Saving a swap meet shifter- how I did it.

[Matt Tobias]

Today I was hunting around the Phoenix Bug-O-Rama and found a cool shifter, one of the really close Berg knockoffs(round shaft) that was beat to crap.  Hell the thing was only $2! 
Broken flange, bent screws, worn out nylon ball guides



I rarely ever see this shifter at swaps, I usually only see these-

This one I found for $1 and the base flange and handle were both in good shape.  Unfortunately the ball had a lot of play that would need to be taken care of.
So I dismantled both of them



I actually prefer the handle on the left, so will be using that one, I don't like how the reverse button isn't centered on the more "ergo" handle, it bothers me.
To take care of the play at the pivot ball I put the upper cover on the belt sander and removed a few thousandths from the mating flange, bringing the nylon guide further down towards the ball.

Then I cleaned everything up, lubricated it and put the $2 shifter together using the $1 shifter base.
I'm going to order a shift boot from Berg since it will fit this shaft.
I'm pretty stoked considering I'll only have $10 into it after the boot gets here!

[lawrence]

Nice work. I have a berg shifter and its great, but it's nice to see something out of the ordinary. Is this going in the "outlaw" car? Some of the guys on that thread had good input. Take some influence from roadrace or rallye cars. Cal-lookers too. A simple exterior will do: level stance, mini-lites or 5-spoke americans, identical tire sizes at all four corners. The interior could look sweet with some light seats (fiberglass or speedster-style), simple carpet and upholstery (insulation is your friend, noisy cars suck!), some VDO or smiths gauges and a suede wrapped or wood wheel. Have fun and keep us posted.

[Matt Tobias]

Thanks Lawrence, my goal is outlaw style interior with mainly cal-look exterior, although I may flatten the paint.  It will still have big and little tires and a little rake as thats just mandatory to me   .  I've decided to paint the tunnel super shiny gloss black and leave it uncovered, with only a little carpeting on the floorpans.  The seats will be poly bucket seats.  For wheels its either going to be silver wide five slotted/356 style wheels or gold empi 5's.

[javabug]

Nice work. I like the round shaft on that versus the square-ish one. I probably would have considered painting the handle black; the black handle and boot would contrast nicely with the chrome. Either way, its cool!

[Matt Tobias]

Thanks!  I've not ruled out black, I have two spare handles, so one may get powdercoated.  I always loved the look of the early natural finish Berg shifters though. 

[j-f]

Your topic gives me some inspiration to save a shifter I had before using a Hurst.

It's basically an original VW accessories. The knob was broken and I bought a Hurst T handle to replace but the threads doesn't match the metric use on the shifter.
I thread it to match the shifter and have now a cool piece. Still needs some polishing, paint and detailing 

[Matt Tobias]

Nice!  That looks great!  Throw a quick shift kit under it and you'd be golden!