Custom Shifter Bezel and Top Ring
Mar 16, 2016, 10:25 AM
#1
Custom Shifter Bezel and Top Ring
Needed something to do this dull wintery month. So... the plastic ring under the shift knob had cracked and broken. Time to make a metal replacement. While I'm at it, the stock bezel at the base of the shift boot, while passable, will be swapped for something our RA's deserve.
Read the good existing write-ups how to remove the centre console. Here is the underside view. To remove the shift boot assembly simply unscrew four philips-head screws, as shown.
Note the broken top ring.
Made a new one out of aluminum using a lathe. Wanted the finish sort of brushed-looking.
Invert the boot, then the old plastic ring comes out along with a rubber insert. Not complicated. easy to remember how it goes together.
Slip in the new ring, same orientation as the original. There was a tie-wrap holding it together originally, so just put your own new one on.
Simply fold the boot right side out. I stayed with the original leatherette boot material, I think it looks buttery. Done.
Next up, a new bezel! Remove the original plastic bezel by clipping the tops off the four tiny studs, then pulling a grippy little circlip off each one. Can use nail clippers if you want to. Doing it this way allows the original plastic bezel to be installed again if you ever desired, but still enables the circlips to be removed.
Here is a fuzzy pic of the original bezel. Auf wiedersehen, sucker.
After cutting and profiling an aluminum bar using the lathe, the piece was placed on a rotary table so eight holes could be accurately drilled and counterbored in a circular pattern to accept metric socket head cap screws, size M3x0.5 which were just epoxied in afterwards.
Oops. Went into the basement at 6 am to check the fire (I heat with a woodstove) just to find a small pond had taken residence in there overnight. Apparently the sump pump motor burned out, and this being the wet season, ground water rose into the basement through the sumphole. Luckily I had a replacement pump sitting on the shelf. After a sad and solid twelve hours of mopping up, throwing out carpet and soaked drywall, the basement is drying nicely due to the industrial dehumidifiers and fans blowing for three days straight. p.s. Cranswick installed my LSD on that table.
Good thing the wife is an early riser.
Back to work. I drilled and tapped four small M3x0.5 holes in the back of the new bezel coincident to where the original's small posts were, and secured the bezel to the console with screws going through the original console small-post-holes. Assemble in reverse order. Finished product. Went with a brushed finish. Looks better in the flesh, actually. A mechanical aesthetic to match the gun-bolt snick-snick of our gear changer with the aftermarket metal bushings.
The teeny bits of white stuff around the screw heads are car wax, which hopefully helps stop the aluminum from getting too dull looking. Sorry about the glare, I'm not too good at this stuff.
Read the good existing write-ups how to remove the centre console. Here is the underside view. To remove the shift boot assembly simply unscrew four philips-head screws, as shown.
Note the broken top ring.
Made a new one out of aluminum using a lathe. Wanted the finish sort of brushed-looking.
Invert the boot, then the old plastic ring comes out along with a rubber insert. Not complicated. easy to remember how it goes together.
Slip in the new ring, same orientation as the original. There was a tie-wrap holding it together originally, so just put your own new one on.
Simply fold the boot right side out. I stayed with the original leatherette boot material, I think it looks buttery. Done.
Next up, a new bezel! Remove the original plastic bezel by clipping the tops off the four tiny studs, then pulling a grippy little circlip off each one. Can use nail clippers if you want to. Doing it this way allows the original plastic bezel to be installed again if you ever desired, but still enables the circlips to be removed.
Here is a fuzzy pic of the original bezel. Auf wiedersehen, sucker.
After cutting and profiling an aluminum bar using the lathe, the piece was placed on a rotary table so eight holes could be accurately drilled and counterbored in a circular pattern to accept metric socket head cap screws, size M3x0.5 which were just epoxied in afterwards.
Oops. Went into the basement at 6 am to check the fire (I heat with a woodstove) just to find a small pond had taken residence in there overnight. Apparently the sump pump motor burned out, and this being the wet season, ground water rose into the basement through the sumphole. Luckily I had a replacement pump sitting on the shelf. After a sad and solid twelve hours of mopping up, throwing out carpet and soaked drywall, the basement is drying nicely due to the industrial dehumidifiers and fans blowing for three days straight. p.s. Cranswick installed my LSD on that table.
Good thing the wife is an early riser.
Back to work. I drilled and tapped four small M3x0.5 holes in the back of the new bezel coincident to where the original's small posts were, and secured the bezel to the console with screws going through the original console small-post-holes. Assemble in reverse order. Finished product. Went with a brushed finish. Looks better in the flesh, actually. A mechanical aesthetic to match the gun-bolt snick-snick of our gear changer with the aftermarket metal bushings.
The teeny bits of white stuff around the screw heads are car wax, which hopefully helps stop the aluminum from getting too dull looking. Sorry about the glare, I'm not too good at this stuff.
Last edited by RalliartN; Mar 16, 2016 at 02:51 PM.
Mar 16, 2016, 02:49 PM
#3
Thank you bakuro, one never knows how these things will turn out as I've had some duds, but this first try pretty well hit the bulls-eye. I have tooling made for the different radiuses and things (the parts are identical in shape to originals), have lots of the little screws, only have to get some aluminum pipe for the bezel, hogging it out of solid is a waste. I'll try to set up a small production run, no promises, let me see.
Mar 18, 2016, 05:56 AM
#4
Fantastic work, Nick! Maybe I could come make my own some time, mine's been cracked for years, but my boot is not in as good of condition as yours, but we have industrial sewing machines at work, I could maybe have one made at some point...also FYI, a guy I work with just started getting into plastic welding, if you ever needed any work in that department, he's keeping it under 30k per year, ads on kijiji, etc.
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