[SunDude]

Thanks guys for the ideas.

I think Blas is right that the hole is not exactly centered over the shift linkage. However, I didn't have this problem when I first bought the car last summer and the boot was fairly new then, so I'm not sure why I'm having it now. Maybe the rubber just needs some time to soften up (or is that wishful thinking?). I don't want to cut into the transmission tunnel if I can avoid it, 'cuz frankly I'm not that handy and don't want to screw things up.

There's another complication too. Three of the four screws holding down the trim ring no longer bite into the fibreglass. To mount the current boot, I contact cemented some sheet metal clips onto the bottom side and screwed down into them (I had lined up the holes beforehand). I also trimmed the round lip off the bottom of the rubber boot, so it would sit nice and flat on the carpet. This all seemed to work pretty well and the boot/ring sit as tight (if not tighter) to the carpet than before.

I think when I next unscrew the trim ring, I'm going to need to add some fibreglass to the underside of the tunnel, to give the screws something new to bite into. Meanwhile, I'm just praying that the rubber softens up and am resting my hand on the shifter when in third gear.