Looking for opinions on custom shift boot...

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:38 am

As some may know I just did an AWD & 5MT swap. I did not get a MT trim piece due to various reasons.

Anyway, I had a custom boot made, and I need to attach it to the base plate. I have some ideas, but I'd like to see what ideas others have to see if there's a better way I have not thought of.

here's pics of the boot and base plate
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... hifterboot

TIA

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:31 am

It is kind of hard to tell in the pictures how well that boot fits in the provided opening.

Personally, I'd make a ring from a soft wood (about anything that's ~1/8" thick, and relatively sturdy), and make a frame. 2 rings of the correct size to fit in the opening.

Glue one to the inside of the trim peice, and staple the newly made boot to the underside of the other ring.

Drill down through the top ring and into the under-base ring. Remove the shift knob, and go through the top hole.

That, or just sew some elastic to the bottom of it, and build a soft-wood lip (small ring with a larger ring on top), and just have it hooked on that.

Out of curiousity, why did you need a custom shift boot? Or were there no aftermarket bits that would do what you wanted?

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:10 pm

I'm having a hard time picturing what you're describing......I'll have to chew on it for a bit.

I went with a custom shift boot because I kept the AT opening. The chances of me finding a trim piece in the color I need in "good" condition was pretty slim to none. If I bought it new, it'd come with the rubber boot and whole nine yards, which I didn't really want, nor cared to pay for....if it was even available.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:36 pm

Ahh, ok.

I was more curious as to how the custom boot is different?

I've got a Momo boot, and it's got an elastic bottom. Seems to me, that's an easy way to get it to work.

Imagine a wood ring, made from 1/8" stock. The edge of the ring is ~ 1/8". It sits on top of the shifter trim. Then you have another ring made of 1/8" stock that has an edge of 1/4" and you epoxy that ring on top of the other ring, creating a lip.

Use that lip to wrap your elastic around (how I'd do it with an aftermarket boot).

The first thing I was describing was just sandwiching the boot you have with a ring similar to one I described above.

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:51 pm

When you're talking about the wood stock...are you talking about like a wooden dowel or just a rectangular piece of wood?

Any chance you could make up a ms paint drawing.....?

I was sort of leaning towards using some form of sheet metal since I can form it. I was going to roll the edge of one side. Basically so it doesn't tear into the leather. That would be the side that would stick up if you were looking straight down at the shifter trim. I'd then bend the metal piece back around the edge of the shifter trim. The leather would be between the metal clamp and the plastic trim piece. I'd probably have to fabricate or see if I could find some little tiny metal clips to fit over the metal piece to add a squeezing force on the metal piece so it doesn't pop off.

I'll have to go look for materials at lowes and home depot and see what I can come up with.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:55 pm

Josh, maybe you should see if you can contact Small Car Performance and buy the shift boot they put on their 5-speed SVXes. The automatic SVX shifter has the same dimensions as your stock shifter, right? So the hole in the console is probably the same too.

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:57 pm

I just spent 110 bucks on a custom leather shift boot.....I'm using it.

But thanks for the heads up.....I may email them and see how they attach theirs.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 4:04 pm

Hehe, yeah, I hear ya... Your boot actually looks a lot like the one pictured on their site, though, so maybe you could just buy their mounting hardware.

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 6:20 pm

I'll email them and see what they say.

professor · Post by **professor** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 7:31 pm

A combination of glue and a wire ring should make the boot fit nicely. It would help a lot if the boot were fairly tightly stretched around the perimeter of the openeing.

What I'm saying is, let the boot go down through the hole and fold it back up around the edges, like a pant leg cuff. The "cuff" can then be held in place with bailing wire, twisted and tightened with pliers around the plastic lip. Not too tight. Now, undo it and re-do it the same way, this time adding a flexible glue such as barge cement. That stuff sticks like, well, glue to leather, and will stick very well to what I assume is ABS plastic (if it is polypropylene it won't stick but I think it is ABS). If you roughen the plastic edge with sandapaper it'll stick even better.

I hate to tell you this, but I re-covered the shift knob, and made a "custom" leather shift boot replacement for my BMW with $10 worth of leather and a sewing machine. They wanted $74 for the motorsport knob, and $61 for the boot. Covering the knob was kinda fun, soaking the leather to stretch it over the plastic, took a few hours of pulling.

Post by **Legacy777** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 11:32 pm

The only issue I can see with that is that I really need to put something in there to hold the leather stretched out against the plastic. If I only secure it on the back side I think it'll look kind of funky.

