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Right, not my guide, but worthy of a post.
I don't know about other Type R owners out there but the gear stick gaiter in my CTR had begun to wear badly and started to look like this:
Which considering I have looked after the interior of my CTR was getting both annoying and embarrassing. So after a quick search on good old eBay I found a seller topgaiters (I think he has been mentioned on here before). Anyway I placed an order in the morning and within 24hrs a new gaiter arrived. Unfortunately it was the wrong one and was intended for the non Type R gear stick. So I contacted him and credit where credit is due he responded within a couple of hours and a new one was in the post to me which arrived the next day. So I went about fitting it and though I would document the process.
The whole process too me about 45 minutes to an hour to complete without rushing.
You should only need:
First release the plastic collar that holds the gaiter up from the gear knob
- Small Flat Blade Screwdriver
- 14mm open ended or adjustable spanner
- fine plastic trim removal tool or something similar
- Philips No 2 Screwdriver
- needle nose pliers
- new (fine) cable tie
- Upholstery stapler or super glue
Push the gaiter down out of the way and with a 14mm spanner loosen the locking ring under the gear knob by turning it clockwise slightly
You can then unscrew both the gear knob and the locking ring completely by turning them anti-clockwise
Now using either your finger nails or a soft plastic tool leaver up the top of the gear stick surround
and remove it completely
you can now undo the screws at the bottom of the housing you have just removed and pull the old gaiter out, after un-clipping the plastic surround and un-hooking the internal ties that fold the gaiter up. You will then need a pair of fine nose needle pliers to straighten and remove the staples that are holding the gaiter to the support ring. Next turn the gaiter inside out as there is a plastic collar which you will need. To remove this simply push the cable tie off and slide the two parts of the collar apart. You should now have all these bits
and here is the old gaiter next to the new one ready for fitting
First refit the plastic collar that you have just removed by turning the new gaiter inside out and reversing the procedure you did earlier. I then secured the whole thing with a fine cable tie at the original would not fit due the the thickness of the leather. When you fit the collar try to get the plastic clips that you released in the first stage aligned in a section away from any seams as this will make live easier later.
Now re-attach the support ring by re-stapling. I used a heavy duty DIY upholstery stapler and bent the ends over with pliers afterwards. I suspect that you could use super glue for this job though. Now clip everything back into the main housing and put in the 3 screws to hold everything together
Now slide the whole thing over the gear stick and push the main gear stick surround back in place. Push the gaiter and the plastic collar well down and screw on the locking collar all the way down. Now screw on the gear knob until it meets the locking collar but do not tighten it. Now unscrew it slightly until it is aligned correctly, now screw the locking collar up to lock it in place and tighten with a 14mm spanner. You can now slide the plastic collar that supports the gaiter up onto cover the locking ring until it clicks in place, arrange the gaiter as you want, sit back and admire your handy work
The gaiter not only looks a load better than the OEM one and that with wear it will not look anywhere near as shabby, but you can pull the whole thing out to clean it properly as there are no internal ties. The quality really is excellent and you can even ask for different colour stitching. If you do order on I would recommend that you specify Type R or non Type R (TT gaiter I believe it was referred to as) to avoid any delays. However the dealer did handle the issue very professionally.
If you are interested the non Type R gaiter looks like this and I believe that several other forum members have fitted these as well.
By the way I have no involvement with topgaiters what so ever I was just so impressed with the quality and service that I thought I would share the experience. Hope this is of interest and/or help.