I've seen a few pics of Camaros with the quarter stick or pro stick installed, but nothing in a Firebird. Since the consoles are a bit different, I'm not sure if the Pro Stick will fit underneath the 'bird shifter plate nicely.

Anyone running one underneath a stock console and shifter plate?

 

Went ahead and tried out this idea despite the overwhelming amount of interest this thread has had in the past 7 months.
I finally found a good deal on a Hurst Quarter Stick 700r4 shifter, and I just got done building the mounting plate. I still need to make a boot to fill in the gaps, which will be kinda tricky due to the reverse lockout lever. See the "1st gear" pic and you'll see the issue.

I had to mount the shifter at an angle and raised above the transmission tunnel to keep it from "bottoming out" on either end of the hole in the shifter plate. This angle turned out to be about 12*, or 1.5 inches at the very front of the shifter, and 2.875" at the rear mounting bolts.

It took quite a bit of test fitting to get everything lined up right and able to bolt in, but it installs in the factory location with 3 of the original shifter's 4 mounting bolts. If I had 4" wide flat stock to start with, it would utilize all 4 mount bolts, but I don't think I'll have a problem with only 3 bolts.

So far, I have not had to cut or modify the console in any way, Although I think I will have to remove some of the plastic housing underneath the ashtray to route the cable. I don't think I will have to modify the ashtray itself.

Hopefully this will help someone else with this install if they don't like the other automatic shifter options for our cars.

Nuetral:


Park:


1st Gear:


Shifte Plate Removed:




Mount Plate:
The top plate is included with the shifter. The supports do not necessarily need to be narrower than the top and bottom plates. I thought I would have to move the shifter further to the right than I ended up needing to.

 

Don't they make a bolt in shifter for the bird?

 

Yeah.....

 

I think it is a quicksilver but I could be wrong, nice fab work on that one.

 

B&M offers the Megashifter, which IMO is a piece of $###.

Hurst used to make the Dual Gate, but it's not really practical for a full manual valve body car like mine.

Also, neither shifter has a very good positive stop upshift mechanism. The quarter stick has an NHRA approved reverse lockout, and very heavy duty stops. It's built to handle some abuse. Also, I wanted something with trigger activated detents since I still want the ability to go from park to 1st easily. And you can't deny that time pistol grip is pretty sweet compared to a ball or even a t-handle.

 

very nice

 

That does look mean!

 

Looks good man.

 

Thanks!!

The hole in the shifter plate is still bugging me... I think I'm gonna make a new reverse lockout lever, and make a "Push for Reverse" button in the corner of the shifter plate. Then I think a conventional boot will work.