I don't know....

professor · Post by **professor** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:16 pm

If the boot is secured at the top as it normally would be, it'll look perfectly fine just secured on the inside.

Alternatively, could you cut the bottom off of a rubber shift boot, and use that to stretch the leather around ? Most rubber compounds take glue pretty well, especially if you give them a solvent rub first (laquer thinner). I'm talking about perhaps the bottom 1/2". You might have to split the ring since the effective diameter will now be larger with the leather layer. You basically just need something to support and hold things in place until glue dries.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:43 pm

rubber boot won't work because I have the AT shifter trim piece which has a different sized opening.

I've put this project on hold until I get my shifting issues worked out. I may be swapping out shifters and such, and it'd probably just be best to wait until I get that all sorted out.

Vikash or anyone else know if I could buy just one of those plastic rings that are found in the top of the shift boot that allow the shifter to snap in. Since I didn't have one, the guy just used a string and tied it on the inside. I think if I can get a ring I could probably sew it in on the inside and have it work.

Maybe I'll have to buy one of those generic ebay boots to snag the ring.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:53 pm

Plastic rings?

I'm not sure I know what you're talking about.

The boot I bought on eBay had no such ring. It was just basically a pyramid-shaped thing of leather, made of four triangularish panels sewn together.

Oh, do you mean the little part that grips the lip on the bottom of the knob? I just used a ziptie for that.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 4:55 pm

I was cool and used like 18 small binder clips to pinch my momo boot around the trim.

I need to die some more threads onto my shifter. My knob doesn't thread on all the way.

Vikash - What are the threads? M10x1.5?

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:45 pm

Yeah....the little part that grips the lip on the bottom of the knob.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:20 pm

Phil - They're M12x1.25. I used to use a lug nut as a shifter knob back before I got the boot.

Josh - Yeah, I just ziptied it. That does mean I have to remove the boot to remove the knob though. Maybe you could use a rubber o-ring of an appropriate diameter.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:39 pm

I was thinking I might be able to go to a crafts store and find a plastic ring of the appropriate size.

Yeah that's my only issue....depending on how I attach the boot at the base may cause some issues for me if I need to take things apart. I'd have to take the whole plast trim off and spin it around with the knob as it unscrews.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 6:43 pm

Why plastic and not rubber?

It seems to me that if you can fold the top of the boot in and attach an o-ring to the inside of the fold, it'd be able to slip on and off of the knob just like the stock boot.

You wouldn't necessarily have to rotate the whole plastic trim... just don't make the part that's gripping the knob too tight. If you make it possible to unthread and then remove the shifter knob without removing the boot, then that should be fine, right?

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:00 pm

I was thinking plastic because it's less pliable, and it may not hold the boot up securely enough....I don't know....I could be wrong.

Actually right now the string is not on there tight enough so I can't rotate the knob by itself.....so yeah you're right....I could do it that way.

dzx · Post by **dzx** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:52 am

looks very luxury oriented, still amazed at how clean your car is, i really need to clean all the crap out of mine.

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:41 am

well the first attempt/idea failed. A lot had to do that I had none of the proper tools to really do the metal fabrication I wanted to. Even then, I'm still not sure if it would have worked.

I think what I'm going to do is us a 1/16" or 1/8" round bar, bend it around the inner perimeter of the opening. That should/hopefully keep the boot pressed against the plastic piece. I then will probably try and make some small brackets to weld onto that bar that come up and over the plastic lip and lay flat on the bottom side of the trim piece. Then I was thinking of making a brushed aluminum piece that would go around the shifter piece on the top. I would have screws in it that would go down through the plastic piece and secure the clips.

I don't know if that'll work either, but it's worth a shot. I'm getting a little frustrated and somewhat at the don't care part about leaving the shifter open.....ehh well.

here's some updated pics
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... ifterboot/

professor · Post by **professor** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:35 pm

are those later-model floor mats in the pic ??? They look nice. I don't know if they made blue interiors later, though so I may be screwed

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:25 pm

I believe these floor mats were for a 92-94 beige interior. It was slightly lighter then mine. I just happened to find a set new on ebay

Post by **Legacy777** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 am

attemp #2 has pretty much failed. I jb welded the little round bar I made together. that broke, but more so the "clip method I was going to use to bend and secure the round piece isn't cooporating.

I updated a few pics to the link in one of my above posts.

Looks like I wasted 110 bucks on a stupid shift boot that doesn't fit

I did try just stuffing it in and around the trim piece. It doesn't look bad.....but I know it'll bug me.

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Looking for opinions on custom shift boot...

Looking for opinions on custom shift boot...