I've been thinking lately of either customizing, fabricating, or completely deleting the shifter surround/ console. I think most agree that it is pretty useless piece of plastic as it is, aside from covering some of the ugliness that is beneath.
My first choice is simply to remove the surround, do new carpet, and make the tranny hump look more like an FJ62 -- picture included for reference. A little back story: We have been seriously contemplating selling our 80 and getting another 62 mostly due to my wife's complaint of the lack of space in the front, she keeps a lot of stuff by her feet, and I think that the few extra inches off effective hump height is adding to her claustrophobia. While I miss my 62, I'd be happy to keep the 80 if we can make it work.
I thought it might be a relatively easy task to use a 62 gear selector in place of the 80 style, and do some rewiring under the assumption that the selector was primarily a single pole, multi-throw switch. Then, I found the photo below showing the ugliness beneath the surround. The circled pivot arm and mechanical linkage makes it seem like the 62 selector would be a no-go. I don't understand why it is designed this way. (Maybe it has to do with mechanically activating the Park pawl and is located where it is for the RHD design.) More relevant for my purpose, is there a way to use a 62 selector for the A442 anyway, or some other solution I'm not thinking of?
My first choice is simply to remove the surround, do new carpet, and make the tranny hump look more like an FJ62 -- picture included for reference. A little back story: We have been seriously contemplating selling our 80 and getting another 62 mostly due to my wife's complaint of the lack of space in the front, she keeps a lot of stuff by her feet, and I think that the few extra inches off effective hump height is adding to her claustrophobia. While I miss my 62, I'd be happy to keep the 80 if we can make it work.
I thought it might be a relatively easy task to use a 62 gear selector in place of the 80 style, and do some rewiring under the assumption that the selector was primarily a single pole, multi-throw switch. Then, I found the photo below showing the ugliness beneath the surround. The circled pivot arm and mechanical linkage makes it seem like the 62 selector would be a no-go. I don't understand why it is designed this way. (Maybe it has to do with mechanically activating the Park pawl and is located where it is for the RHD design.) More relevant for my purpose, is there a way to use a 62 selector for the A442 anyway, or some other solution I'm not thinking of?
