What a mission, but I've done it.
Thanks to a fellow member on here, who sold me the complete shifter, gaiter and surround, I was able to undertake a mammoth task today. I say mammoth because it was such finicky job
My plastic frame, which attaches the gaiter to the gearbox surround was broken when I bought the car a few days ago. So I set about removing the new unbroken frame from my donor shifter by carefully prising off each of the 15 staples. I then did the same for my broken frame, one staple at a time.
I then transferred the donor frame to my own gaiter and reattached each staple, one at a time to secure the frame to the leather gaiter. Finally, I put the shifter back on to the spline and carefully pushed the gaiter back into the base.
Wooo Hooo, I now have a beautiful looking DSG Gearbox shifter.
Thanks to all for their help for a bloody job that took 1 and a half hours and all this for a car I bought my WIFE!
Well, I bought it for me to drive as well.
I'm truly amazed at how much more refined this car is compared to our old MK4 Gti.