Hot Rods Looking for Shift Boot Ideas...

I don't know if I'm stepping on any toes with any other threads that may have already been created on this subject, but I'm looking for ideas with floor shifter boots. Everything to me just looks too new and too modern.

I want to see what you did in your car that you liked that was different. Different...but in a good way. You can be different to be different, but not if it's disco if you catch my drift...

Anyhow, post your pictures. Thanks fellas.

 

Auto or manual ? Chevy ,ford or ? Bench seat or buckets? Here's a 62 impala floor shift with bench. It's what I'm using in a 63 nova with bench.

 

Not off the rack!





I found this boot on a closeout table at my local speedshop, was cheap, but didn't have a need for it at the time so threw it in a drawer and forgot about it.
I needed to get creative due to the shifter offset in my roadster and had been scratching my head on how I was going to deal with the boot, was scrounging around the shop and found this in the drawer and just stood there looking at it for ten minutes, actually set it aside and addressed other things (don't recall what) but I had gone to the local thrift store looking for that other thing when I found the neatest little cast aluminum cooking pot.
Hack sawed the handle boss off of it, chucked it in the lathe and skim cut the OD then bored a big hole in it, brushed it up with a scotchbrite pad and machined a trim ring for it.
The little box off the side houses my minimal electrical switches, it was found at an electronics odds/ends store, formed a couple simple brackets and screwed them on.
Also had to build a hidden floor mount for it but cant find a photo of it.

 

Something to work with

 

This is actually a good question. No pics of the shifter tower ***embled in my car yet but my temporary solution was to source a 396 Chevelle auto rubber gaiter which sort of works for my avatar (period-wise) but I definitely would like to see what other people do.

 

I like the functional look of an exposed rubber gaiter. CV boots are a good source.

Mine.

Chris

 

I had one in my '65 Belair, junkyard picked, I still have it. Now I have to dig it out.

 

I'm using a Mr. Gasket boot in my car, about 1/2 the $ of the Hurst boot.

 

I'm gonna run a repro early V8 in tan to offset the cedar color of my interior. Rubber accordion style would feel like going commando with my fly open. Reminds me of a joke if ya wanna hear it...

 

The item I have was a no-name internet purchase and was pretty cheap. It'll do the job for a while but once I build a console I may need to think about something else...

 

Build an interesting enough shifter, you don't need a boot.

 

Now you mentioned this, I'm thinking (if the box holds after the repair) to have a Ferrari-like gated shift plate but in what is mostly a road car I would still need to close the shift tower so some gaiter will be needed. This seems to go north very quickly lol.

 

Go to the McMaster-Carr website and log into "rubber bellows", might give you some ideas.

 

I use a cv axle boot.

 

but seriously....I'd use something like this before I'd use a CV joint boot.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/lok-70-cr3

 

Wow! You guys are awesome! These are great submissions.

To answer an earlier question, any transmission that is floor shifted. Auto or manual. Show what you've got.

 

What I use

 

I use a shifter porch to provide a level base for the boot. This is my Hurst Auto Stick One shifter. I used a shifter porch from e-Bay.

 

Same vintage leather as my seat.

 

OT so not sure if will get deleted but MGB shifter boots and retainer rings come in both round and oval configs,

 

Those Lokar boots are as poorly made as they can possibly be.
I have two of them that I somehow got when I bought a couple of different shifters while building my RPU.

I won’t be using either of them I can’t imagine putting one in my RPU, Lokar should be ashamed to sell it.

I’ll do my best to come up with something better and I’ve already considered the rubber boot approach as I also like the utilitarian look of them.

 

A friend made me the stainless retainer ring with Ford laser cut into it and I use a piece of the material that the seats were covered with. HRP

 

https://jjsrods.com/page-4

Hello,

I knew there was a company that was showcased on the HAMB. “JJsrods.com” has won plenty of awards for the coolest design for a steering column boot to seal out all aromas or “stuff” from the engine compartment.

Jnaki

They have new components and can be adapted to meet all sorts of usage in a hot rod.

If we had an old hot rod, this steering column seal and now, the floor shifter boot would be the next choice.

Commission? What commission, just good stuff...

 

I like 'em simple.
Like you said, not modern.
Especially on an early car.

John Deere.
"JD" logo would now have to stand for
"Junkyard Dog". Or something.


One of the more interesting simple rubber boots I've seen. Posted on the HAMB a while back. In a Corvair Spyder. Looks like a bell pepper. LOL
But, might be hard to find. All the more reason to have one.

 

I will second JJ Rods for shift and steering column boots. Great product that works and real fine gentleman to deal with.

 

I do not have any photos on this computer but I normally end up using a HURST boot. Sometimes I end up using a HURST Super Boot if the hole in the floor is really screwed up. I am closer to 70 than 60 and they have been around all my life.

 

I prefer factory style boots although I have used Hurst boots years ago. I have also used a chrome ring and had my upholstery guy sew up a leather boot that matches the interior color.
Here is a picture of a ‘60’s MoPar oval boot I have and a picture of the factory 4 speed boot in my Cyclone.

 

no pics, but i used a sleeve off my old, browned out leather jacket on my model a.

 

In my Olds, His and Hurst w/ line locs . This shifter was a feature on later
model 442's. It took quite a bit to put it the stock console.

In my PU I am building I went for a rhino liner job on the tunnel and SS boots around the shifter and brake. I had to mod the tunnel extensively to get the ebrake on the flat part of the tunnel and fit that rectangular shifter boot.

On my roadster I got a bit more creative, I started with this shape

and soon realized I did not want rounded boots and the e brake would have been nasty on the side of the tunnel like that, so I cut a hole in the tunnel and welded in a shifter riser and made an aluminum "console" to house both boots and make them level with each other. Threaded inserts in flanges that I welded in secure the plate, holes were counter sunk.

To that I machined a recess so the trim plates would fitflush and no leather peeking out from under.

Edges radiused and the piece polished, add the leather boots and done. A lot of work for something no one notices, but I did it for me!