Art & Inspiration How about a shift knob thread?

^^^^What? Not enough knobs for an exclamation point? Get busy!

 

You guys have some awesome collections.
I just have 2. The one on the coupe, and the one that used to be on the coupe. I did take a couple pictures of the one currently on the coupe this afternoon. Gene

 

@gene-koning That looks good on there!

 

One I made

 

Thank you!
It matches the rest of the car, a bit crude, but looks great from a little ways away.
The shift handle is 1/2" round stock with a nut welded to the bottom that screws to the shifter mechanism and a 3/8" bolt with the head cut off welded to the the top. The knob was originally a dust cover cap that threaded onto the front spindle on a 20 something Dodge Brothers car. At some point it got twisted pretty hard as someone was trying to remove it, probably for the last time. It has a nut insert epoxied into the bottom of the knob. Gene

 

70 million-year-old dinosaur bone......

 

Inside of a Mercury Comet Station Wagon cruiser.

Hello,

When we were in Santa Barbara one year for a vacation, we were eating dinner at one of the nice street side restaurants. The whole street is set up as a major thoroughfare from the ocean/pier, into the downtown area and up to the Northwestern residential areas of Santa Barbara. The many restaurants have set up outside dining well before the pandemic appeared and served the tourists/locals quite well.

Street side dining has a good thing going for it. Any cool hot rod, custom car, or interesting station wagon cruises by, everyone notices, even during those outdoor dining times. It is just something the locals have inadvertently set up for an extra thing for their diners.

When we got back to our resort hotel, the next day, my wife said there was a cool looking station wagon parked in the lot. She thought it was the same one we both saw cruising on the main drag last night during dinner. It was and up close, it was a classic 50s-60s style station wagon with all of the accessories that we used to see as little kids and teenagers.

Especially, those multi-color shift knobs and radio/heater knobs we used to make in our junior high school crafts class projects. But, these had a little more quality and design to them. Any time this station wagon is parked, the colorful multilayer shift knob is in Park and everyone passing by can see the addition to the dash.
A custom shift knob, as well as a custom fender mounted spotlight.

Jnaki

Upon further research, the knobs are made by a So Cal local through his company, NUMNOB.COM Here are some other parking lot photos and another older post;

They are one of the most unusual companies that still makes a ton of these cool custom knobs and shifter handles.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-hurst-shifter-knobs.1188328/#post-13501200

previous post:
Hello,

In the 50s and 60s, it was a very common thing to see custom door locks, radio knobs, other dash knobs and even a matching shifter knob made out of some sort of colorful plastic. There was a thread on making these knobs and everyone had great examples of that trend. If we are talking about traditional custom ideas inside of a hot rod/cruiser, these were the prime examples.

I made several styles and groupings, but my best was a round white knob made for my brother's 1958 Impala 3 speed, gear shifter lever. He was actually surprised, liked it, and put it on that shift lever. (It stayed on that lever even after I made the change to the C&O Stick Hydro trans and it was still on there when I sold that Impala in 1964.)

The cars and trucks in our old neighborhood had these knobs. They were sold at the auto parts stores and hot rod shops, everywhere. Heck, our hot rod oriented, junior high school, crafts class teacher even had a project that we all completed (many times over) using plastic blocks. Different colors, cut, sand, mill, lathe work, hand sand, and using that jeweler’s rouge on that spinning buffing wheel.

This was the best class in junior high school, EVER. Some were plain, two color, matching sets for the whole interior as per outside car paint. Others went to town using multiple sheets of plastic for a rainbow effect or just a colorful combination of plastic.

Jnaki

One girl made a larger handle for her mom’s umbrella. That was pretty ingenious. Back then, no umbrellas for us tough boys, but, today, maybe another project idea is in the works. Times change, but classics remain in the forefront. Wow, custom umbrella handles sticking out of all of those umbrella stands at every mall or neighborhood grocery store in America.

https://www.numnob.com/about/


https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/easy-bolt-on-customizing.1088900/page-4#post-12502220

 

Drilled and tapped this special edition gold 8 ball, and mounted it on the hand made shifter.

 

I found my missing Hurst aged 4 speed knob. I put it back in the same place so it can be lost again.

 

A shift knob with a NP435 shift pattern is hard to find. So I had my niece cut one out of vinyl on
her "cricket" machine. I then put it on a plain black knob and then buried it in clear lacquer.

 

NOS red Hurst :

 

A few Cal Custom barrels :

 

Hurst plastic Tee’s :

 

Cal Custom variety :

 

NOS blue Hurst :

 

Taps (should be played on a bugle)...that’s all folks :

 

Wow, @bowie what a hell of a collection!

 

I’m waiting for the right project.


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I have one just like it

 

here is mine on my 1937 Chrysler

 

Almost forgot I had this one.

Gary

 

a few more I have, but will never use.

 

@rob-redm Love that yellowish dice knob. Is it Bakelite?

 

I haven't given it the old rubbed and smell test for Bakelite ( I hate that smell).. it's a cool one for sure.. was going to run it on my 36.. but I went with the Butterscotch Bakelite Skull in my previous post. Keep those cool shift knobs coming !

 

Just a side note, Jerry Rushing was a crew member/helper on this car when he was a teenager and now has owned the car for decades.

 

I’m beginning to think that this thread is kinda shifty.


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