Custom Billet Shift Knob for Toyota Tacoma (2-1/4" diameter). ***Utilizes factory boot.***

Hahaha! Thanks!

This is all fun for me.

I still owe you good pics of that killer collar.

 

Rick, good info and your work is in high demand.

I've been in sales for 25 years and sold everything under the sun and currently sell food to grocery stores. Not glamorous, but it's big business because people always eat.

Whichever the case, my advice to you is produce your most popular shift knobs, say 3-5 of each and have those for sale. You're going to drive yourself nuts taking all these special orders from everyone, plus a ton of time. But, I know it's an art form for you.

All it takes is one special order customer to complain and tank your business. Honestly, I wouldn't be taking special orders for $150, that's for $5000 jobs, but that's just me.

Again, your work and product is in high demand and if you want to scale up your business, you have to simplify and focus on your best sellers. Just my honest opinion.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Can you do metal cores in delrin? To add weight

 

Hey you, get out of my head! Haha, I swear this could not be more accurate as to what I have been thinking.

There was one "unhappy" customer, a single one that most following this thread know of ... and he literally tried to kill the whole deal here. Luckily he failed miserably.

But yes, I do know that producing aluminum/delrin ring knobs exclusively would make my life incredibly easier. If there was more free time I would always have stock ready to go for these configurations. It would be boring to me to only produce those, but the money would flow in a lot faster just by doing that alone and marketing it a few other places. Perhaps if I were farther along into this venture, and there was a lot more to lose it would push me to do something like that. Maybe at that time I would have somebody to handle the grunt work while I took on other projects.

My argument against charging proper custom fees for now (a poor one) is that a shift knob can only cost so much, and most just wouldn't be able to afford me if I actually charged for every hour. I am literally exploiting myself to keep this going, heh.

This is still a living/breathing project ... but changes are much fewer and farther between than they have been in the past. I may be nearing a time when things will be dialed back, because as you know ... it is VERY difficult to sustain the level of communication that something like this takes.

It is completely innocent, but there are a lot of "tire-kickers" out there that have wasted my time to no fault of their own. I go into every transaction expecting and trying to mitigate this, but it inevitably happens and stings every time. Every day I become closer to what is typical out there, and it truly bothers me. Sad as it is, businesses operate similarly for very good reason, and what I am doing here most certainly is not sustainable.

One thing I will not do is take all of the money that is offered me ... then take 7+ months to produce like some other companies we know of. I know it's a huge pain in the ass to wait for me, but it isn't in me to do that to people.

Yep, that's literally the most popular MT hybrid .. delrin with SS core runs about 300g.

 

Roger that. How's that compare to stock weight?

 

Stock 3rd Gen is about 180g. I have the rubber version though, not sure about the leather TRD knob ... probably very close to mine I would imagine. 2nd Gen, no idea.

 

I will get you a weight this afternoon. I believe it is more than that. It is weighted.

With the pure delrin knob being 160g, the stock leather knob felt like maybe 300g?

 

Mine is rubber like, not leather

 

Wow. I was off by just a bit. Hahaha!

 

As a reference.

 

That thing is getting shinier every time you take a picture.

 

Polar vortex slowed the lathe work a bit, but there was still progress.

Be sure to get your balance paid if you have not done so already. I aim to finish 1 through 5 over the next few days.

 

I shall Paypal you in the AM!

 

Yessir! It's getting slicker and slicker.

I like it!

 

FWIW I am super excited about my shift knob. I appreciate the work you put into it and that makes it special to me.

 

I am definitely down for one of these automatic shift knobs when your books are free again and could even pay in advance if that helps! Your work is excellent and I would be proud to sport one of these shifter knobs in my truck!

 

I’m all paid, not sure if I’m on that list though. I’ll try putting it in google translator

 

I wasn't going to put you on the main list as it's easy for me to remember a single knob. Yours is to the right in front of the spacers though, if you haven't already figured that out.

If it were on the list, it would look like this ...

3V2/SMT/2.0-Al/Xx/De+6PKT/KNRL/XXXX/R*

 

Thanks Rick

 

All set. Thank you!