o-hi-o

Hello all again. I have a new diy, using some of the same fabric that I redid my doors with. The shift boot in this car came in two pieces and was obviously beyond repair, so I scrapped it in favor of a new custom made one. As on the doors, the photos below aren’t a step by step process, but show the main aspects of getting this all together.



The first part was getting the old torn boot off. I used needle nose pliers to get a grip on the little silver disks that hold the rubber inner boot and leather outer boot into the boot bezel. Be delicate as you will reuse these. My car was missing a few of them, but I picked up some alternate replacements for 2 bucks at autozone. I may have been able to find some exact replacements at another store, but these little plastic ones will be fine I think.

Obviously you can pitch the torn boot, but keep the rubber inner boot.

My mom was nice enough to come over with her sewing machine and build the new fabric boot. She basicly just made a cone of fabric and used some kind of double overlap seam (like what is on the leg of your blue jeans) to make the seam strong. Insert Hudsucker Proxy reference here. Leave the point of the cone in place, but don’t sew the seam all the way to the point. We left about a half inch open for the shift post to stick through.



Take the cloth shift boot and put it over the shift post so that it sits the way it will when the project is done. I chose to put the seam on the back side of the shift bezel, but you can put it on any side you like. After all, it is just a cone.

With the seam where I wanted it and the cone set up over the post, set the bezel into position, but don’t clip it into place (the fabric is covering the clip holes at this point). Move the shifter through the all of the gears including reverse. This is to make sure you have enough slack fabric to allow the shifter to work right.
Then I started on the back side (by the seam) and firmly held the fabric against the bezel. Lift both of them up together and flip it over so you can feel for the two posts (on the back, 3 on each of the other sides) that will stick up through the fabric.



I used an awl to punch a hole through the fabric where each post will stick up through. You can probably use lots of other things as well. Don’t over stretch the fabric while you make these holes or you will end up with an overly-bunched-up bit of fabric at the last post. Punch the holes for the back two posts and push the fabric down over the posts, then put the rubber boot on and two of the silver hold downs for the back two posts.

I punched the holes in the order of: back two together with the seam centered, front center hole, front side holes, drivers side holes, passenger side holes.



Check for fit as much as possible. I set the boot and bezel over the shifter before I did the front center hole, then placed it over again before doing the two front side holes. Then I checked again before doing each side. Each time I checked, I ran the shifter through all of the gears, including reverse, to make sure the fabric wasn’t pulling in any direction. With the rubber boot connected to the back posts, it will gently hold the fabric in place while you lift the assembly off the shifter between fittings. Once I decided where to punch the holes, I moved the rubber boot out of the way to punch the hole in the fabric.

After all of the holes have been punched, and the the fabric and rubber boots have been attached to the posts, test fit the assembly one more time, this time fold the fabric in so the bezel clips engage. There should not be any fabric hanging out from under the bezel. If the shifter works right, and it looks nice, take the assembly back off and trim the excess fabric off of the edges.

Do not trim the point of the fabric cone.



I went around the perimeter twice to get as much excess fabric off as I felt comfortable with.

Once that’s done, clip the bezel back in place (for the last time, finally) and stick the shifter out the hole in the top of the shift boot. Screw the shift **** back on, but hold the fabric in place so the **** doesn’t twist it as you get to the last few threads. Once all of that is done, it should look like this and you will be done!



I hope this helps some folks. All in all I (and my mom) spent about 6 hours to finish this. The only real expense is fabric (which I used a scrap piece for), thread, and maybe a couple buck for the little silver fasteners. Less than 15 bucks most likely. I like mine because it matches my doors.



Let me know if I can clarify any parts of the process.

Ryan

EviLPeNeviL

iTrader: (2)

Looks good, nice job!

Black Knight RX7 FC3S

iTrader: (7)

looks awesome
almost matches the color of the seat. lol

1990_fC3C_t2

Good job man,
but its missing somthing maybe some stitching.

o-hi-o

Thanks everyone.

I thought about some contrast stitching, but I won't have it on any other part of the car, so I opted for regular stitching. The door and shift boot fabric is actually much more black than grey in real life, but the fabric looks pretty grey in the photos. You are right though, it is very similar to the bolster fabric on the seats. An unexpected perk.