After a day spent looking for a gear knob to suit my matched mahogany wheel and handbrake. I came out with a deep heart and a underlying feeling that what I was looking for was going to be outside my budget. After some thought I decided I didn’t want to compromise at the and spend more money on a replica.
In a moment of genius I remembered I live in 2020 and have the ability to produce any gear knob I wanted. I did some reasearch (not enough) and found the dimensions of the Nardi knob I so desired on my Icon and fired up CAD and began work replicating the teardrop shifter. After a cuppa and some time spent choosing how I wanted the desired finish to come out I had this in front of me!
Limited in choice of colours I settled on this honey yellow; a brave move I thought to myself, so I loaded the file onto the printer and saw the print would take 7 hours and use €2.50 in material. Happy days I’m saving myself a fortune. The following morning I arose to this.
I chucked it in my drill and began the process of wet sanding from 600 grit up to 4000 and finally hitting it with some polish. Amazed at the results I said this is too easy.
After some woes fitting it I forgot to check if it was threaded the entire way… It wasn’t. I resorted to getting the drill and finding the biggest bit in the house and gingerly drilling down 25mm to get the perfect fit. In the end it worked and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
