Pole position! Aka badass Delrin shift knob by Teach Design Concepts

Check out Teach Design Concepts on eBay!

All right, talk about a fun and functional mod. This is badass. I was searching for shift knobs in eBay and found this guys auctions. I saw in there he also offered customization, basically you could tell/draw him what you want and he can get it done.

Since installing a new shifter in the Slug, it dropped the shifter way lower. Also because I wasn't as precise as I should have been with modifying the linkage the shifter was skewed to the right. Either way, more after the jump.

Ok so here are the shifters. Left is the B&M shifter. Because of the new location of the linkage I wanted a straight shifter instead of the angled back ones like stock. Also you can see the pivot point is much higher on the B&M which shortens the travel distance between shifting. That means this is a short throw shifter, for those not in the know about goofy car stuff.

Another reason I went for the B&M was that it has it's own housing. The others just fit into the sloppy stock housing.

O.k. So since it was lowered and a bit at an angle I needed to start with an extension with a bend to it to bring things back the other direction and lift it up. I will eventually fix the linkage, and that will move the shifter closer to the steering wheel which is fine by me anyway. So I picked up this on eBay. It's supposed to be high strength brass, it seems pretty solid, and it was only $15 so not bad. I later found out that John Teach can do extensions as well. Had I know that I'd have ordered from him, oh well.

O.k. since he is actually machining these parts, I used my limited mechanical knowledge to get him some measurements. I know that people building stuff can only build as precise as the measurements they are given. In this case all I have is a busted caliper with a slightly off ruler on it, but it got us close enough and John's suggestions about the dimensions turned out to be excellent.

So I gave him the diameter of the extension, and the length that the shoulder inside needed cut as well as the thread depth, etc. I also wanted a little cone to fit on the bottom of the extension to act as a support for the shifter boot. Rather than just have it hanging down.

One thing I inquired in was how tall he could make the shifter knob. He had I believe up to 3″ tall listed in the auction. He said for a small up charge he could go up to 7″. I gladly paid that because In mocking it up I needed a 6″ shift knob to put the height where I wanted.

So after that. With just one slight hiccup that was easily remedied it was just over a week to receive the part. I bought the evening of the 8th and it arrived I the mail today the 16th. For a custom machined part, that is excellent in my opinion.

I get home and there is a package on my desk from Teach Design Concepts. I tore that sucker right open.

Ooooooooooooo! I have personally never dealt with much delrin, I love the way this stuff feels. It's smooth but with some friction to it, so not slippery. It's got a bit of weight to it but not overly heavy either.

So the first thing I needed to do was to get the cone fit on there. There is no real give in delrin, so since test fitting the extension on the shifter flared out the tube ever so slightly it was a snug fit. I was able to tap the extension into the cone with a rubber hammer though. Nice friction fit, it's going nowhere now.

Then to get it positioned. I actually ended up having to take it back off and feeding it through the boot from underneath. I just wasn't able to get the boot stretched around the cone. Fine by me, simple enough to address.

I was using some vice grips to get it nice and snug on the shifter itself. Since the shift knob threads all the way down to the bend I wasn't concerned about the finish.

Oh damn! I love how tall it sets. It put a huge smile on my face taking the car for a drive with that shifter on there.

Another angle, just so sexy!

To wrap it up, I could not be happier with this shift knob. John Teach was a pleasure to deal with, if you are looking for a custom shift knob, check him out. He also does acrylic and I believe LED lit acrylic as well. You will be very pleased. If I'm in need of another shift knob I will look nowhere else.