In the beginning I took apart the old vinyl boot and replicated it in leather. Yes I know people sell them, but I don't work that way. I figure, I could do something unique. I have spun around 4 or 5 shift *****, and these red and black sandwiches were some experiments. It gradually moved down to the shift shaft and finally the gate. It took a bit of experimenting to the get the plates to do what should do, float and keep the dust out. I didn't want to copy Cravenspeeds gate, I wanted to elevate the mechanics and not make the shaft that is aluminum too long. It took some engineering but now has been tested for a month now. Quiet, functional, and kind of dramatic, all of it out of black acrylic. The shift **** is a red/black sandwich. The clear dome is screwed down with the single SS socket head cap screw. An oring keeps contaminants out of the upper and lower section and keeps the two from spinning apart under extreme twisting. It is around 2.125 in diameter and fits very well. I like the inverted teardrop because it fits my fingers tips better. I like acrylic much better than metal. When you get into a hot or cold car, conductors like metals transmits their temperatures to your hand. Insulators like plastic never feel too cold or too hot, and won't transmit transmission temps. I don't know, it just feels nicer. I was going to leave the brushed finished on, but decided to polish. I think I will keep it that way. Thanks for reading the long post, hope you like it.

 

nice

 

That's awesome!

What the heck to you have on your door? Looks like a calculator...
I can see your car is full of DIY goodies. Any more pics?

 

+1 !

What did you do to your toggle switches? Cup holders? Etc ...

(Not too fond of the seat covers though. )

 

On the door is a remote control holder for the media streamer. It controls the two hard drives both around 320 gigs. I went to a WAV file format, don't like the compression. The power inverter and the hard drives and media streamer are mounted in the Euro shelf. It took some time, but love the flexibility and assortment. Sorry about the seat covers. I have three dogs, cold winters and hot summers, the lambswools covers seem to work. I like that the Mini has leather, but not real leather. Like most leather nowadays, it seems Mini has reverted to bonded leather. My last car was a BMW, with real leather. I could sit on it and not sweat like these. Anyway, the switch guards were made by me naturally. One of my Bull Terriers broke the original one. They cannot be replaced, so I took out the switch assembly and machined out the switch guards and slid the SS tube in. The tube is nice, because as you are driving, you can rest your finger on the tube and adjust what you want, without worrying about a bouncing road affecting the timing. As for the cupholders, they are a voltmeter and a vacuum gauge. I machined some holders and the aluminum tubes. I am going to post pics per each project. I hopefully will be add more facts and a bit more clarification. Thanks for looking and reading.

 

crazy interior! looks awesome, and your shift **** looks like a scepter, fit for a diy king lol

 

Crazy stuff! The lambswool seat covers would indeed be great for a cold winter! Looking forward to project write-ups...

 

Like the shift ****, shifter, and gate plate! I too prefer something non-metal for the ****. I know my stock shifter with it's small amount of metal really holds in the heat on hot days. What's the dimensions of the shifter itself?

 

Well smart.
MORE INFO on the switchpack please..........