DIY: B12 Leather Shift Boot!!!!

7283 Views 12 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Spitrod, Mar 30, 2009

sonicgundam

Discussion Starter · Mar 26, 2009

OK, so who HATES that old accordian shift boot in your manual B12's?? well certainly myself and I know of several others.

A few weeks ago i was just kinda putsin' around my local pick n' pull and decided to find a leather shift boot that would work good in place of the rubber accordian style one. Low and behold I had success!!

So all you need for this is a super strong adhesive, and the leather shift boot out of a 1991-1994 Toyota Tercel. Once you have the boot out of the tercel, cut the stitching at the base so that you can remove the steel bracket, as you don't need it. After removing the rubber boot from your console, then use a very strong adhesive (i suggest some form of epoxy) to glue the tercel boot in. it fits and works great! and looks ten times better.

an extra bonus is that redlinegoods.com makes boots for the Tercel, and you can get different colors, different stitching styles, piping etc. so you can order your own custom boot and fit it in for about $50-70US.

I cant seem to upload pictures onto my photobucket right now, so i can't post a picture of it yet.

I have pictures on page 3 of my car domain, which you can find via the link in my signature

. so enjoy it, and head out to PnP :fluffy:

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Spitrod

· #2 · Mar 26, 2009

Dude, that looks SOOOO much better! Good job. The glued area looks
really clean too. I really need to do that soon. My interior is so clean..
but every time I get in my car, my eyes go right to that ugly-ass,
accordion boot.

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bob89sentra

· #3 · Mar 26, 2009

Wow that does look great, I am going to do that too! I was just thinking of hitting the wrecker to find a new rubber boot for my pulsar, since the plastic mount broke and the boot flops all over when shifting, but now I think I will go for the leather. Thanks for posting this.
On a side note I was looking at the pics of your engine where you painted the air box and lifter cover, it looks sweet, but I think you really need to put that MPFI manifold on there to make it look even better LOL!

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sonicgundam

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 26, 2009

bob89sentra said:
Wow that does look great, I am going to do that too! I was just thinking of hitting the wrecker to find a new rubber boot for my pulsar, since the plastic mount broke and the boot flops all over when shifting, but now I think I will go for the leather. Thanks for posting this.
On a side note I was looking at the pics of your engine where you painted the air box and lifter cover, it looks sweet, but I think you really need to put that MPFI manifold on there to make it look even better LOL!

haha yes, i definitely do. the valve cover is no longer red though. painted it Ford Blue to go with a coming colour scheme that will match up really well.

blue + gunmetal grey + polished aluminum.

the blue is basically the color of silicon couplers, so with an intake and such, it'll look really clean once the bodies painted. the intake manifold will also be painted blue.

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Spitrod

· #5 · Mar 26, 2009 (Edited)

I think that color scheme you've got planned will look good.

I shot mine with a silver and clear. It's held up really well
since last summer. It really doesn't look like plastic. You did
a great job on your valve cover. I have to do mine soon.

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Spitrod

· #6 · Mar 29, 2009

After some inspiration from Sonicgundam and checking out
pictures of Tercel shift boots, I decided to go check out my
Celica. The shift boot on the Celica looks really similar to the
boot on the Tercel. So I got to work.

I tore the shift boot out of my 94 Celica as well as the wire
base-frame and headed for my Sport Coupe. I grabbed ahold
of the ugly, rubber accordion and tore that sucker out too.
By hand and with a grudge against it. Around the front and
rear edges of the shift boot hole, there are two metal clips
for the rubber boot. I tore those out as well. In my case, I
kept the wire frame for the boot. However, I applied a little
glue inside to securely seat the boot where I wanted it on
the wire. Next, I used Polyurethane Construction Adhesive
in the caulking gun setup and put adhesive all around the
edge of the shift boot hole. Then I slid the boot over the
shifter and held in place for a minute. I decided to find some
long, thin pieces of wood and wedged them in between the
boot and the roof to hold it down and in place. That way
I could watch South Park instead of holding it down and
waiting for the glue to set. After about 3 hours, I came out,
took the wood off and snapped this shot. It looks WAAAY
better than our rubber, accordion enemy.

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sonicgundam

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 29, 2009

dude that celica boot looks way better than the tercel one. i'll be ordering a redlinegoods boot soon.

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Spitrod

· #8 · Mar 29, 2009

Yeah, dude. It doesn't look bad. It's not stock. It's identical, though
except for the stitching. I don't remember what kind it is or where I
even got it from. It's been a long, long time.

You started the b12 Shift Boot Revolution, Bro.

While I'm at the interior, I'm doing something about the
checkered/plaid fabric today. I can't take it anymore.

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sonicgundam

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 29, 2009

Spitrod said:
Yeah, dude. It doesn't look bad. It's not stock. It's identical, though
except for the stitching. I don't remember what kind it is or where I
even got it from. It's been a long, long time.

You started the b12 Shift Boot Revolution, Bro.

While I'm at the interior, I'm doing something about the
checkered/plaid fabric today. I can't take it anymore.

haha nice, whats the plan?

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Spitrod

· #10 · Mar 29, 2009

Check out the how-to I posted, bro. It works! And really well, I might add.

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Campground Man

· #11 · Mar 30, 2009

Great mod, I'm definitely doing this to my B12. When i switched to the pulsar trans for my ca18det it messed up my accordian boot where it wouldn't fit. I noticed the mod had been done in my B13 already though.

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sonicgundam

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 30, 2009

Campground Man said:
Great mod, I'm definitely doing this to my B12. When i switched to the pulsar trans for my ca18det it messed up my accordian boot where it wouldn't fit. I noticed the mod had been done in my B13 already though.

b13 SE-R's came with leather boots, where as other b13's didn't, they came with accordian boots.

i just ordered my new boots from redline

. black leather with quad stitching. white and red to match the nismo shift knob.

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Spitrod

· #13 · Mar 30, 2009

Nice. I need to grab one with blue stitching. The red doesn't look
right to me..but way better than the rubber boot as is.

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