[rotorwrench]

Henry Ford started his work into development of soy beans for automotive use around 1930. He built a lab for that purpose at Greenfield Village in 1931. The 1928 red steering wheels were likely a phenol-formaldehyde type plastic more closely related to Bakelite thermo-setting plastic. The soy fiber plastics that Ford used later for the 1941 soybean car were most likely made with phenol-formaldehyde mixed with soy fiber materials. The soy polyols that can be used for polyurethane and polyester production are more modern developments from the earlier plastics. Henry Ford got a lot of his ideas from George Washington Carver as early as 1934 when they started corresponding with each other. Several soy plastic products came out of that collaboration in later years.

Once Bakelite is formed & heated, there is no going back to its original state. A person may be able to recast one with a Bakelite type process but I don't know of anyone who does this. An old red 1928 model A wheel could be repaired just like a hard rubber wheel and painted to look original with the right color mix or it could be recast with modern resins and tempered the way most steering wheel restorations are done in this day and age.