Comparison of the stock 13 year old leather steering wheel and Devraj's work :



Few days later, I went back when he was free and got the Gearknob and handbrake lever wrapped.



I might go back soon and get the door pads done in leather as well. Will pst an update when done.

Overall Rating : 9.5/10