[DeTomaso] Shifters are not created equal

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/16/08 8:51:09 AM, claywillmott at hotmail.com writes:

> My old shifter  that came with the car has a 40% full thickness notch from 
> the prior owner.  I thought of welding and re-chroming but it appears hard to 
> remove the brass bushing without damaging them. Any tricks here?  Will they 
> melt if I weld it without removing first?
> 
I took the stick out and TIG-welded the notch with stainless steel rod. TIG 
puts far less heat into a given piece, so no problems; didn't even catch the 
grease on fire. In addition, filing and grinding the stainless weld down gave a 
filled area that polished out to look very similar to the chromed stick, 
without any rechroming. 
You don't mention what year your car is, but post-80s wide body cars may have 
a stick thats built differently while looking the same as early sticks. One 
owner of an '87 GT5-S tried my weld-it-up trick and found his stock stick was 
not a solid piece. Instead, his late piece was made of 5 or more layers of 
steel strip, edge-welded together then ground and polished. So when he attempted 
to fill the notch which had cut thru several of the strips, the strips 
separated from the heat, cracking the plating above and below the notch and ruining 
the whole stick. He also found that a used early stick (bought at an outrageous 
price) fit his late car perfectly. FWIW- J Deryke



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