Gear knob restoration

Not sure this is the right area in the forum, but here goes…

The wooden gearshift knob on my Plus 2 is looking a bit sorry for itself. About half of the lacquer has worn off the top and the wood is ingrained with dirt and sweat.

It’s quite sticky (yuck!) so I decided to try and fix it. I’ve been following a restoration series on YooooTooob by a guy called Serge Sleurs who has an Europa and in this video he shows how he restored his gear knob.

youtube.com/watch?v=A1ykpfB-tks

I thoght I’d give it a try. So far I sanded all the old varnish off and cleaned the knob with a kitchen cleaner that contains bleach (about three times, letting the wood dry off between successive scrubbings). Finally, finishing the prep work with fine grade wet & dry (used dry of course) to leave a nice smooth finish which feels very tactile. As Serge found, the wood goes a bit grey so I will do what he has done and use a water based light oak wood stain to bring out the grain.

The problem is the little metal badge on the top. It looks to be some sort of plated metal, possibly copper. I cannot see a way to remove it without damaging the surrounding wood (it’s a very close fit as you can see).

I thought I could attempt to fill the recessed parts of the decal with black paint using a syringe as Serge does with the ELAN badges in another video, but this would not look original. Problem is, it’s copper coloured now so not original anyway.

Any other options?

I think the copper looks great!
light stain on the wood and then a finishing oil or Danish oil ( luberon) applied with a soaked rag, thin coat applied 4 or 5 times.

If it were solid copper it would represent a remarkable extravagance: it is more likely a coating upon the underlying cast base metal to better receive the chrome finish.
Gordon

that is what I did to mine, the original one having been “lost” by a usual suspect in charge of the overhaul: I don’t think the copper color would show all that much when the black is applied, but if most of the silver plating has gone and you want a silver lettering you should be able to take the badge out for chroming or other metal deposition (possibly even painting but not as durable, and when you’ve gone to that trouble…) then apply black paint in the recess. It took me a fine sewing needle to pull the paint into the small corners, I’m not sure I could have done it with a needle (then depending on the paint used one should be able to clean up small details before it fully cures).

I used a black permanent marker and a silver metallic marker to get the gate pattern insert looking more original. then lacquered over the whole thing.

Out of interest why is there an overdrive position marked on the badge? Was this for the 5 speed box option?

Yes, that’s correct. This gear knob was first used on the +2S 130/5, subsequently on other models that used the 5 speed box.

Really easy to remove the badge, Turn it over (badge down) then drill a 2mm hole in the bottom of the threaded brass insert with a old blunt drill bit (so the hole is under the badge) and as soon as you feel it go through the soft wood stop, usually the drill bit just pushes the badge off at that point anyway but if it doesn’t you just use a small screw driver etc to push it via the small hole and it will come off surprisingly easily thanks to the 40+ year old glue holding it on. The metal plate on the top is recessed at least 2mm into the wood (it’s like a coin when you remove it).

It’s worth taking it off if only to use fresh glue to hold it down.

Alan, yours looks better than mine - I presume that picture is before lacquering? The wood seems very light. Mine is quite dark (when wet, so likely to be similar when sprayed with clear coat) but that is OK as my new dashboard is likewise very dark. The old dash is much lighter but I imagine the ageing effects of the sun had a lot to do with it.

So was the gate shift decoration having a black background to begin with?

@Grizzly - I thought about drilling it but wasn’t sure how easily it’d come out. I’m not sure I could be bothered with getting it plated again… Alan’s looks OK to me. There’s another alternative and that is to leave the lettering as copper (I agree it is a plating artefact), clean it up and drag paint into all the nooks and crannies, then clear coat the lot.

You could send the emblem to Fattorini in Birmingham to replace and finish but would probably be cost prohibitive. I found the wood really hard, I was screwing a screw into mine and it was so tough I was putting a lot of effort in then slipped and gouged my hand. 2 weeks of antibiotics and still got the scar :blush:

Before putting any stain on that I?d give it a good wipe over with something like methylated spirit as the white is almost certainly ingrained dust.

Yes, good idea - I have washed it with water so we will see if the white goes away once it dries.

When i did mine the badge was quite worn, the brass had started coming through round the edge so painted it all black then flatted the rest of the chrome off the letters with 2000’s (so it was all brass).

I’m glad it worked (I’m considering doing this as well).

