Yeah Gene didn't seem to enthusiastic about helping me out. I've dealt with Chris numerous times in the past with good results. I'll wait to see what shows up. They had to order it, so it will be another week or so before I see what I get.Gene? Talk to Chris and explain your woes. Never let me down.
I have 2 shelby take-off ones. What are they worth?
Well that's lame, but thanks for the info BC!Well after spending a tremendous amount of time and effort to resolve this problem.........it can't be resolved through Ford.
Ford made the change to the suede like material in the final production of the 2014 MY of these cars. Ford made this change to reduce consumer complaints of NVH being transmitted from the shifter to the interior cabin of the car. According to the information I received from Mike at Autonation, Ford discontinued the leather boot in 2013. It hasn't been available as a service replacement item in smooth leather since the change to suede. So the only shifter boot available is a suede or alcantra material for these cars
Fatty Freddy Cook "THE CROOK" at Evolution Performance in Aston PA............Thank You again for stealing parts from my car while it was in your shop
Yes it is lame. I can't imagine how Ford came up with this idea or how they thought it would look symmetrical with the rest of the interior when compared to the leather parking brake boot right beside the shifter boot. Mike read me the complete email response from Ford's engineering department as to why the change was made to the suede/alcantra material.Well that's lame, but thanks for the info BC!
I'll have to contact them. The GT500 has a specific boot, due to the shifter and knob that are different when compared to a regular Mustang.Maybe one of these in Napa leather would match? Probably much higher quality than the OEM part anyway.
http://www.redlinegoods.com/Mustang10shiftboot.php
I used your picture of the 2 boots side by side. This along with the engineering numbers from the one I have and a few other pictures allowed Mike at Autonation to get a quick answer from Ford's engineering department for the differences, the date of the change and why they made the changes.I thought I had taken this as far as it could go, clearly I was wrong. Good work on getting some answers BC!
The substitution is interesting, but it's really annoying that Ford would do that, and even more annoying that that many people complained about NVH.
But thanks for pursuing it BC!
I used your picture of the 2 boots side by side. This along with the engineering numbers from the one I have and a few other pictures allowed Mike at Autonation to get a quick answer from Ford's engineering department for the differences, the date of the change and why they made the changes.
In my opinion the change sucks canal water
Mike S. at Autonation is who went the extra mile and emailed Ford asking for the explanation of why the boot material was incorrect. Ford responded with the fact that all service replacement boots will be of suede like material and this change occurred in 2013. He told me the month, but I really wasn't listening to that part of him reading the email response from Ford. As I was already too pissed by the fact the leather was no longer available. I don't know with lead times for the actual production line if the alcantara boot made it into a production model or not. Or if it was changed at the same time the production stopped and the new material was only used a service replacement item afterwards.I told Autonation all about the problem, but they didn't seem to have any interest in pursuing it any further. Maybe I had the wrong guy.
As far as the boot change, I now have both the 10/12 alcantera boot and the "original" smooth 13/14 boots in my possession. The 10/12 boot, IMO, is much thinner than the 13/14 boot. It sure doesn't seem possible to me that the thinner 10/12 boot would eliminate more NVH. If anything it would add some.
Also, my car was built in Oct of '13. If memory serves me, they completed the last 13/14 GT500 in Dec of '13. So this production change must have been a very, very late change. Doesn't even seem worth it for just the last few GT500s. Very odd.