hey all,

as the post states I had cosmetic damage to wood trim shifter handle. I am a type A personality and it needed to be fixed. I have an 03 i35. The handle was cracking on top and looked beat, I unscrewed it and used a belt sander. My thought was if it was plastic it would melt, not sand. I was prepaired to buy a new one if need be. So on to sanding, I found that under the fake wood trim, and to my amasment my shifter handle is wood. I sanded using 500 grit on belt sander useing light pressure just to get thru the factory trim to the base. got all the fake trim off, being carful to not hit the plastic silver trim ring at bottom of handle I masked it off. went to 800 grit hand sand by wrapping sheet of sand paper around handle. Now i've got this bad boy smooth. then on to 1000 grit for final sand. I then was going to spay it black with a light silver top coat. I said no, screw this, and went and grabbed stain from my buddy down the street. If you need it, from tools to paint, he has it. anyhow i find a brazillian rose wood stain. I took a hand towel which i thought was old and dipped it in stain. Wiped the stain on to shifter in random motions to give a nice natural look. 2 coats later and she looks really close to wood trim color in the car, really close. 24 hours later i added a clear coat. 5 coats later the handle is done and smooth. I want it blemish free as it comes from factory, so i wet sanded the handle to remove any imperfection in the clear coat as some small runs or bubbles will happen. now i take tech wax for car and apply it to handle. I wait for it to dry to haze and remove it with the buffer wheel. All i can say is wow. This fix cost me notta, nil, nothing. P.s. my wife found hand towel in garage and informed me that it was not old, also informing me that ralph lauren hand towels are not to be used for anything other than drying hands, and definetly not for work on cars. lmao. o.k. so it cost me 10 or 20 bucks for a new hand towel, which i have yet to buy.:laugh P.S. thanks to my friend in I.T.

 

pics?

 

will down load from i phone. really dumb question. How do i download and ad pics to posting

 

needs to be hosted somewhere. you can use the photobucket app, and upload from your iPhone photo library, then grab the [img] code and paste it into Safari here.

 

subscribed for pics

 

Ok trying to figure this upload thing out.

 

:

 

I agree still trying to figure it out

 

Yea, want pics. Mine has a little nick in it that bugs me.

 

Link to album:
http://s1104.photobucket.com/albums/h322/svtmedic/



After 1000 grit sanding



Post 2nd coat brazillian rosewood stain



Post clearcoat notice bubbling



Wet Sanded & Polished



Reinstalled & close to factory

 

now, the question is how to remove silver shifting plate so i can paint that.

 

Nice job, man. It looks good. I don't know if I'd have the ***** to take a belt sander to mine, though.

 

It really was not that hard. Just take your time with the belt sanding.

 

Does anyone know how to get the shifter assembly out

 

Do you mean the bezel that displays PRND.etc?
If so, it is held in with 4 metal clips and you have to pry it up @ just below the P position and just above the 1 position on both sides. I've never done this-just going by the service manual.

 

Thank you, so I'll need to pull the console out to get the bezel out?

 

Not if your talking about the silver plate piece, (aka bezel), that the shifter moves for and aft in. Google a service manual. If you find the pic, you'll see how it is held in. A set of panel removers or a standard screw driver covered in a cloth will be necessary.

 

Ah, ok. So does the console need to come out? Or not

 

No, it doesn't.

 

Cool, thanks man. I was kind of not wanting to pull the consol.

 

Even if you had to, it's not that difficult. 4-6 screws and a harness or two.

 

real nice job on the shifter. yeah, as mentioned remove wood trim and the PRND bezel is clipped onto the shifter assembly. There are pics in the FSM, see the AT section: http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/i35/2002/

I have read about the shifter assmblies b/c I would like to change from the straight shifter to the gated shifter in my I30. I don't have the nerve to do it myself and have had trouble finding somoeone willing to do it.

The FSM is great and helps answer a lot of questions you might have.

 

Thankyou 2001i30. The fsm will be a huge help. When I get some time I'll get the bezel out and refinish that. Should I stay stock silver or go different. Looking for opinions.

 

Hopefully Thursday Friday of this week. Def will post pics

 

Bueller, Bueller.