Tranny swapped, car colllected, driven.

 

The Perdana was collected on the same day I wrote my previous post.



             "The Perdana is ready, he said.
                             It will be fun, they said."



I got into the car and went for a test drive. Indeed the ratios were long and the car had enough torque to pull it thorugh! To my surprise the wheel was easy to spin, even in mid-gear on first. Gun the throttle down and you start spinning. The ratios are long but not too far apart from gear to gear.

The gear lever was positioned in a rather satisfying position, not needing me to stretch my hand far out to reach it. YES, I am short.

However, I was told by Sara that I had to find my own "Pagoda" or gear lever cover. I will get down to that later. An uberly ugly gearknob was also provided.

During the drive, I noticed that the engine was rocking a little only to find out that the torque killed the front mounting and halfcut tranny mount. The front mounting was replaced the very next day. The throw from gear to gear was rather long, embedding the idea of either making or looking for a short shifter deep in my mind. One of the bushes for the gear lever cable was also not present, therefore causing a slight left-right freeplay when in gear.

 
The next day, I shot down to EA Autoworks @ Bukit Jalil after speaking to Drex over the phone. He was unable to confirm if any of his shifters would fit the car.


Test Fit 
Picture on the left shows Zack working on the car, dismantling the current gear lever to see if it would match one in EA.

  Apparently a Wira one fitted perfectly after some measurements were taken.

Drex also went through the trouble to fabricate a bush for the gear lever cable end. Many thanks to these two who did OT to finish up the car as I went there slightly late.

Results, 1
A chromed finish spanking brand new short shifter. Position was slightly lower. Shift was crispier and way, way way way way way shorter. Note the ugly gearknob lol. The bush was already fitted along the process of getting the lever swapped.
 I also took one of their aftermarket gear knob. Well... white, because it was the only one available and I desperately needed one. The old one comes off during shifting.







I drove around for a day without the gear lever cover and decided... instead of spending 200bucks on a so-called ugly looking pagoda that looks like an 8V Saga gear lever cover, I opted for one to be fabricated. Paid a visit to Finaldeco located in USJ1 to see what are the options available.

 Got there about 10.45am this morning. We discussed on choices and available color and types of "skins" that could be used.
-PVC @ RM70
-Cow Skin aka Leather @ RM170

I asked them if they have the same leather color as my center console, grey. They told me that that particular color of theirs dried up and recommended black. I told them I wanted the stitches to be the same color as the seats. He said it can be done.
 
 Thought that I'd have to give them the measurements for one to be fabricated and wanted to collect it on Monday morning on my off day. To my surprise he said he only needed and hour and dropped me off at a nearby food court for brunch before getting down to work. He took slightly less than hour to produce THIS :

Results, 2
Nice Nappa leather with stitch of the same color as the seats. The bottom of the leather was glued to the base.

 And this is how it looks like after fitting. I guess, the gearknob in white doesn't look too bad. It sort of highlights with major contrast that the car is a MANUAL. Most Perdanas are auto. Sleek simple looking design.


















Keeping the knob clean is gonna be a challenge though -.-!