[Russ B]

You might want to take a few photos showing the clearance problems with your leg. Someone else may need to be the photographer for you. I have bent the shift lever in my high school hot rod A back in the sixties, in order to get clearance needed for safe driving.

I would not worry about heating and bending the shifter. It can be readily replaced with an unmodified one if you want to bring it back to original to sell it in the future.