I’ve hated my shift and handbrake boots since the day I got Blimey. The cheap, thin, gray vinyl just didn’t go with the rest of the car, and looked and felt like it belonged in a MUCH less fine automobile… That’s being kind - NO car should use material that cheap-feeling…

After long term thinking and looking, and thinking some more, I finally bit the bullet and ordered a pair of custom Redline boots - and they ROCK.

I chose medium blue leather, with a red stripe and white stitching.

The quality of these things is fantastic. They were made to my specifications and shipped like 2 days after I placed my order - and arrived via priority mail from POLAND less than a week later. You remove your existing boots and use the mounting trim pieces from the OEM boots. I had to enlarge the holes in the leather a little - but the entire install took less than an hour.

This brings the Union Jack color motif of my stripes, grille, sills, rear headrests, etc. INSIDE the car - and I think it looks great. Subtle, but much better IMHO. The colors in the “installed” photos are much more “true to life” - all these blues start to look a little funny with the flash…

Of course, we all know one good mod deserves another - so now I MUST do something about my handbrake handle (ugh - hate that gray) and my shift knob (working with Doug Whalen on a custom engraved one…)

The path to mod nirvana continues…

Richard Woo (rkw on NAM) turned me onto a GREAT mod for improving the readability of your gauges. This is particularly valuable in the cabrio (where, with top down, there can be TONS of glare / reflections off the gauges) and is even MORE valuable if you’re using dark aftermarket gauge faces, which are harder to see when the reflections are outta control…

Richard had been on a quest to kill the reflections, and had looked at various matte coatings, etc. to do this. He eventually found a material called Optium. This is a VERY high-end acrylic used for art framing - it has an unbelievably good UV blocking anti-reflective coating on both sides - when you hold a clear, clean piece of this stuff up and look through it, it’s like looking through AIR - REALLY… it’s THAT optically clear - you don’t see yourself in it. It’s like MAGIC.

Only one small downside of this material - retail cost is about $100 per SQUARE FOOT. Richard was able to find a remnant at a frame shop, and they sold it to him at a much more reasonable price. He cut himself a pair of gauge lenses and WOW - a huge difference. He had enough left to make me a pair (alas, he’s out now). Makes the whole gauge look more “high end” - you really see how “cheap” looking the stock “domes” are when you look at them side-by-side. The Optium is just a flat piece the right diameter to replace the stock dome - the 3mm Optium is just the right thickness that the black gauge ring and the bezel hold it in place. Photos don’t really do it justice - so I’m not going to post any. But if you see me at a meet, come look at them!

Aaron was kind enough to let me test the fitment of his production samples of the column mount tach and speedo pair - for cars with the Cockpit Chrono Pack or Nav. These should be available soon from Outmotoring. If you reviewed Matt’s outstanding how-to on NAM, you would be able to figure this out yourself - but here are a few pointers and pics.

The gauge cluster comes off just like the single tach - lower the steering column to the lowest position, remove two screws behind the gauges (on mine, they were T-25 torx), and unplug the wiring harness. Now you can take the gauges to a counter or workbench to complete the mod. Here is the “before” view:

The back has FOUR Phillips head screws - remove these:

And on the bottom, there are TWO clips - one may be covered by a sticker.

Gently pry these up (ideally with the tape-covered small screwdriver Matt mentions) and the back “shell” will pull right off. You end up with this:

Now it gets a LITTLE trickier - the front bezel assembly is held on by FOUR black spring clips. Mine was ALSO held on by a strip of double-stick tape between the two gauges. So you’ll gently release the clips and the sides will start to pull apart, but then you’ll meet some pretty strong resistance. I looked, and looked, and looked for something else that might be holding it - but after finding no other clips or screws that did anything, I held my breath and pulled harder (with the clips still released) and it came apart. I don’t think the tape really does anything… except make you hold your breath when taking it apart… Once apart, you have this:

From here on out, it’s EXACTLY like the tach installation, except doubled. The clear “domes” and the black rings just lift off. You GENTLY pry the needles off (another breath holding moment, as mine were stuck on there quite tightly), and the faces easily peel off. The new faces slip on snugly over the needle “hub”. With half the prying and peeling done, and one side completed, it looks like this:

With the second face and needle replaced, you have this:

And after reversing the disassembly of the shell, you have your completed gauges.

Now, while it was quite easy and fulfilling to put this back together the first time on the counter, in my experience, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to do this without slightly rotating one or both of the needles - which will make your “zero” point off when reinstalled in the car… So the most efficient approach to reassembly would be:

1) strip down to the gauge faces

2) install the new faces - NOT the needles or anything else

3) take it back to your car - with the needles - and plug in the wiring harness.

4) turn on the car to “reset” the gauges to their zero location

5) turn off the car

6) carefully slide on the needles, precisely pointing at zero

7) turn on the car - ensure that the needles still point to zero

turn off the car

9) unplug the harness (making sure NOT to bump the needles)

10) carefully reassemble the gauge shell, making sure NOT to bump the needles.

11) reinstall the gauge cluster and test once more. All should be well.

I LOVE the improvement in appearance and readability that this provides!

Now I just gotta do something about the Cockpit Chrono gauges - which look considerably less cool in comparison.