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Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:07 am

I have a brown interior 87 pass van syncro. the color or lack of color on my stickshift causes me to ask the question. "were these things painted at one time or did they always have just a raw steel look to them?

Thanks

Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:17 am

Mine looks like bare metal with maybe a clear coating that's worn off about a third of the way down.

I salvaged one from the junk yard off a '91 and it looked about the same.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:35 am

The sticks are kind of a gunmetal grey paint.

If you take a look at one that has been well used, and whoever was shifting it , grabbed lower than the knob--you'll see polished steel where the paint has worn off.

From what I have seen they are painted that color.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:40 am

The one I pulled from a 90 had a black plastic sleeve that covered it from the knob to the boot. The original from my 82 was bare steel.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:44 am

The stick on my 89GL (grey interior) has a soft black rubbery-plastic coating.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:48 am

My '84 is bare metal (as is the lift mechansim for the pop-top).

Sounds like it may vary by year &/or trim level.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 11:25 am

My two '85's both had bare grey metal.

My '85 Wolfsburg Westy has black plastic sleeve; I also pulled a black sleeve from a wrecked '85 Wolsburg Westy a few years back.

Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:54 pm

Generally speaking the evolution of the shifter went like this:

1980-1983: 12mm shifter, bare metal.

1983.5-1984: 14mm shifter, bare metal

1984 Wolfsburg Edition: 14mm shifter painted black

1985-1991: 14mm shifter with plastic cover.

1986-1987 Syncro: 14mm shifter, bare metal. (not sure about 89-91)

That's not to say there weren't some exceptions to this, or that someone didn't remove the plastic cover on an 85-91, but this is generally how these came out of Hanover. Anyone want to talk about shift knobs? :)

David

Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:23 pm

I didn't like the paint worn stickshift in my syncro so I yanked the sheathing off of a GL and stuck it on. Now it blends into the interior much better, like it was supposed to be like that.

Quote: Anyone want to talk about shift knobs?
4 speed(early and later in brown and late in black), 5 speed(2 styles) and syncro in black?

Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:39 pm

syncrodoka wrote: I didn't like the paint worn stickshift in my syncro so I yanked the sheathing off of a GL and stuck it on. Now it blends into the interior much better, like it was supposed to be like that.

Quote: Anyone want to talk about shift knobs?
4 speed(early and later in brown and late in black), 5 speed(2 styles) and syncro in black?

I did the same thing on my 86 Syncro. I didn't like the look of the worn metal shift lever so I put a 2wd black cover over it. Much better.

Shift knobs, bingo! :wink:

David

Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:00 pm

I try to keep things "factory" or very stealth-like when upgrading. The shift lever was so corroded (powdery smelly grit) that after sandblasting it seemed to cry out for some protection. It received the same baked-on brown as the pop top lift, latch and table legs got.
Looks great (pic is in my Samba photos section if you wish) and easy to keep clean.
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We like easy.
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-Jeffery
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