I thought I'd do the following guide on how to fit the popular Beetle Sport Gear Knob and gaiter. I bought this as an alternative to the usual R32 and anniversary gear knobs you can find out there. I bought mine from www.gti-bits.co.uk who's service was excellent 
. I apologies in advance for some blurred pics, my son kept fiddling with the camera between pics and I did not notice that he'd set it to manual focus till later 
. This guide has been written to aid in fitting this item and as such in using this guide I take no responsibility for any breakages or damage done to your vehicle in the fitment of this item 
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This is the actual item I order and fitted prior to any modification
The Beetle Gear knob is stapled to a plastic base as shown below
This is not a direct fit for the Golf so needs to be modified to fit.
First thing to do is to remove the plastic base, I did this using a number of picks and flat blade screwdrivers being careful not to damage the gaiter. Patients is needed as the staples are very hard to remove.
Remove the current gear knob from your car as you will need a part of the old gaiter to use in the new gaiter. I just cut away my old gaiter to begin with as it was wrecked to begin with. However if you want to keep your original one it's probably best not to do what I did.
The current gear gaiter has an elasticated bottom and is held onto plastic base. Remove the bottom of the gaiter from the plastic base and pull up. This will reveal the collar of the gear knob (see below).
You need to loosen or remove this clip ( arrowed in the picture below). The best way I found of doing this was to use a set of pincers but use a tool you feel comfortable with and tat won;t damage any of the components. Once removed the gear knob will just lift off.
You should be left with the gear knob and gaiter free from your car, or in my case just the gaiter.
We will now concentrate on removing the elasticated bottom of the old gaiter for fitment into the new gaiter. Look very closely at the bottom of the gaiter and you will see that it is stitched. Using a pick, knife or needle pick at the stitching until it comes loose, start removing the stitching. This will reveal the the elasticated spring that we need to fit to the new gaiter.
Keep on removing the stitching, which will take a while, and you eventually end up with an item that is basically a spring.
Take the spring and place it in the crease of the new Gaiter, the crease left by the old plastic mount that was removed.
The next bit is time consuming and you can make it as neat or as crude as you like. You'll need a sharp sowing needle and some black thread, the stronger the better. if you've got a sewing machine then that would be ideal. The idea is to sew the spring into the crease of the gaiter as neat as possible. It's fiddly and can be a pain as the spring will need stretching whilst swewing in order for it it fit. But the finished article should look something like this.
The Gear knob and gaiter are no ready for fitting. Just slide the gear knobover the gear shaft (it can only go on one way) and secure using the new circlip (supplied with the Knob and gaiter). The best way to fit the bottom of the gaiter to the plastic base is the remove the plastic base. This pulls out, be careful not to break it, Fit the front of the gaiter first (end nearest the ashtray) and refit the plastic base. Once the plastic base has been fitted stretch the rest of the gaiter over the base.
And here is the finished article.
I hope you find this article of some use.
VAG-COM 805.0, Hex Can (can do latest Mk V's) around the Reading/Berkshire area. Diagnostics, Fault code clearance, 0-60 and quarter times, data logging for Beer Tokens.