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Redlinegoods leather shift boot review install and advice
Probably like many people with a manual transmission Cobalt SS Supercharged, the cloth/vinyl shift boot on my car was simply falling apart, with the vinyl delaminating from the underlying cloth.
I found Redlinegoods.com which sells custom leather shift boots, and they seemed perfect for buying a replacement. With a coupon, it cost around $45 for one without too many frills. You can heavily customize what you want by color and thread, so your price may vary if you get "extras".
I picked Black leather with their light gray stitching, as the light grey seemed a better match for the silver interior trim of my Cobalt SS, and it is...I would recommend the light grey over silver thread if you have similar internal trim.
Since this is a custom item, it takes time to create and ship, but this is disclosed up front, and I was in no hurry. It took approximately 2.5 weeks for it to arrive.
Quality is excellent, it looks really sharp. My choice in stitching (the light grey thread instead of black thread on black leather like the original) was a good choice. Forgive the unsightly dirt around the chrome ring...(I was meaning to vacuum that....)
Shifter boot for a Cobalt SS Supercharged from redlinegoods.com with light grey thread on black leather
The installation instructions on redlinegoods.com are complete, but there is a simpler way of installing the shift boot if that is all you are doing...if you also bought a handbrake leather cover from them, I would follow their instructions. Take pictures of the orientation of parts for your own reassembly procedure so you will see the parts orientation...some of the pics on redlinegoods.com's site are pretty small. Or, film yourself at key moments of disassembly for later review, unless you are already pretty experienced on disassembly/assembly stuff like this.
The simpler method of installation that avoids removing the entire center console and power disconnect for JUST the shifter boot is to first carefully pop out the front cup holder, working from the front part to the back...so you are angling it up from the front, and then guiding it out forward. Then you can reach underneath the hole where the cup holder was to gently pop up the shifter boot retaining ring from front to back.
You still have to follow their instructions regarding the shifter grip removal. Be careful regarding the tabs on the cover that exposes the star screw you have to remove to lift up the shifter. They are very fragile...I did break one tab.
Seems that GM decided to use a million heavy duty staples to secure the shifter trim retaining ring to the old shifter boot...and they are stapled VERY well. I used a utility knife to get underneath each staple side, and pry them straight before gently and carefully removing the old staples using a screwdriver and pliers where appropriate. Do not break your retaining ring, work slowly. This will take some time to do right.
The new boot required slight trimming to fit over the tabs of the retaining ring. Note the position of the tabs on the old boot before you chuck it, and that there is a front orientation with a wider separation of the tabs...make sure your placement is correct.
I could not punch through the plastic of the retaining ring with a regular stapler, so I used a heavy duty staple gun, and then manually bent the staple tabs that punched through the plastic with a screwdriver and pliers. DO NOT put a staple through your fingers if you use this method (I didn't, but there was a close call). I would not use glue for this step, though they said you could on redlinegoods.com's site...(I think glue would be a mistake, get a good staple gun instead).
Reassembly was pretty easy if you kept all your parts nice and neat, and remember the removal procedure...you are effectively doing the reverse.
Full disclosure, redlinegoods.com sometimes offers a $5 "giveback" for a positive posting, which this is. However, I think they deserve the positive posting by providing a quality item at a good price, not for the $5.
Thank you.I have been looking for a good replacement for the boot on my cobalt.That is the best looking one I have seen so far.It will be nice not to have to vacuum the console every couple of days
because the boot is falling apart.
I browse threads with new posts. Open them only to find its old and been bumped for some completely useless post that adds nothing of value to the thread.
I just installed this yesterday and everything you said is true. But I did manage to staple through the retaining ring with a $10 staple gun from home depot. The safe way to staple it is brace the frame against something (something you dont care to put small holes in. and push the staples through the plastic. I used the corner of my work bench.
09-12-2016, 10:10 AM
