Dented steering wheel emblem
 

A couple years ago I got angry while behind the wheel and punched the steering wheel emblem. Then immediately was like “wtf have I done?!?” The steering wheel emblem looks like it’s aluminum which is dented pretty bad.

I have an overlay Subaru decal I want to put over it... you know, that one with the Subaru logo in red over a background of faux carbon fiber.

But I need to smooth out the dented emblem first. I can’t think of what to use. I thought maybe a putty of some sort, smear abundance on top then sand it down to the desired shape and smoothness so the dent is gone. Then stick the overlay on top of that. But I can’t think of what product to use for this task.

Any ideas?

lol lay off the gta5 wheel punching, its not a vidya game!

I'd be hesitant to add something that wasn't meant to be there, even a thin layer of putty. Those airbags are no joke.

So I did the following, it looks a lot better. I used a little epoxy and sanded it down smooth, then put the decal overlay on top of it. It didn’t take much epoxy at all. It probably won’t even hurt that much if I get smacked in the forehead with it in case of a wreck lol.

1. Disconnected battery
2. Removed airbag & wiped the surface of the emblem
3. Applied JB Weld epoxy to the dented area in a slight abundance
4. Let it dry overnight
5. Used a dremel to smooth it down, it didn’t look good but it felt smooth
6. Finished it by sanding with 400 grit sandpaper to get it as smooth as I could
7. Taped off around the emblem and painted the emblem black to hide any dremel/sanding scratches around the emblem’s edges that the overlay decal may not cover
8. Let the paint dry then applied the overlay decal

shoot a paper clip out of a 150psi air compressor nozzle 2' away from your hand and tell me that again.

When I was sanding & using the dremel I saw that the epoxy was softer than the aluminum emblem.

material hardness is not exactly relevant to the forces at play here. you've added mass in front of an explosion.