Custom Shift Knobs

[Detective D]

I didn't see any search results for this topic so i thought I would start one.

Do you use a custom shift knob? What did you use?

I have (2) I am going to work on this winter. One in the 98 Dakota, one in the 78 Monaco police car.
Both will be beer tap handles. No, no, not like the modern 20" tall ceramic/wood handles, gotta go back to 1960's bowling alley style. I have one like this:

And a few others like it in different brands like Old Style or Blatz, Yuengling's etc. that I picked up from the flea market and garage sales over the years.

What do you use? how did you mount it?

In my case there is a threaded section already, but I will have to figure out how to attach it to the column auto shift in the Monaco(the plastic knob is already missing when I got it) and convert the thread size on the Dakota without making it too much longer.

Lets see some pictures!

 

[JoePole]

I had a Genny Cream ale handle on my 70 impala column shifter back in the day and it threaded right on but that doesnt help you any.

 

[YY1]

I have a wooden with brass plaque Kilian's Irish Red handle, but Doubt I'll use it for a shifter.

IIRC "back in the day" a lot were the same thread and "just" threaded right on.

 

[Detective D]

i didn't mean for this to only be about tap handles lol.

What other interesting items have people used? The 8 ball was common, I saw a golf ball in a toyota truck one time in my youth.
Last time I was at iola someone welded some brass knuckles onto the long stick of their ford hot rod. I doubt they put their fingers in lol, but it looked cool.

 

[RiverRaider]

I have had bicycle handlebar grips, a hand grenade and dirt bike pistons on some cars back in the day. I have seen really cool samurai and calvary swords used.
seen a lot of golf balls used on hydraulic, hi and low range and 4x4 shift levers. Wrecked my share of pool balls trying to drill them back in high school. Eight balls and cue balls were the most popular followed by the rest of the solids. Stripes for some reason were not cool.

 

[6PKRTSE]

I have real 8 ball machined out that goes over my 1970 factory B Body shift handle by removing the woodgrain portion from the shifter. I just press down on the 8 ball which presses down the factory button assembly.

 

[khryslerkid]

Years ago when I had a '64 Polara 500 I popped the round aluminum inserts out of my shifter knob and replaced them with Schlitz beer bottle caps. They fit perfectly and kind of looked like a beer tap. (Don't know how I drank that stuff!)

 

[Detective D]

I have had bicycle handlebar grips, a hand grenade and dirt bike pistons on some cars back in the day. I have seen really cool samurai and calvary swords used.
seen a lot of golf balls used on hydraulic, hi and low range and 4x4 shift levers. Wrecked my share of pool balls trying to drill them back in high school. Eight balls and cue balls were the most popular followed by the rest of the solids. Stripes for some reason were not cool.

The sword handles are popular with the tuner crowd now.
I have seen some pistons on rat rods. Never seen a grenade lol.

 

[RiverRaider]

The sword handles are popular with the tuner crowd now.
I have seen some pistons on rat rods. Never seen a grenade lol.

My 69 Coronet 500 Convertible had a short hurst lever, I picked up the dummy grenade in '85 at the pawn shop in Killeen/Fort Hood TX. Drilled the bottom and tapped it and put it on. As it was my first year living in TX I found I had to put a glove on it because it would get too hot to shift in the hot summer sun.

 

[YY1]

I remember having a car that bottle caps fit perfectly on the radio knobs, and stayed there.

...but I don't remember which car it was.

 

[fourgearsavoy]

I have this one on my Savoy now. I'm still on the fence for the matching blue metal flake steering wheel though.
The knob is from Speed Dawg.
Gus

 

[RiverRaider]

Old Style beer caps fit on my Kraco radio in my Javelin.

 

[Hey-O]

Made my own.

 

[68jim]

Left-hand pistol grip my father-in-law carved for me. This is in my Aussie Charger. Cool thing was that the 4 speed shift pattern is the same...

 

[Jeff Peterson]

Up the road from me, I bought a standard white ball with a button from them, but the sky’s the limit!

Custom-Made Shift Knobs | Twisted Shifterz Custom Gear Knobs

 

[moparvinson]

This one is nice

 

[fourgearsavoy]

I like this one.

 

[68jim]

This one is niceView attachment 1572353

The black widow knob reminded me of the shifter in the Aussie Charger when I got it. The shifter knob was clear lucite that had an Australian Red Back Spider encased in it. Wife took one look at it and said it has to go. I like the left-hand pistol grip better anyway. Sorry for the crappy picture but you get the idea. I think that knob was at least 2.5 inches diameter. Gives you an idea about size of the spider... The Red Back Spider is up on the list of Aussie critters that will ruin your day...

 

[33 IMP]

I made a couple pistol grip knobs for my ratchet shifters... but they are not in the same universe as Hey-O's!

They work fine for me though.

 

[Budnicks]

I had an A/C Compressor piston on my, B&M ratchet shifter
v8 'street' Vega, back in like 1979-80-ish
cute lil' thing, polished it up, a dommed piston
looked like a mini Hemi piston
it fit my palm great too
I had to put an aluminum wrist pin in it, so I could drill & tap it

sorry I never took any photos