Wood effect window switches for under a fiver!

[Rich]

(For reference, the below was done on 03/02/06)

Well, not being able to justify (to my wife) the £100+ cost of wood effect window switches from the various suppliers available to us, I embarked on a little DIY project at the weekend.










I went to B&Q and bought a roll of dark walnut coloured Fablon for the princely sum of £4.99. Got home, popped the window switches out of the doors and headed off to the kitchen armed with the fablon, four switches, a scalpel and the wifes hair dryer.

I separated the switches in half so I only had the top covers to work on, so no switch buttons getting in the way. I simply cut the fablon to a square shape, with about a 20mm overlap all around (so I could tuck/fold the edges underneath). Peeled the fablon backing off and stuck it on the switch tops/covers.

I then carefully pressed from the middle outwards, in a star kind of direction, pushing any tiny air bubbles out. Once the main surface was covered, I applied some heat from the hair dryer (hottest setting) which effectively shrink-wrapped the fablon over the edges of the switches, it gets really soft and plyable after only 10secs or so, so I was able to fold it underneath each switch, covering the black plastic completely.

Once "wrapped", I got the scalpel out and simply (but VERY carefully!) cut out the switch button centers. Drivers side one was of course, the hardest

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen, wood effect window switches for under a fiver

The colour match isn't *too* bad but of course, it's not spot on. This doesn't matter too much, as they're not touching any other bits of OEM wood, so the untrained eye (ie. passengers) will never notice. I wood (haha!) not do the center console bits due to the match, it'd stand out too much. Also, they're not as "glossy" as the dash, but again, only other R75 owners would ever notice. I might take the rear switches out again and apply some laquer to see what happens.

Wasn't sure about them when I first fitted them, but they've really grown on me now.

Well, that killed a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon


Disclaimer:
You are responsible for any work or modifications carried out on your car and you undertake any such work at your own risk. Neither the 75 and ZT Owners Club nor the original authors in this thread can be held liable for anything that may happen as a result of you following this thread's posts.
Any modifications should be reported to your insurance company.