Cold Rainy Day + Grenade = New Shift Knob!

So I have the day off, and of course it is cold and raining! I think to myself...You could clean the house and make your wife very happy! That thought lasted about .08 seconds! I looked at my truck and though I'd rather work on it.
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So there I am kicking around in the garage trying to find a project to avoid cleaning the house and I find this old surplus training grenade.
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I looked at the hole in the bottom, and thought this would fit over the shifter in the truck, and make a cool shift knob. I only paid $10 for the thing at a local Army / Navy store, so I thought if I screwed it up it would be no big deal. I drove to the hardware store and carried in my factory shift knob. I learned I would need a M8 .125 (course) thread nut, and a length of steel pipe. I didn’t want to carry in the grenade and have my coworkers (the police) called on me so they were nice enough to let me carry a couple of pieces of pipe outside and check the diameter. I wound up taking a piece of ¼” x 4” steel pipe and one nylon lock nut. I got the lock nut so I would have some play with the tightness of the nut, and I could center the grenade with the spoon to the rear.


I wanted the grenade to sit as far down, and cover as much as the shift rod as possible, so I removed the Fusee and used a cut off wheel to trim it down to the threads.
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I then welded the M8 nut to the end of the pipe, and learned (Nylon Lock nut + Welder = Fire!) and as Mel Brooks taught us… “Errr, Fire Bad!” I wound up not needing the lock nut, but it required an extra step which I’ll show you later.
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After I welded the nut to the pipe, I had to take an angle grinder and grind the corners off of the nut so It would fit into the hole in the bottom of the grenade. I wound up having to take a little material off of the sides of the pipe as well for it to fit.
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The inside diameter of the pipe was a little tight to fit over the lower part of the shifter rod, so I placed a 3/8” drill bit in my drill press and opened up the pipe. I placed the pipe into the grenade and cut it off flush with the bottom. I then had to take the pipe out to the truck and thread it down as tight as I could with my bare hands, then marked the 6 O’clock position with a marker so I could line this up with the spoon on the grenade.

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I used a grinding stone from my Dremmel kit and ground a 45 degree radius around the inside of the hole in the bottom of the grenade for the weld to flow into. I marked the 6 O’clock position on the grenade, and once the pipe was inserted and the marks lined up, I welded away.

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I ground the weld down flush then hit it with a little Krylon ultra flat Olive Drab paint.

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Once it dried I took it out and installed it. I think it looks pretty cool!

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Let me know what you guys think!

 

pretty sweet.... looks cool

 

Great job! looks great! Not my style.... but still impressed.

 

Now tie a string from the pin to the door so a potential thief will think it'll blow when he opens the door.

 

Great Idea!!!!!! I just hope someone doesn't call 911 and the local bomb squad decides to blow it in place!

 

Thats pretty cool man.

 

I love it. I got a devil shift knob and love the look over the stock one. Great job man!

 

It looks so kick ass, but I can see some trigger happy cop blowing your brains out....j/k...maybe not.

 

Looks pretty good nice creative thinking! reminds me of a weighted shift knob found on manual trans. Last picture looks like your foot is at WOT!