With my SRT-6 having only 28,000 miles on it, the thing looks spankin' new. Even the shifter ball looks like it was made yesterday. There are no scratches or nicks to the silvery finish and I thought to myself of several simple ways to keep it that way. I've seen various fabric/leather/vinyl covers that would not only look lousy with a poor fit or bad styling, but on top of that, were costly at $20 and up.

I just wanted something simple that wouldn't change the original look, size, or shape of the original shifter but would protect the finish from scratches or wear - considering that part is commonly grabbed and sticks out like a sore thumb to get gouged.

Walking through a dollar-store, I first saw some baby socks; hmm, good size, would fit tight, and they even had some that were gray or similar to Aero Blue. But, being cotton/cloth, they would likely slip around (or off) too easily.

Then I came across an aisle with balloons; all kinds of colors, any that you could imagine. Sliver, blue, red, black, brown, yellow, bright colors, dark colors, etc. They were all just smaller than the shifter ball, so I figured if I could stretch one over the ball, it would work really well, like a thick coat of rubberized paint. So I bought a pack of a multi-color selection that had some silver balloons.

For a dollar, there's no investment that if it was really crappy or cheesy, I would regret it. So I took the balloon, put it in the sun for a few minutes to warm it up. I put a dab of vegetable oil on a napkin and put a light coat on the top of the shifter ball (I didn't want to use any kind or petroleum distillate based oils as I did not want that under the balloon long-term to work at eating the finish like a solvent, if possible).

With the balloon warm, and a couple of pre-stretches like loosening up a rubber band to be more flexible, I opened up the bottom enough to slip the bulbous part fully over the shifter **** and then down around to the base.

While I agree this little tip is not worthy of a high-ranking tech-tip article, I felt the simple, low-cost, tight, form-fitting, ingenious idea of it was worth sharing. It's so stupid it's brilliant. And from a distance, you may not even realize it's not the original shifter's surface coat. See pics below.

It's tight, perfectly form-fitting, doesn't slip around, and you can select from thousands of colors to match your interior or exterior. Simple black looked good too, but I went with the silver to match the original as best as possible.

If I wanted to take it step further, a thin wrap of black tape at the bottom to cinch up the opening would give it a cleaner appearance, but it's more noticeable in these photos than when sitting in the car or seeing it in person. I left it as shown in the photos to give an idea of the way it went on.

Just looking at the photos will give you an idea of the ridiculous simplicity but overall effectiveness.

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A ballon is kind of plain, why not visit your local pharmacist and look for similar items. Bigger variety for sure, go for the shock value.

 

Weather balloon ?

 

Something ribbed for enhanced sensation?

 

Ha Ha - When I was posting this, I was wondering just how long it would take for someone to make the inference. In fact, as I was typing how to 'install' it, I originally wrote something like "lube the top, then place it over the head and gently pull it tightly around the base of the shaft".

No... not going there; decided to change that detail.

Ironic though, that I just noticed the board censors the word "kno.b" with "****". Hilarious. Maybe I should have used the word ball.

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Perhaps you should practice on a banana first...

 

You boys are so naughty.

 

Guess ,boys will be boys, that's the first place my mind went...