Adding colour fill to shift button shift pattern

I bought a used alcantara shift boot a while ago that had the shift pattern in red and always liked it. After trying various shift boots over the last 10 years and never being really happy with how long they lasted, I decided to bite the bullet and pay for a genuine Porsche shift boot. The boot comes mounted with the shift knob and I’m really happy with it despite the expense, as it should last year’s with proper care

While the shift boot and knob is awesome, the button with shift pattern looked bland compared to the Alcantara boot I had. I decided to fill in the indicator part with guards red touch up paint. I practiced on an old button I had and thought I could just swap buttons if it worked out.

It worked out perfect however I soon realised that I couldn’t get the new button out to swap them.

The problem was I didn’t want to damage the new leather and it soon became clear that I would damage it trying to pry it out. So plan B was to do it in the boot.

First step was to tape up around the edge. I could pry it up about a millimetre which was enough to get tape under edges. I then used some guards red touch up paint to fill the grooves of shift pattern

Basically it’s just a matter of over filling where grooves are. I needed to do it a few times as paint shrinks into grooves a little, when it drys, so to get it level took a few fills and sands

Then I sanded it down with 120 carefully, then 220 till I was happy. I then smoothed it with 1200. I wrapped the whole boot in newspaper to prevent getting any clear on boot