Despite the looks of the rest of the interior, the top of the steering wheel on my 04 LS is very much sun damaged. The bottom is fine. The rest of the wood, the leather and the dash are all fine.

Short of replacing the entire wheel....has anyone come up with any realistic repair options?

I did a search and it appears that nobody ever come up with a viable solution short of replacing the wheel.

 

Is the wood damaged (peeling / delaminating)? If it is it needs to be replaced. If not I wood think you could carefully sand the clear finish off it and refinish it with several coats of a high quality urethane clear finish. Sand or scuff between every coat.

My 02 wheel is in excellent shape but if you run your hand over it it almost feels like there are seems in the wood/finish. Maybe its a hairline crack but I can barely feel it and I really cant see it.

 

The local Lexus Dealership's body shop refinishes steering wheels for our cars. I've seen the finished product. I don't know what it looked like originally but it's equivalent to a new wheel. Unfortunately, the finished wheel is $1,000 plus extras. A new wheel is over $2,000 so the choices are limited. A wheel from a salvage yard is another alternative, but you still have the airbag to deal with.

 

Did you try this place? I think I saw this recommended from the LS400 forum, but don't quote me in that.

http://www.craftcustoms.com/pages/Make-Model_Lexus.htm