Shifter Boot Bezel

While the truck was in the paint shop, I decided to try and tackle the issue of the shifter boot.  The shifter in a stock S10 is much larger than the Hurst shifter used with a T56 and the boot would not look/fit right.  I wanted it look good, so I tried to come up with a simple, but elegant solution.

The pictures below are of the factory boot in the console.  The main problem is that it is a molded rubber and cannot easily be replicated in leather without a big headache.  Actually, I was told that it could not be done and look good.

I had just done some recent work on a BMW I own and I noticed that BMW uses a plastic bezel to hold the boot in place and that gave me an idea.  Why don't I make my own bezel?  Here is what I came up with.

I started out using a piece of paper and tracing out the hole on the console and taking some measurements.  The first thing I noticed was that the hole is not symmetrical.

I then downloaded Sketchup and began a new design.  I copied the measurements and printed out a 2D version of my trace. 

 I glued the printout onto some foam board and began some fine tuning/trimming.

After several iterations or modifying, printing, gluing, and trimming, I felt like I had a good template. I went to work in Sketchup to hammer out the 3D design.  The below pictures are some of the stages I went through.

Lip of the bezel

Adding 3D elements

Completed design

When I was finally happy with the look in SketchUp, I uploaded the design to Shapeways to get it 3D printed.

I got it back and it looked like the pictures below...sorry for the bad quality.  I didn't have good lighting here.

I spoke with an old friend (Chris at International Auto Upholstery in Sarasota) and he made the actual boot and attached it to the bezel. It came out awesome.

You can see how the leather is glued to the bezel in this photo

I had to do some slight trimming of the corners of the console to accommodate the "bunching" of the leather where it was sewn.  Here is the finished product. I think I spent a total of about $200 including the price of Shapeways, the upholstery shop, and the cost of the leather.

 Bonus, I had some leather left over so I had Chris cover the console lid.  That was about another $100.  So, for about $300, I have a pretty cool console now.