Using a screw risks cracking the gear knob (ask how i know that :frowning: ) drilling it is really straight forward as long as you get it as close to the center as poss. I’ve taken the badge out of mine a couple of times even after supergluing it in place as my new dash was a different colour which drove me crazy. But be warned depending on how well it’s stuck some just fall off and others flirt across the room.

When i did mine i spent ages flatting it the first time, second time i stuck the threaded bar in a drill and spun it wile sanding (took about a minute to fully sand it) just don’t go mad.

Also first time i used 2k car clear and to be honest it chipped really easy (especially if you wear rings), i then went to a brush on Rustins 2 part Urethane (recommended by the guy we use for re-veneering) and although the finish looks a bit plastic it’s really tough.

A little trick for bringing out the grain is to quickly pour some boiling water over it, let it dry, which will be pretty quick. This ‘fluffs up’ the grain and it will feel slightly rough again. then give it another sand, i use 320 then water and sand again until it stays smooth after the boiling water. I go down to 500 grit with this process.
Made lots of canoe paddles with this process with an excellent finish. Also did my gearknob and steerin wheel (motolita) and used boiled linseed oil applied in maybe 5 coats with fine wire wool which works it in, wipe off the excess after applying otherwise it goes sticky.
My gearknob is very dark, so not much graining is visible, but it feels lovely, better than varnish or laquer in my opinion, very tactile.

It looks like this now:

The colour is coming back as the meths dries, and it has got a shine (nothing to do with polish). I might try that boiling water trick as it could dislodge some of the fine sanding dust from the grains. I guess those little white dots are the ends of the grains (which should disappear when it is stained).

I would not stain, but would use BLO or, preferably, pure tung oil to bring out the color and make the grain pop. Not sure what your standing process has been, but to get to your point I would have started with 120 or 240 and progressed grit by grit through at least 600, probably 1000. At each grit I would have started across the grain then finished with the grain before progressing to the next. This would leave a uniform, visible scratch free surface, as yours appears to be in the photo.

I prefer pure tung oil (be careful, things labeled tung oil in the hardware store are often not tung oil but more like Danish oil, a mixture of linseed and varnishes) because it does naturally harden (linseed oil doesn’t on its own) and is a bit less yellowing. Like linseed oil, it is a penetrating oil, and it does take time to cure fully. Tung oil likes to be rubbed in, warmth from friction a benefit, so my application would be to wetsand with tung oil starting at the highest grit used dry sanding and progressing through a couple more grits. Allow the knob to drip and start to flash dry after each grit (probably 30 minutes or so), then wipe off the excess and allow to dry for 24 hours before next coat and grit. The final (3rd or 4th) “coat” can be wiped in with a lint free cloth, with the same drying process. Pure tung oil will be dry to the touch within hours, ready for next oiling in 12-24 hours, and fully cured between 15 and 30 days depending on temp and humidity. Naturally has a beautiful low sheen that is water resistant and can be renewed in the future with another coat (I use it for duck calls that get a lot of exposure), but once fully cured could be topped with a high gloss finish if that is your preference.

So far I have resisted the temptation to oil the knob because I am worried that sweat and dirt would get pressed into it in use; this is why I am thinking of doing what Serge did in his video (spray with clear coat after staining) . He’s achieved an impressive, super shiny finish that I reckon will go well with my impressive, super shiny dashboard (once it’s fitted, but that is another story). But as he is not using it yet, we do not know how durable it is in daily use.

About sanding - I started with 200 grade and spun the knob in a slow drill. there are scratches but they’re out of sight at the bottom of the ball. I then progressed to a much finder wet&dry (not sure the grade but it is very fine) and this seems to have done the trick. In the picture the finish looks very grey but in practice it is much more natural.

I’m a bit wary of sanding it too much as I do not want to damage the shift gate indicator on the top. It has nice shiny copper letters at the moment, if I strike through that layer with too much sanding it’ll be ruined.

I used oxalic acid, would bleach, to get the color consistent in terms of the griminess and all and with this I think you don?t risk getting the white powder in the grain and I don?t know if you could reverse a little and go back to that at this point but after that then it was a matter of just coming forward with the various sandpaper grains and the final finish and no staining involved yet still getting the final grain and color to it Gordon Sauer

John,

I had a similar experience to Grizzly, I drilled through from the gear stick side, and full of trepidation, pushed the badge out and was amazed how easily the badge came out. I used Vaughtons (Birmingham) to refinish the badge, I also used a local wood turner to make new knob. In the end I chose to use the old knob, as it seemed more appropriate with the age of the car.

Richard Hawkins