A wise man once told me, "Just because you can doesn't meant you should".

Call an attorney. The fact that you have ask this question should tell you that you should not make these alterations to the safety equipment.

Just because a customer wants something doesn't release you from any future liability for doing it. If he makes the alterations himself, then the liability falls on him.

I agree with you Fred. I questioned my attorney regarding signed disclaimers and airbags. His advise was not to worry about the person who signed, worry about his wife ,girlfriend, mother ,father etc. They will be the ones to file claim against you. If the customer removes and reinstalls the steering wheel that may take the liability off of you. However it may be best to pass, there will be other projects to showcase your skills.

I stay away from anything to do with airbags, and am very careful with what I do with seatbelts also. When push comes to shove and you are in court, that attorney or judge is going to ask you if you are a qualified auto engineer and have the knowledge to design or modify safety devices.
I just don't want to loose everything trying to help a good customer. Just my thoughts.

Not to run off topic but I often do older seats that don’t have airbags, but when you redo a seat with side airbags do you have to do anything different so the seam breaks etc when the bag goes off?

Yes the side bolster with air bag needs to be re stitched with a thinner airbag thread

Customers tell me what they want.
I tell them what's possible.
Messing with steering wheel air-bags does not fall into the 'possible' category.
I wouldn't touch it.
I need to retain the ability to sleep at night.

Agree with the folks above. Don't mess with someone's steering wheel airbag.

God forbid they get into a crash and the airbag doesn't deploy -- you will get sued straight out of your shop and your home. It's not worth it.

First of all I have to say that I have the opinion that the customer does not decide what I have to do and how. He can say what he wants, but how and if I do this it is my decision alone. If someone wants me to sew a patch on the hole in the seat, I offer them 2 options: I replace the defective part or I sell him a needle and thread to make himself.... had the discussion today :roll:
But let's get back to the point:

Here you have to do a seminar to be allowed to work on airbags in general. Everything after that falls into a legal grey area. Because manufacturers of airbags may only sew with certified and regularly tested machines.
However, as upholsterer we are not considered as manufacturers in the real sense of the word because we are a processing industry. Maybe the translation alone is not quite understandable what I mean, because it really depends on the meaning of each word.....

In practice, my situation is as follows:

Airbag seams in covers: I sew these seams with an extremely thin thread. Even if the manufacturer (for example BMW used a thicker thread). I have not had an early open seam with the thread in the last 10 years and is also recommended by the thread manufacturer for this type of work. Of course, at the very beginning I didn't let myself take a few seats from the junkyard. :razz:

Steering wheels, door panels and dashboards: Here I only cover the parts without airbags. Unless they are covered and there is an airbag seam... then as described above.

As a matter of principle - and I think this is the only logical consequence - there must never be any additional resistance at the predetermined breaking points of the airbag. The additional resistance delays the inflation of the airbag. And this is a matter of milliseconds, on which a lot depends.
If you want to cover the plastic shell of the airbag now, you would have to cut open the predetermined breaking point of the airbag housing so that it no longer represents resistance. And the cover would then have to have an airbag seam at exactly this point. But that's just theoretical - I wouldn't do that.

My advice: Leave it alone, just because the customer wants a nice steering wheel I wouldn't put one foot in jail for a few dollars and a like on Facebook. (The last sentence is a German saying)
I hope you understand what I whant to discribe. :confused: