Gear shifter

 On to the gear shift kmob. The shifter is made up of the central shaft, a rubber gaiter, a leather over cover and then the Nardi gear knob. The rubber gaiter is there for a reason on the MX5, but it just doesn't work on my car. It's too big apart from anything, and doesn't add anything. So that got the attention of some snips and is now gone.

I wanted to retain the leather if possible, it's a decent match for the new leather and would look good with the knob. It has a plastic surround to give it support, which is clipped in place. This surround may be under the tunnel on the MX5, but it's a great template for what I need.

Here's the leather in place with the surround behind it;

It does look like the leather will need trimming to look perfect, but if I can duplicate the surround I end up with something like this;

The only issue is what to make it from. I can either print it or cut it from aluminium. Printing would be a challenge, while the size isn't huge the use of ABS means that it would most likely warp before it was complete. Aluminium would cut fine and look nice (and be strong), but I'd have to do something on the edge to make it IVA friendly. Maybe a combination of both, an aluminium surround with a thin edge of rounded ABS. 

Actually, I might go for that. If I have an aluminium/leather/aluminium sandwich, that'll be maybe 5mm thick. I then add a plastic rounded edge to finish. The only thing I need to consider is the width to the sides and the distance to the front edge. The whole surround needs to fit on that one panel. The width between the trim pieces is 130mm, with maybe 15mm to the front (with a slight overlap on to the front panel). 

I'll print a few templates to see if they come out ok.