as above, i want a different steering wheel but dont wanna get pinned if its illegal

Only if you replace it with a non air bagged wheel.

if your car came with an airbag, it is illegal to remove it. sports wheels dont have boss's made to suit airbags, so you only option is a genuine article from a wrecker or ford or such if you want to change. following on from this idea then, does anyone know if its therefore illegal to drive a car that has had the airbag go off and major damage repaired without yet replacing the airbag?

Airbag has to be fully functional, so yeh it would be. Unless theres some s**t loophole of course.