dougingraham

About four weeks ago I was getting ready to head off to Seven Stock in my GSL-SE and I decided one of the things I wanted to do was fix the loose base of the shift boot. On the 84 and 85 (maybe other years) the shift boot is colored rubber and the base of it is attached to the plastic surround with spring clips fitted over plastic pins. The pins go through holes in the shift boot and then the spring clips hold the boot on the pins. The problem is the pins are weak and easily broken. My surround had only one pin remaining. A few of the holes in the boot were broken open. My solution was simple and it has held for four weeks now so I thought I would relate it here. I wish I had taken photos. You glue the boot to the surround with silicone rubber glue. This does not stick very well to either the plastic or the rubber but it sticks better than anything else I found to both surfaces. I used clear but I think you could use black as well. Use a Scotchbrite pad to scuff the bottom of the plastic surround where the glue will need to adhere. Try not to scuff any area which can be seen when the surround is in place. Scuff the rubber surround on the top surface where it will meet the plastic surround. Again try not to scuff any area which will be visible. Next you need to support the surround upside down such that the rubber shift boot hangs freely. A couple of shoe boxes standing on the long end would work. Position the plastic surround upside down on the boxes such that the rubber boot hangs in place and touches nothing but the rim of the plastic surround. Remove the rubber shift boot and set aside for the moment. Carefully apply a thin bead of the silicone rubber glue to the lip of the plastic surround. You want just enough to hold the rubber boot lip without making a visible mess. Lower the inverted shift boot into place. Gravity will do the rest of the work for you. I then filled in the gaps between the surround and the boot with the silicone rubber glue. I also filled in the holes in the boot where the pins used to stick through and had a little mushroom head of glue on top to provide a physical mechanism to hold the rubber boot in place if the glue did not stick all that well. Allow the glue cure overnight (12 hours) and when you turn it over the next day you can clean up any excess glue (if there is any.) If you don't like the way it came out it is possible to peel it all off and try again. I managed to get it to what I consider good enough on the first try. I really expected to have to do it a second time and I would have taken photos. This really is an easy fix and the cost was about $5 for the glue and a couple of dollars for the Scotchbrite pad.

I hope that helps!

DreamInRotary

iTrader: (49)

Nice description! The first thing I thought of though was how are you going to get the shift boot surround off the center console molding? I've always reached through the broken shift boot on the inside and used my finger to grab one of the long pins that hold the surround in place. I saw someone else do this method of gluing and it worked very well.

rotornoob

iTrader: (2)

I just did this too but I'm cheap and used the painters caulk I had laying around. Has held for about 2 months and the caulk is easy as hell to remove from both pieces.