New Marauder wannabe member from AZ

[Motorhead350]

Shifter!!!!!

[Black_Sunshine]

hold up i remember this car. its been featured on the front page of crownvic.net hasnt it?

It's made POTM once over there. After it ran for over 12 months straight. Finally ran out of good competition without chrome. lol

[71cyclone]

Your car is AWESOME !!

I like it / I am a short guy too 5:08 so this will work..

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

Thanks for replying about the seats. Nice job.

[Bradley G]

Sweet ride Bra'

[PuntyMario]

It's made POTM once over there. After it ran for over 12 months straight. Finally ran out of good competition without chrome. lol

thats awesome! i find it funny that despite panthers being common fodder theres always those ones that you can be like "oh hey its (insert name here)'s panther." maybe i can be that cool one day

[UncleLar]

I'm up in Prescott.I may have the only DTR in AZ. I was down in Phoenix,Mesa,Glendale and Surprise 2 Sundays ago checking out rescue dogs.

[blkZooM]

can you tell us about the shifter you're using and the center console

[Black_Sunshine]

Sure!

The console is from a Crown Vic LX Sport. So it's the same console that is in the Marauder. Only the front cubby (to the best of my knowledge) is different. I didn't really care for the down low gauges anyway. I like the little storage spot more.

The shifter is a B&M Quicksilver. I took the regular chrome knob off before I ever installed it. I knew that a white know would look better with my interior. Plus I need a plastic knob in Phoenix.

I first thought I could use a B&M Hammer shifter for a 99-04 Mustang. So I ordered one from Amazon. They are designed to work with the 4r70w. They have a massive flange that is made to interface with the Mustang floor hump and console. It seemed like a waste to massive modify a brand new shifter when B&M makes a ton of universal shifters. So I ate the cost of shipping and shipped the Mustang Hammer back.

Then I ordered the universal Hammer. I got the 4r70w adapter kit for it too. The adapter kit is a little bit of an upcharge but whatever. The adapter kit requires that you take the trans pan off and change the selector shaft. It also comes with the 4r70w specific linkage pieces.

Since the factory Panther floor shifter is actually a massive unit I had plenty of space to work with for my custom shifter. I quickly realized that I would need to mount the shifter as high as possible under the factory shifter bezel. The universal style Hammer is a squat little unit. I didn't like how short it looked on the console. Plus it just didn't seem to match the interior that well.

So, again, I ate the cost of shipping and sent the Hammer back. Finally I ordered the Quicksilver model. By the time it got here I was ready to work on it. I pulled it out and stuck it in the console within five minutes of it arriving. lol

I could tell right away, that if I could figure the bezel out, it was going to be great!

I needed a way to block it up. It needed to be adjustable so I could get it to sit with just the right height front and rear. I had a thick piece of scrap aluminum. So I went and got some 4" long bolts the correct diameter for the B&M shifter. I drilled the bottom one to vent tunnel where the factory shifter was. I drilled the top one so the B&M could bolt to it. Then I clamped them together and drilled them in four places avoiding those places.

At that point I could put the 4" carriage bolts in the bottom plate. I used 1.5" fender washers to add more strength. Then bolted the bottom plate in the console. Threaded some nuts and more huge washers down the bolts and rested the top plate with the shifter bolted to it. I could tune the top plate with nuts. I got it so that the shifter is about 1mm below the cupholder bezel piece. I put lock washers on all of those nuts too.

I found a guy that is an expert with plastic fabrication. He made the Quicksilver bezel fit, artfully, on the Vic cupholder bezel thing. We spent about six hours working on it together. I mainly told him what I wanted. lol

Basically he ran the plastic chrome shifter bezel down on a large sander until the critical pieces properly indexed with the shifter. The he glued it on and filled it. He sent me home with it and I did all the final sanding and shot it with some black paint. I put a Vic gauge surround in the dash to tie in with the shifter. Kept my brown vents though.

The shifter cable is easier to setup than converting a factory column car to a factory floor shifter. That's because I mostly left the original cable alone. Factory cables approach from the front. The B&M cable approaches from the rear. The cable length seems to be designed for this. The length was perfect for my setup.

I just broke out my drill and said, "This is where the hole should be." Then I shoved the cable in. I got under the car and to my amazement it was perfect. I used some conduit clamps I already had with some self tappers to keep the cable away from the exhaust and driveshaft. I know some of you are appalled by that hardware but AZ. lol

The project was a lot of fun. It came out better than I hoped it would. I enjoy it every time I use the car. I like the action of the Quicksilver much more than other ratchets. My wife would let me get RATCHET on my plate. It was available.

Here's a slideshow showing most of the install.

http://s330.photobucket.com/user/Bla...w/Cars/Console

Here's a vid showing the action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phjlaD7LKWs

[blkZooM]

Thanks a lot for the reply

[Bad_S55]

This really is an incredible machine! Glad somebody else has put a ratchet shifter in an '05; now I have something to base my own build off! So as far as converting from column to console goes, did you end up routing the factory cable to the front of the shifter? And what did you do for an overdrive on/off switch?