Automatic Shifter - I want to customize - hate the big black plastic chunk

[rossmilstein]

Do we have any options here if we want to keep the button?
I'm not sure if I have even squeezed the button before shifting.
I'm not sure if something has worn out of if maybe I'm just a bad driver...

Thoughts? And no, putting a DMC sticker on it, is not what I want to do :)

Happy Holidays!
:Ross

[Patrick C]

Your car has the early style shifter that is known for having problems. I would try to contact Rob Grady and see if he has the parts needed to convert it to the later style (Renault) that looks and functions better. Later style looks like this:

http://www.classix.se/media/k2/galleries/141/dmc-shifter.jpg

[Michael]

You can get the stainless surround from most of the vendors. I didn't like that it stuck on and I wanted to keep my interior somewhat subdued so I took mine apart and painted it a matt charcoal gray. Turned out very nice. I also got the shifter emblem that replaces the stock plastic one.

47500

[Jonathan]

Do we have any options here if we want to keep the button?
I'm not sure if I have even squeezed the button before shifting.
I'm not sure if something has worn out of if maybe I'm just a bad driver...

Thoughts? And no, putting a DMC sticker on it, is not what I want to do :)

Happy Holidays!
:Ross

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?10336-Assorted-helpful-technical-photos&p=165448&viewfull=1#post165448

Have a look at the second picture in that post.

See the collar on the stem? It is supposed to be what gets lifted up and over the humps in the yellowish coloured block when you push the button, but it ends up just spinning out of the way, so pushing the button becomes a moot point. You aren't a bad driver, it's just that the early style shifter (that I have too) is a piece of poo, lol.

Let me know what Rob says about available parts for doing that swap. I still press the button out of force of habit but it doesn't do anything on my car either and I'd like to change that.

[Patrick C]

You can get the stainless surround from most of the vendors. I didn't like that it stuck on and I wanted to keep my interior somewhat subdued so I took mine apart and painted it a matt charcoal gray. Turned out very nice. I also got the shifter emblem that replaces the stock plastic one.

47500

That looks great painted!

[rossmilstein]

I'd rather replace the whole thing with something that is cooler or more modern looking.
Any thoughts to that specific angle?
thx

[Michael]

I thought you were talking about the surround and not the shifter itself. As mentioned above, the shifter does have a fault because it will not lock into place and the shift button is useless, (unless you remove the rod and grind off about 1/4" like I did so the indexing works) It takes a bit to get the reverse safety catch to work and lock into park.

Although it's been sometime since I have has the linkage assembley apart, if you are industrious just swing by the junkyard and pick up a few shifter linkages and handles you like. It shouldn't be too hard to retrofit one to the car but you will most likely have to live without the safety indexing. You may need to cut a rod the correct diameter and length and secure some anti turn flanges on it. I personally like a lot of the late model Buicks since they mostly have that soft leather linkage cover. I think that would be a better looking mod rather tha replacing what I think is a good looking shifter.

I actually tried to do this with an old beat up surround but i didn't like the results. I started with a C4 Vette leather boot which was too big. Something like ths would look good. The only drawback is some of those auto shifter trim parts are NLA so don't go crazy with mods unless you are sure you want it and sure it will work.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/motofuze/chrome/styles/374210/images/2015BUI002a_640_20.png

[Mark Hershey]

I had the original shifter that was kindly described as 'sloppy' and went downhill from there as the yellow plastic detents got chewed up from use.
Lucked into a complete later-style shifter a few years ago, much better.
Added the stainless surround and made a blackout Plexigles insert for it.
Made a new CNC machined plate some years ago-hated the two factory-hacked screw holes and the somewhat cheesy plastic U-channel surround on the vynal-clad steel panel.
Looks like this now (assuming the pics upload)
//
47524
47525
47526

[Michael]

Very nice. I am doing a new window insert myself soon with a LED strip rather than the single bulb I have now.

[Mark Hershey]

Very nice. I am doing a new window insert myself soon with a LED strip rather than the single bulb I have now.

Yep, I thought the tinted insert was a little too much for a single bulb, which is rather anemic anyway. I added a small perf board with blue leds underneath each letter and red ones underneath the tic marks. Added a small brass divider between rows to block light color transfer, but it probably wasn't necessary.

[Mark Hershey]

I had the original shifter that was kindly described as 'sloppy' and went downhill from there as the yellow plastic detents got chewed up from use.
Lucked into a complete later-style shifter a few years ago, much better.
Added the stainless surround and made a blackout Plexigles insert for it.
Made a new CNC machined plate some years ago-hated the two factory-hacked screw holes and the somewhat cheesy plastic U-channel surround on the vynal-clad steel panel.
Looks like this now (assuming the pics upload)
//
47524
47525
47526

Make that 'vinyl' ...apparently i can't spell today 😬