DIY: shift boot replace

The OEM rubber boot looks cheap and I don't like it. especially when I wanted to get some fancier looking knob, i found that if i still use the OEM boot, it will look awkward. So I order a universal boot, and replaced it.
here's how my knob and boot looks like before and after change
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-1918.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-2050.jpg

The first steps are removing the panel, you can follow the video here:http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...5054475990545#

After getting things off (the silver plate and the black ring clipped on it, hold the boot), we need to remove the boot from the ring. unclip the three clips, so that the black ring and silver ring are separated. then you can easily remove the rubber off the rings. (sorry for not remember taking pictures for these steps, but they are pretty easy)

The tricky part is to mount the universal boot to the rings. here's how the boot looks like.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-1918.jpg

you need to put it through the silver ring. (outter one), just look like the picture below. and then we need to cut some holes on the boot, so that the clippers can be clipped. I marked the places where the clippers would go through , that's where you need to use the knife the carve holes. ( I already mounted the clippers on when i took the picture, so that you can see why we need to break the boot). it really takes some force to clip the black ring on to the silver one because the depth of the new boot makes it really tight.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-2016.jpg

then we can turn the bottom part of the boot over, and again, we need to carve three holes to let the black arms see through, so that we can fix the whole thing to the panel.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-2021.jpg

it should look like this finally
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2311593/Knob...10514-2021.jpg

Then just install it back to the panel, and clip the panel back to the car.

One small advice, if you want to do the same thing, make sure you get the right size boot. this boot is too long for my shifter. the previous owner changed it with a short shifter, so the boot looks ( and feels) really squeezed, which is not very favorable. I tried to adjust. if there's no logo and the hard plastic part, I would just put more part under the cover. but for this one, this is the furthest i can push.

The tricky part is to carve holes on the boot, and clip the two rings. It is tight even you want to remove the OEM boot, you may need a flat screwdrive to help pry it out.

PS: should this be posted here or to "interior" section? not sure. If I posted the wrong place, please just tell me...

Not feelin it but good diy for somethin different!