My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
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Car: 1984 Trans Am
Engine: LT1
Transmission: T56
Axle/Gears: 10 bolt w/ 4.10 gears
My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
I've had a set of aluminum gage trim rings for a number of years now and I decided I wanted a matching piece for my shifter. I was fortunate enough to learn Solidworks through my job and I used it to create a 3D model of what I wanted and had a machine shop make it for me. Below are some pictures of it installed. The machine shop bead blasted the part to give it the matte finish, but I plan to polish it to match the trim rings.
It was pretty expensive, but I think it was worth it for a very custom look, plus I was able to use an easy to find automatic shifter plate and convert it to manual rather than spend lots of money on a good condition original manual shifter plate. Let me know what you guys think
It was pretty expensive, but I think it was worth it for a very custom look, plus I was able to use an easy to find automatic shifter plate and convert it to manual rather than spend lots of money on a good condition original manual shifter plate. Let me know what you guys think
#2
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Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Nice personal touch, that is what third gennen is about taking a car and making it your own.
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Car: 91 Camaro RS
Engine: 305 TBI LO3
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Dude you're such a ***** w/that fake plastic trim painted white and calling it chrome. And ever hear of a vacuum?
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Car: 91 Camaro RS
Engine: 305 TBI LO3
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Wow..board censor's r1c3r now..interesting. And before this turns into a flame war...i was thinking i should mention i've known jeremy a while now and he's used to my harassment. Ya need to polish that thing up - if it shines as nice as the trim rings on the gauges do it'll look good.
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Car: 89 Black IROC-Z convertible
Engine: 305 TBI
Transmission: Auto
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Wow..board censor's r1c3r now..interesting. And before this turns into a flame war...i was thinking i should mention i've known jeremy a while now and he's used to my harassment. Ya need to polish that thing up - if it shines as nice as the trim rings on the gauges do it'll look good.
#7
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Car: 1984 Trans Am
Engine: LT1
Transmission: T56
Axle/Gears: 10 bolt w/ 4.10 gears
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Leave it to Tom (KCobain147) to ruin my thread! Obviously you don't come on here much since "the r word" has been censored for as long as I can remember. I usually wait until something is 100% done to post it, but I couldn't hold back on this one. The interior is nowhere near where I want it to be yet and it'll probably be another year or more before it gets there.
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#8
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Car: 1988 Camaro
Engine: 377
Transmission: TH350; Circle D 4200 converter
Axle/Gears: Ford 9"
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
once you polish it I think it'll look great. I'm not normally one for polished pieces, but I think it will match your cluster setup nicely.
#9
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Car: 86 Trans Am, 92 Firebird
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Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
I like that idea. Is it possible to make the profile a bit thinner? It almost looks a bit thick and imho might look even better if it were a little thinner
#10
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Car: 91 Z28, 87 SC, 90 IROC, 92 RS
Engine: LS1, 305 TPI, L98, NADA
Transmission: T56, 700r4's, and NADA
Axle/Gears: 3.89, 3.42, 3.23, NADA
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
I had thought about doing something similar with my camaro, and using drilled "dimples" around the trim, and powder coating everything black, but the inside of the dimples.
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Car: 91 Camaro RS
Engine: 305 TBI LO3
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Leave it to Tom (KCobain147) to ruin my thread! Obviously you don't come on here much since "the r word" has been censored for as long as I can remember. I usually wait until something is 100% done to post it, but I couldn't hold back on this one. The interior is nowhere near where I want it to be yet and it'll probably be another year or more before it gets there.
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Car: 91 Firebird,00 c2500,75 Vette
Engine: 3.1 but 350 soon, 350, 350
Transmission: T56 soon
Axle/Gears: stock 3.42 Posi to come
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
I would like to agree that I think it might look better a little thinner but it needs to be polished up to match the gauge rings first. Then I could decide.
I does kind of look like white plastic in the pic but I know it is as you said a matte aluminum.
It still makes the shift plate look more designed for the standard shifter though. I certainly understand about finding good manual shifter plates too.
I does kind of look like white plastic in the pic but I know it is as you said a matte aluminum.
It still makes the shift plate look more designed for the standard shifter though. I certainly understand about finding good manual shifter plates too.
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Car: 1984 Trans Am
Engine: LT1
Transmission: T56
Axle/Gears: 10 bolt w/ 4.10 gears
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
I played around with a lot of different options when I designed it for both the thickness of the perimiter and the overall depth. I decided to go for these dimensions thinking that the thinner walls of the gage trim bezels would look too thin, but I could be wrong. I'll see if I can polish it this weekend and post new pictures.
If there were enough interest, I would consider having more made but they will be fairly expensive. I could make some changes based on what people seem to want and post up an image of a 3D model. I would also verify that it works for Camaros as well, which I'm pretty sure it will as-is. I'm using a 4th gen shifter boot since I already had one and nice inexpensive replacements are available on e-bay. I'm pretty sure a 3rd gen shifter boot would work as well since the trim piece is very close in size to the original openings on 3rd gen shift plates.
If there were enough interest, I would consider having more made but they will be fairly expensive. I could make some changes based on what people seem to want and post up an image of a 3D model. I would also verify that it works for Camaros as well, which I'm pretty sure it will as-is. I'm using a 4th gen shifter boot since I already had one and nice inexpensive replacements are available on e-bay. I'm pretty sure a 3rd gen shifter boot would work as well since the trim piece is very close in size to the original openings on 3rd gen shift plates.
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Car: 92 Z28
Engine: Boosted LSX
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Looks good.Will look great polished. I agree with others might look better thinner. If your interested shoot me an email with the DXF file and solid works file and I could quote you on a batch of parts.
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Car: 1987 T/A WS6 T-Tops/92 RS
Engine: LB9/3.1
Transmission: 700R4/700R4
Axle/Gears: 2.73/3.23
Re: My custom designed aluminum shifter trim
Looks good and killer looking car man. Love the wheels.
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