Column Shift and Floor Shift Questions?

[Kwik_Cutty88]

HI all. I have a 1988 Olds Cutlass Supreme Brougham. It has a bench seat with a column shift, and the transmission has been swapped out to a 700R4. I've seen a lot of floor shifts on the forums and I'm not sure whether these were cars that used to have column shifts and were fitted with floor shifters? Also what packages, and years of Cutlass's and G-Body's came with column shifters or floor shifters stock? Just wondering, answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Evan11]

no, you could order buckets with console/floor shift or could order bench seat, column shift...just depended on what the customer order. you could get a bucket/floor shift in any '78-87 cutlass supreme,calais,salon...just depended on what options were on each partical car. If wanted, you could find a gbody cutlass with 4 spd trany..got the shifter,cable,shifter mounts, buckets, and change yours over...im in the process of doing this

 

[adam6640]

They also made them with buckets no console & column shift

 

[pencero]

I found the bench/column setup very convenient for myself and although I never expected the middle seat upfront to come in handy it was indeed SO COLD one day that somebody totally sat there in order that the heat be more effective for them.

Now I see you're in North Carolina, so that point doesnt apply. If you switch to bucket seats / racing seats there will be an odd ugly 'void' in just the correct spot to mount your floor shifter and it will be common sense that this is obviously the right move. The interior just doesn't look right after switching to smaller bucket/racing seats. Don't get me wrong though: I love the cleaner look of the floor shifter but don't forget if you put it there you are suddenly limiting your choices to instead mount a functional 'console' with cupholders etc. A console will make your life so much more convenient and its a very small investment compared to this. Even if you are like me and hate 'things' in your car - what about cd's ?!

If you still have the bench seat and its working fine for you , or you went w/ some larger buckets such as out of a Cadillac: then this move is ridiculous and a complete waste of money you could have otherwise used to actually improve your car's performance/reliability/comfort. Dont spend money doing all this stuff guys unless it really helps out the car. The car's performance will not improve signifigantly based on the shifter location - even if you have the B&M kit installed. I too thought about doing this swap at one point on my 79 MC w/ a TH350 trans. In that case the shifter location change may have actually caused some minor performance gain, but when I tallyed up and financially evaluated if I should proceed I realized by the time I was finished it will have cost me nearly $850 to accomplish. Since the performance gains would have been so insignifigant the obvious choice was to reserve funds for more important repairs and concentrate on my suspension. If you've got money to blow its a better looking option, but if you're an 'average joe' middle class/ wife/ kids and all that this is such an irresponsible way to spend money! Just an opinion

 

[Kwik_Cutty88]

Haha Thanks for that rather "lengthy" reply. But yes if I was going to go to a floor shifter I would definitely get the buckets out of a Monte or maybe another G Body, and just fab up a console to go in between. And as far as CD's go I'm not really worried about that because I already have an Auxiliary cable hooked up to my iPod Touch with a mount on the left bottom side of the dash. Thanks for the replies guys!