Hot Rods We have seen the shifter knobs - let's see the one off, homemade or modified shifter's

"borrowed" this idea from locab . 63 nova convertible . i was a skateboarder 70lbs and 3 decades ago

 

^^^^ that was one nice high school rod, nice blue paint and chrome reversed wheels? Wow.

 

My column shift Plymouth
Hollywood Hot Rods roadster

 

This is a photo I borrowed from the shift knob thread that's active at the moment. I have a question about the "lever". I've seen these levers attached to shift knobs for sale on the 'net many times, sometimes just as a display, not sold with the knob, and sometimes the lever is sold with the knob as a package. Are these really shift levers or something else? Does anybody from the vast HAMB brain trust know the skinny about what, where, and when the levers were used? They seem to always be attached to bonified vehicle shift knobs.

 

Though I can't speak for the one you posted, other then saying the bottom appears to be threaded, so it could have been a shift handle for something some hot rodder thought needed a nice shift knob. One of my dad's friends ran a D-6 Cat bulldozer every day for work, that thing had some pretty cool shift knobs on all those operating levers.

There have been a lot of industrial use machine (control panels) , commercial machine (fork trucks, backhoes, hydraulic controls), commercial boat (tug boats, ships, speed boats), food industry (beer tappers) handles and levers made through the years that could be used for automotive shift handles or would make awesome shift knob displays. Many came with plastic, wood, or metal knobs that were threaded onto the lever that could have been easily swapped over to shift knobs. A lot of the early 30s through up to about the early 60s had some pretty cool shapes and design features in those handles and levers. Much before the 30s or much after the 60s, those handles and levers took on a more functional role rather then an elaborate design. Gene

 

I dont know how my handle fits in this thread but thought I'd post it anyway. Had one like this before that I sold. Found this one for $10...its an old Eelco...looked up the patent number on the handle too...

 

I just found a pic of a Hurst Competition Plus shifter I have that is mounted on a B-W T-10. I do know that it's out in the shop somewhere. Under a bench, I think. As you can see the part that the handle/lever attaches to has been modified to be in the center of the drivetrain like an old time shifter would have been. I bought this about 25 years ago for a project that never got built and the "T" body got sold. The modification was already done to it.






This one is bone-stock; not one-off or modified, but it's neat so I'll post up a pic here. This is the original shifter out of a '66 Corvette that I owned about a hunnert years ago. It got replaced by a Hurst and I kept the original. I imagine the restorers would like to have it but I like having it up on a shelf. I might use it someday, but probably not. Now that I've seen the pic again I just might go out there and find it and hang it on the wall.