my wheels used to be painted white with the rustoleum...it held up like dick, haha. but i also did kind of a ****ty prep job, so thats just what happens haha. i got it from walmart too...might be a little cheaper than autozone. for the shift knob...i have no clue, haha...what you like is what you like. weighted shift knobs are the **** though, so definitely get one with some decent weight. i think my skunk2 one is 440 grams? its great with the short shifter too. you should try to get a short shifter kit like the pspec one...i know there was another company that copied the pspec design, since pspec is out of business, i forgot what their name was, but theres a thread on them somewhere.