Hot Rods Looking for Shift Boot Ideas...

my wife has made several of that style from trimmed neatly pan lids and thin leather from a thrown away chair..

 

I'd used an early Mustang boot/trim ring originally but after I modified the shifter location it would have been a lot of work to make it fit so I sewed a boot of left over upholstery material and a piece of aluminum that I "enhanced" with a drill press and roloc pad.

 

View attachment 5600729 I'm still using the same "garden variety" Hurst boot since the sixties. I think I replaced it once in the eighties because the rubber ripped. View attachment 5600729

 

Some people use these.

 

^^^^Small feet

 

Well then my post will have to be deleted too because my shifter tower started as an MGB item. Gaiter would not have fitted because the gearstick itself is positioned differently.

 

Since I fabricated my own shifter linkage, and setup to fit a 700R4 OD into my '39, I also had to come up with a custom shift boot. A friend had this polished aluminum ring, and I used my commercial sewing machine and sewed up a leather boot.

 

Made mine out of steel sheet and then used the same upholstery as the seat.

 

Great thread, a small issue ive been toying with. Love this idea, and the MGB boot is also a good one.

 

I live in a wealthy part of a city, where leather furniture can frequently be found at the curb.

I keep a utility knife, with extra blades in the truck. I can skin a couch in under 2-minutes!

Almost forgot! To that end, the blades:

These work like a monster seam ripper, and will go right through stitching!

 

Does different include the roll of 4 inch masking tape as my drink holder ?

 

Only if it is wrapped in the same leather or fabric as the rest of the interior!

 

I like that idea, masking tape cup holder, thanks.

 

Wow that's cool! Never thought about an upholstered trans tunnel. Great idea!

 

I did the same thing, not installed in the car yet.

We "harvest" a lot of leather as well. Four of the local suburbs have an annual "tidy town" where you often find a nice leather couch or chair that maybe has some cat scratches on it, but the majority of the leather is still good. Two minutes is about right for stripping one, and I love to find those that have a leather back, which is normally a big sheet of nearly perfect leather since it's normally up against a wall. We've got two four-foot wide file cabinets packed full of the stuff.

 

So you guys strip the couch and leave the rest on the curb?

 

That's what we do. During "tidy town" it's all headed to the landfill anyway, so re-purposing a little cowhide instead of burying it makes sense to me.

The scrappers are out in force on those days too. You see trailers and pickups stacked to dangerous heights with old lawn mowers, bicycles, water heaters and any other metal that people set out on the curb.

 

In the 55 with the T10, using a stock bench seat spaghetti linkage setup that my grandfather parted out of a 57 Bel Air in the late 60s. The car was supposedly an original dealer converted 4 speed when the 4 speeds came out mid year. I doubt that, as the boot and ring are different than a Corvette of the same year and I would think a dealer would use something on the shelf, so no clue really what its out of.



Taboo has a custom sewn boot using the same material as the seats. The console is a 60 T bird that we modified to work with a 4 speed.

 

Old work boot.

 

Cut a hole in your favorite ball cap and slip it over the shifter.

 

...how about using part of a inner tube , make a floor plate and use a zip tie on the shifter end?

 

I really like what hrm2k did with the upholstered transmission tunnel. That's the wildest, neatest thing I've seen in some time.

If I were to go that direction, I'd modify the idea just a little bit. I'd incorporate the shift boot directly into the trans tunnel upholstery where the entire thing is one solid piece. It might be more work that way, but I think the results would be worth it.

 

I always have my wife sew me one using leftover material from interior. I usually stick to the “don’t over think it” approach.

 

The interior is Clark Bates / Mike Sholley’s doing. The pattern carried over onto the roof of the car and I added matching panels in the rear wheel wells

 

Because my shifter and brake handle are so close I stitched a double boot to fit one large opening instead of two openings close together. Be nice , I'm no seamstress but it works and keeps the outside outside.

 

In the old days we’d call you “mule skinner”

 

Looks good. Another option for an off the shelf solution might be one from a Jeep.

 

I really like your car. Everything is right. It's perfect.