Gear lever gaiter / boot

Minor tidy up and upgrade - the gear lever gaiter, or boot, and tunnel top area was very minimal - but also getting a little tatty. The hole in the tunnel top was originally round - but adjusted to ensure it would not knock the lever in 5th.

I found an MGB part for the surround, available in chrome or matt black, found by trawling eBay and google images. The centre hole is over the minimum 80mm inside radius required. The only gotcha was the side bolt positions are right over the tunnel chassis tubes, so are cut short to be flush on the underside and hot-glued in place. The other two hold everything in place with rivnuts.

The old gaiter was removed and used as a pattern for the new one. I went for a single piece and no drawstring to simplify it - knock on effect is its not possible to double stitch the front seam, so my seam is positioned towards the front of the car - out of sight.

The new gaiter made from an off-cut of the original tunnel/aux panel vinyl cover material, time will tell if it is robust enough for this purpose. I didn't modify the tunnel panel hole - the gaiter and surround just sits over it. Looks the part.

I'm also slowly replacing the on-show original BZP M8 button head bolts: tunnel top, dashboard etc, with stainless flanged button versions to clean up the look a little.