I posted some photos of the finished product in the tread detailing how I intially screwed this up, but it's fixed now, and I'm pretty pleased with it. The shifter is the original clutch pedal, a s**** of left over DOM tubing from the front spreader bar, a piece of s**** 3/16 cold roll, "bearing" material from a plastic w/s washer bottle, a piece of all thread rod for the linkage and a turnbuckle. The trim/detent plate is a s**** of SS from the gas tank strap, and the detent rod is a piece of br*** rod from Tractor Supply. I've got a golf ball on it now for a knob, but will use a cue ball when it's done, with old typwriter keys for the shift indicator letters. Pretty high tech... I've got a couple days worth of work in it, it cost about 10 bucks, uses some of the original car, and fits nicely. I'm thinking of "blueing" the lever after I clean it up and polish it, which would look kinda neat in the very plain ****pit.
thanks for posting the pictures , I've been thinking about making one too for my next project. i see it has a reverse pattern , is that for a reason? in some other pictures in your other thread the arm on the shift shaft coming out of the transmission is pointing down. if it was pointed up like Lokar and Gennie you could have a standard pattern
The arm hangs down off the trans, 'cause there's no room between the floor tunnel and trans case for it to point up! The forward throw of the lever is odd for a car, but the way airplane controls work, so, I'll pretend I'm flyilng...
I cut the needed keys off the typwriter, and did a quickie mock up mount with trim tape. Looks pretty cool, I think, and I really like the "Shift Lock" one in the golf ball knob. I may use the typewriters cool nickle plated platen release lever/linkage as the shift detent release, we'll see how creative I can be. Didn't do anything else today other than blow snow from the driveway, finish up Christmas shopping, and otherwise get ready for the Holiday Festivities.
Neat shifter. Do you 'shift' your trans like a manual? Like go from 1-2 to D? You'd have to pull the little spring loaded rod thingy every time you shift, but its good insurance incase you bump the shifter and knock it outta gear.
when I saw your first post I thought it looked a bit steampunk and then you add the typewriter keys, yeah cool but the golf ball?
The price of old Royal typewriters just shot up on E-bay. Now I know what happened to the PRNDL keys on my antique typewriter. Just get ready, the traditional guys will flame your *** for using your ingenuity!!!
Definite Steampunk vibe, or is that Dieselpunk ? Either way, I like it. The Golfball doesn't do anything for me, but I'm sure you will find something appropriate.
Very nice job. The typewriter ****ons are an awesome idea. I made the one for my Sr dragster. I was amazed at how well it worked and how easy (or i should say, easier than i imagined it would be) it was to make. I doubt I will ever buy one again. Yours is top drawer i think. Very very nice work. Don
Steampunk? Like Jules Verne, or the (awful) Wild Wild West Movie? Jeeze, I'm gett'n old! I think that's a compliment. I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess the whole car sort of is. Now, I'll have to get some br*** plate and make some fancy Victorian thingies to embellish. Or not... Brian
Yeah, the golf ball is just the mock up. I'm using a cue ball, but may get one with a pinup painted on it, or if I hit the Lotto, a genuine ivory one.
Ivory, real ivory, cue balls are running 50-100 bucks on ebay. I like that, or an ivory 8 ball, idea. It's not much and would be a nice touch. New ones with 40's style pinups are about 20 bucks, and would look cool too, but genouine ivory would be pretty cool. Old, legal ivory, that is, not new, poached stuff. I've got one of the plastic ones, it happened that the golf ball was in the garage, and lent itself to having hole drilled it!
The Jalopy Journal
