Darned if that chrome plate didn’t pop out on one corner of the new Mr. Gasket boot, so I pulled the boot back out and after scrubbing the upper interior of the plate cavity with alcohol, it was covered with a liberal coating of 3M clear silicone adhesive and the plate reinserted. It takes 24 hours for full cure, so it won’t be going back in until tomorrow.
Before pulling the boot I realized it tends to lean to the passenger side as there is no support on the right side of the stick. So I elected to slice up the old adapter into a support piece that would match the top of the main adapter. Using a 4” angle grinder with a metal cutting abrasive blade, it took about 20 minutes to turn it into the piece shown here on the passenger side of the stick:
The angles look a little off due to optics as the new piece hadn’t been painted yet, but it matches the profile of the left piece and contacts the top center of the boot evenly. The only portion that touches the boot is the narrow edge directly above the bolts. The grommet on top is used to lift the boot up enough to cover the portion of the stick that was heated for bending, which stained the chrome.
I truly am running out of ideas to make any other refinements. Rather than squandering more money on the truck itself, my next investment may be a GoPro camera so I can better capture the sound effects and hopefully produce more interesting/artistic video posts.