Some of you know we have a '27 T Roadster under way for my wife. I'm going for a late 50's early 60's build style. It has a '57 283 with three Rochester two barrels, a generator, and a PowerGlide. Question is, what would be an appropriate floor shifter to use? I'm not married to "period perfect" but certainly want a nod to traditional. I'd prefer not to do Lokar, too trendy and way too obvious. I'd love to find a Gennie Shifter, but that's not too likely. So what would be appropriate here? Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
I ran a early mustang floor shifter in my bucket in the 60's How about a 60's chev powerglide floor shifter?
or if you want to go new hurst and B&M both make a universal automatic shifter that looks like an old hurst 3 or 4 speed floor shifter. I like the hurst but a lot of people swear by the B&M. Hwere are a couple of pics of the hurst shifter in the Pusher ( its called an Indy)
I'm running pretty much the same set up and looking as well. I think theres a guy in the HotRod T group that found a good aftermarket one. http://www.americanshifter.com/search/powerglide
Hmmm, I have a few Mustang buddies (shhh, don't tell Ryan!) that I could check with. Thanks for the suggestion. Beaner, thank you! Forgot all about those, they look better and they're a lot cheaper than Lokar too. I know which one you're talking about, and they look good in the magazines but they're part of the Hoffman Group and I ain't do business with those people. Literally "Chinese knock off junk" with a HUGE dishonest marketing push. Thank you anyway.
I have a friend running the B&M in his gasser and it looks great, but not meant for banging any shifts! If you're going to just put it in "drive" and go, it's a good unit, but detents are pretty shallow and easy to miss a gear when getting on it.
Nice traditional column with a column shifter made to work the PG would free up some valuable floor space in that T....
Here's the B&M "Unimatic" in my COE - been there over 20 years.... Did just replace the cable. Summit carries the shifter and parts.
They are both well built shifters. A friend had the B&M unit in a '55 Stude, it seems a little stiff to me but it didn't keep me from driving and grinning when he needed to borrow my truck and left the Stude in its place.
Shiftworks, www.shiftworks.com , has a new line of shifters that are both simple and traditional looking, plus the have an integral neutral safety switch and backup light switch.
How about a floor shift from an early chevy II - it bolts to the tailshaft (you need the specific tailshaft too) it (the shifter) is small, chrome, and traditional
Personally I love the side detent gennie shifter. And they look at home in traditional cars. I used to work for them (actually Duce America building steel body 32 roadsters) and I know that the shifters are good quality. I have build cars with gennie, locar, and b&m shifters but prefer the gennie shifter by far.
The 63/64 SS Impala has some nice shifters. They would work better than a Ford if you were going the trad. style!
daddio211, would this onepossibly be a contender? MADE by a HAMBer. Post # 404 (I believe. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=621405&page=21
Why have you ruled out Gennie? I have one in my F-1 with 65,000 miles and no problems. I am putting a used one in the 26 modified and just got rebuild parts from Gennie (September 2012) as the previous owner messed the used one up thru his stupidity. Phone number is 303-623-5789.
I know you don't want to go Lokar, but I like them. Hope you find something you like. Myself ,I'm using the Lokar Nostalgia with a 16" stick on my C4.
When I was looking for a shifter for the Ranch Wagon I opted for a Hurst shifter that had been laying around gathering dust for more than 40 years,,When I sold my 63 Falcon Sprint less engine and transmission I still had the 4 speed shifter. I simply disassemble the entire shifter assembly and used just the shifter,,drilled two holes and bolted it ti the 5-speed. HRP
I had one in my T in the early 70's with a cast iron powerglide. You don't want a real tall shifter as a tall one although it looks cool will get in the way in a bucket all the time. My wife would sneak the T bucket out and run around town when I was at work and even ran out of gas in it once. A stubby Hurst handle on top of a 60's 70's oem shifter woudl look pretty good and be pretty simple.
That does look good, thanks BB! I considered that, but I don't have a spare Ford column laying around. I like the Lime Works one but don't wanna shell out that kind of money! Yep, definitely the right look. Thanks! I'll have to check them out a little closer. I looked at their PG stuff, kind pricey. Didn't see any shifters. Thanks for the info! This PG is out of a '57 Bel Air. So is the 283 and the heads. I like your thinking though! Sucks that they're gone! Would love to find a HAMBer with one for sale! Hmmm... If I could only find a 63/64 SS floor shifter that the Impala guys don't think is gold plated...LOL! Great LEVER, but no shifter included. If I had something like a Gennie shifter it'd be PERFECT! Are you certain? I was sure Gennie had closed their doors!? I'll try calling tomorrow. I LOVE their stuff! I liked the one in my A Tudor, and the one in my dad's '32 highboy roadster. Just looking for something a little "diff'rent" this time. Cool man! Hmmm... food for thought!
The problem with using a Chevelle shifter or a Impala shifter is that they were designed to fit into a console. All the mechanics of the shifter were hidden by the console and in a bucket they would not look good. You can buy them repro for about $150.00(at least that's what they were about 6 years ago) I would think that you would want something like a Hurst for a 60's style build and just put a boot around it. Also I found that alot of the so-called universal shifters did not work with powerglide as far as shift indexing went.
I used a B&M unimatic in my '55 Chevy, got it NEW at a swap meet for less than a hundred bucks. It's no race car part by any means, but it comes with a neutral safety switch and is threaded for a regular knob (vs Lokars push button) And since its cable operated its easy to mount pretty much wherever you want it. FWIW Beaner, I think B&M and Hurst are the same entity now - but I could be wrong - it's happened before. Here's mine in the Chevy:
Gator you may very well be correct on the corporate umbrella, most of those companies are not owned by the original companies any more.
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