neat little Offroading switch pannel

[Elessar65]

Those are pretty slick. I'd get one from ya if I had anything that needed a switch.

 

[Electrohacker]

some defects were hiding under that sticky mess

this is ashtray #1

#2 and 3 need more cleaning but dont have the speckling, their defects will be noted later



the first step in making a switch pannel is to remove the ashtray from the unit using a 7/32 wrench

next I carefully cut just enough of the bottom to access the switches, but leave enough so the unit remains strong

then I clean off all the burrs and here's the cut piece next step will be the aluminum

 

[Electrohacker]

#2 has some peeling of the rubber coating on the lid

and #2 had some scrapes in the coating around the cup holders

#3 has speckling on the lid, one of the tabs is broke off and it has the same scraping around the cup holders

 

[Electrohacker]

#1 is now spoken for

 

[Paraphoe]

Wow, this is kickass, nice work man.

I have my Scangauge installed in the upper section of my console, and the bottom one is empty. I'm tempted.

 

[Electrohacker]

does anyone know a way to remove and restore the rubber coating?

 

[patman]

i did one of these once.. back when i had a console... mine wasn't nearly as pretty as yours... but it worked.. just had four switches.. and they were flat rockers

 

[gmanpaint]

does anyone know a way to remove and restore the rubber coating?

I am pretty sure the coating will come off with a strong solvent like MEK, or Airplane stripper.

As far as re-coating.....I did see a black rubber compound made by 3m somewhere, but I can't think of the name of it. Google search might come up with something.

 

[Electrohacker]

all the speckling went away, so whoever bought #1 got the good one

 

[Electrohacker]

this looks promising, I never knew plastidip came in spray

 

[Electrohacker]

my patented template, lol I'll get the dimensions up here eventually, or you could just measure

now I taped it to the aluminum, if this were mine I would punch the center holes for the switches, but this being a blank I left them off and left that cutout section I made to clear my switches filled in

ready to be cut

cut out and cleaned

bent up and ready to test the fit

fit tested and ready to ship

 

[Super_Swamper_98]

does anyone know a way to remove and restore the rubber coating?

Dont use paint stripper it will work great but it likes to eat up pastic also I tried it. I found that brake fluid works great I got a couple of gallons used for free let it soak. Dont know how to restore it.

 

[Electrohacker]

brake fluid was an old RC body trick, I thought I should be gentle on the plastic

another trick was easy off oven cleaner (the yellow can not the blue)


I'm trying duplicolor bumper paint, then I might order a can of plastidip spray if that dont work... this experimentation cuts into my profit a bit but will be handy when I wreck other rubber covered parts... and I will/have

 

[1996explorerxlt]

Yeah I found out that paint stripper eats plastic. I tried it on my first radio bezel. Then I had to sand, fill, and sand to smooth out the surface cracks in the plastic. I then primed and painted it body color.

 

[Super_Swamper_98]

Yeah I found out that paint stripper eats plastic. I tried it on my first radio bezel. Then I had to sand, fill, and sand to smooth out the surface cracks in the plastic. I then primed and painted it body color.

Exactly this is mine http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270683

 

[97sprt4x4]

do you by any chance know the dimensions of the usable area for switches?

 

[Electrohacker]

off hand I would say... 4.5X1.5 might be a little less or a little more

remember this was made to fit the military switches from autozone, sooo.... your experiences may vary

also I used the LED lit switches from radioshack, the short toggle type sometimes called "duckbill"

 

[Glen4X4]

Another suggestion when I pulled the rubber off of my bezel and cubby area thing I used the old lady's nail polish removed and wiped over it and gently with a razor blade peeled the rubber off and used light sand paper for areas hard to use a razor blade with. And then primed and painted to what I wanted but as for going to stock format not sure..

 

[yellowford]

I made one of these for my old 96 and it was awesome but on mine I did not have to cut out the bottom of the ash tray area since my rocker switch cleared the closing lid and had enough room underneath. Nice work on making it that clean and be able to sell them to people.

 

[gmanpaint]

I did this mod over the weekend. Love it! I cut out part of the section of the console underneath for room for the wires, plus I have the stock light for the ashtray hooked up to it. Needed a little room to clear that bulb connector.