New Shift Knob (Automatic)

For what it’s worth, years ago I decided to top out an 89 XR7 5-speed that I had. The car had a crappy aftermarket exhaust and a 10% blower pulley, but otherwise was stock, and it was good for 157mph. Mind you it was extremely sketchy at that speed, floated like crazy, and the wind noise from the aforementioned windows was deafening, so it wasn’t happy at that speed, but it did it!
 
Experimenting with a leather-covered single-piece slider. Looks nice, but the surrounding bezel is still very plastic looking, and I haven't decided on a look yet. I'm not terribly fond of the idea of painting it. Ideally I'd like to leather wrap the entire bezel, but the complex curvature makes that very challenging.

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Experimented with spray paint on an old panel, and it came out :zpuke:

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Incidentally, it somewhat matches my factory painted Taurus cluster bezel. But the color and texture just don’t do anything for me in this application.

Next idea: try faux suede again. Last attempt failed at the complex curvature around the opening of the shifter slot. This time, I creates a flat overlay using some thin plastic sheet.

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It's not perfect, but it might do it for me...
 
When I painted mine I sanded the texture completely smooth which was a lot better. Actually I wonder if just doing that and painting it satin black would be enough, the texture is what I mainly dislike
 
@XR7-4.6
I find it extremely hard to sand plastic in a way that's consistent and smooth enough to not show scratches after painting. Sanding properly is an art I haven't quite grasped yet...

Meanwhile, this actually looks somewhat promising:

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1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
@XR7-4.6
I find it extremely hard to sand plastic in a way that's consistent and smooth enough to not show scratches after painting. Sanding properly is an art I haven't quite grasped yet...

Meanwhile, this actually looks somewhat promising:

View attachment 5449
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It’s really not an art, it’s just grit selection. Obviously with 80 you’ll take that texture off really fast but it’ll look like plastic wood grain lol However with patience starting with 320 then 400 then 600 and you’re not going to get any visible scratches, especially after the layer of paint fills them. Use wet/dry paper and wet sand it in the sink and you’ll do even better.
 
I'll have to try that!

Bit in this specific case, I just don't feel like introducing a new element (color/texture) to the interior. I think there's enough already, and it has to stay cohesive.
 
I like the color match, not sure I like the suede though. I think if you smoothed the stock plastic out and painted it the exact shade of the console it would look factory but better. Losing the rubber gasket and spacing the bezel up to fill the gap would be even better
 
About 110, the windows flutter from the air over the rear view mirror, several of us have found tat. As well as the moonroof blowing open suddenly at ~90, lol. About gave me a fucking heart attack, same as the windows, lol.
 
Alright, this is the mod I always wanted to do and...there's already a scratch. My mistake: the junkyard wood was somewhat scratched/cracked from the start, and I could have chosen a better orientation.

By the time I noticed, I was too far into it. I decided to consider it part of the "charm", plus it doesn't appear as noticeable in person as on camera. If anyone knows a scratch remover that would be safe on this type of application, please let me know.

Now to the end result, which is effectively a custom built shift indicator on top and the stock piece at the bottom. It's genuine wood trim, so you guessed it: I love it! Don't look at the wood work too closely; amateur with limited tools here. Note that I made the right opening narrower to account for the exposed metal lever.

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I'm really happy with the wood trim shifter bezel...but I enjoyed this project so much that I decided to experiment a bit more.

I realized that the top plate of the stock shifter bezel is effectively just a flat piece of plastic; all the essential features are molded into the plastic piece below. Therefore, creating a custom plate is really simple.

Today, I came across acrylic sheets at Michaels. They had a large sheet of gloss ("piano") black which I found interesting - but I only needed a small amount. So I went for this teal colored piece and decided to give the silver spray paint another shot. Since the paint has to harden a few days, the project is now temporarily on hold...

Again, the right opening is narrower than stock to account for the exposed metal lever. The left opening now extends less far back; stock has a lot of blank space below the "1".

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Work in progress:

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Finished product:
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What's everyone's opinion of this versus:

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I do like them almost equally. The only things I don't like about the wood one is how thick it is, and how low the PRND21 sits as a result, and that I didn't think of making the left opening smaller then (to reduce the blank space below "1").
 
Pics from the passerby perspective (the way I used to admire car interiors as a kid). The ultimate test for any interior mod. I think it looks good! Note the color match between shifter bezel and gauge bezel.

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The wood works better because the nearest piece of wood is in the same line of sight.

The painted acrylic's association with the gauge surround is not as apparent in proximity, especially at a glance. Actually, from a distance, it reminds me of a toaster due to the negative space of the slots.
 
A toaster??! :LOL:

I think this is the first time you all advocate for wood trim when I don't.

I do love wood trim, I'm just not entirely satisfied with my execution of that particular piece. Wish I had worked on a test piece first.

I'm happy with the current look. But who knows what I'll come up with next.
 
Irv said:
The painted acrylic's association with the gauge surround is not as apparent in proximity
Click to expand...

I think it's something that's better appreciated in person than on pictures. Think of the interior as a whole, it fits in very nicely with the gauge bezel and door releases:

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Or from the driver's perspective:

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I was team woodgrain until the view of the cluster bezel. Now I'm not so sure. The silver looks odd against the tan itself. What about painting to match the door cards? Same for the cluster bezel? Or the wooden bezel as Matt suggested.
 
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