Clear Gear Shift Knobs

[Duntov]

HI:

Here is a short tutorial on making clear gear shift knobs.

You will need various grits of sanding sticks (including polishing grade), some clear sprue and some chrome bead wire in either 22 or 18 gauge size. Your first step is to cut the sprue end off square and flat. I use an exacto saw blade for this. See the next two pictures…..

Here is the chrome bead wire I used and the first cut to square off the clear sprue.

Next you will need to drill a hole in the end of the sprue to a depth of no more than 2mm. This is done easily if you made the cut on the sprue flat and square with the sides. Use a drill bit for the wire that you select. Generally bits in the range of .025 to .028 work well for 22 gauge wire.

The next step is to use a 150 grit sanding stick to shape the end of the sprue as close to round as you can get it.

Use progressively fine sanding sticks to polish the sprue end. Make sure this is very shinny.

Next “PRESS FIT†the 18 or 22 gauge chrome wire into the hole you drilled earlier. DO NOT GLUE this in yet. You may scratch the chrome on the shaft at some point and you will need to replace it.

Next, cut the sprue off about 3mm above the depth of the shaft hole as seen below.

Again, use your sanding stick to shape the knob (as round as you can get it). Note the scratches on the shaft....this is why you don't want to glue it place....this will be replaced later.

Now use your fine and polish grade sanding sticks to polish the knob to a very clear and smooth surface. You may need to replace the bead wire if you scratched it during the final polishing stage. The top shifter uses a larger wire (18 gauge) vs the other two that use 22 gauge. The 22 gauge is about right for 1:25 scale. See below.

The finished product looks quite good…..the knob is very realistic and if you work slowly and carefully you can perfect the method. Use a short piece of wire insulation to form a boot. I also made shift frame from wine bottle tin and embossed it with rivets from below. The whole shift knob build up takes about 30 minutes to do one shifter.

Have a good time…..

Regards Bill (Duntov)

[crazyjim]

Excellent tutorial, Bill. Thanks.

Here's a thought for you - using either wire size, what if you hammered it flat to look like a Hurst shifter? Think that would work? No. Forget that. The Hurst tapered as it got closer to the shift knob. Sorry. Just thinking out loud.

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, what a fabulous mini tut. Great stuff. And the end result if FANTASTIC. Thank you!

[ra7c7er]

Awesome tutorial. I will be using this in the future.

[Foxer]

Nice tut and I'm sure people will be thinking beyond shift knobs with this.

BTW, great job sanding a ball .. I know it's not easy.

[Ghost1]

Nice tutorial. Thank you.

[tylersloan]

will be building a red one for my 32 5 window thank you

[walt francis]

Great tutorial I will be using this and I think I will be using it on the Cord....Thanks

[whale392]

And to think; with this as a base, by either/and using dyes/clear paints, you could replicate all sorts of Clear colors and patterns with this.

Thank you for the tutorial, you have just fueled more experimentation time!

[Danno]

Thanks!

[horsepower]

Not to rain on your great post, you could do it this way, or save some time & buy the pins that Wally World sells for crafting that have a ton of colors, & some clear ones also. I have also seen them at Michaels they come in two different sizes, the smaller size is in the sewing department at Walmart, & the larger sizes are in the crafting area.

[GOTH KUSTOMS]

Hey thankz for sharing this, I will use it in a few of my builds, now i know what to do with all the clear plastic sprue's I have....

[Mooneyzs]

Very Sweet. that turned out great. Thanks for the tip

[superhornet1015]

That was way cool, going to have to remember that.