I have an 1994 automatic 300zx 2+2. It's at 170k and still working great. I love everything about it. Yeah, sometime's I wish it was a manual, but since it's my daily commuter to and from work and school, so I'm glad I got it as an auto since I deal with a ton of traffic. I love everything about the car and always somehow makes me smile. The only thing I don't like is the appearance of the automatic shifter.
I was looking to do a little modification to make the shifter look the stock 300zx manual shifter by removing the plate and adding a boot and stock manual shift knob, similar to what this guy did to his rav4 auto: http://www.rav4world.com/forums/94-4-1- ... utton.html
I thought this was really cool and it make the car look cleaner as well as deter anyone from trying to steal it since they will think it's a manual.
I was also going to remove the overdrive button and rewire it into the side somewhere with a single dip switch, instead of trying to attach it to the shift knob like the guy did in his tutorial.
Now there's two things that causes an issue/risk:
1. Since there will be a shifter boot, the gear indicators will be covered
2. The 300zx auto does not have any gear indication in the cluster so you can't really tell what drive you're in.
All in all you won't really know what gear you're in. I mean, i don't see any problem since driving it all the time, I just know where to shift it.
I was thinking about maybe making little tick marks on the side to remind me just in case I forget or have seconds doubts about what gear it's in.
Now for the main question:
Is this legal since the gear indicators are covered?? Will I fail inspection at my local DMV? I live in New Jersey, USA and the car laws here are sort of strict.
I have a feeling it won't pass inspection since I can see how it is kind of a driving hazard since there's no gear indications. I also see how there can a bit of uncertainty in the eyes of inspectors in terms of functional consistency since it is a DIY modification and not a kit.
Am I better off not doing it? Or do I have a chance only if I get it inspected at a private place?
If knows anything about this or can point me in a direction, that would be great! Thanks
Note:
I'm 20 and a college student so transmission swaps are out of the question since I have no money or time. This is merely just a small idea i've been thinking of to make my car look better. I figured i'll be better off buying a manual 300zx TT later on in life since i'll have more money to spend and since i'll have a lot of knowledge from working on my N/A automatic.
Below are some images I googled up to show what i'm trying to do and how the automatic shifters look like:
Im trying to get this ^^^
Into this:
