Greg , that thing is easy to remove. Take the column out , gut it , screw the two pieces back together , take a cut off wheel, remove the material, then take a flap wheel and sand it smooth, then paint and put it back together. There is enough material that it will not leave any voids. This is what I did instead of dumping 200 bucks on a floor shift column and no one knows the difference. You can position the chicken leg arm boss on the bottom where you can't see the hole after you grind it smooth. This column looked exactly like yours. It's dusty as hell but it looks great underneath lol
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