Easter holiday is a good time for DIY on simple matters, and I decided to respray the common issue of the peeling air con buttons.
There are a lot of solutions to re-spray and applying stickers, but usually they have a slight deviation from the font/design graphics or colour from the OE.
One day I was shopping at the hobby store and found there's a "Rubber Black" matt acrylic paint (Tamiya TS-82), so I figured to give it a try.
- Paint
Using the internet resources I've pulled the head unit out and the climate control planel, you can notice the before condition. It's not bad but at the same time, annoying to look at:
- before shot
I originally planned to not strip the buttons so I just clean the paint off the buttons and masked off other areas. Another handy tip for the masking of the + and - is to buy, again, from the hobby shop, pre-cut masking tape normally for model cars. I used the 1mm wide version. This should also work for the +/- button on the steering:
- masking of the buttons
After than I have sprayed the buttons and waited for it to dry:
- buttons sprayed
Unfortunately, when I peel the masking tape off, the old paint was too old and peeled out together with the masking tape
...so I have decided to strip the panel out...this is rather simple involved undoing the torx screws and prying off the tabs.
HOWEVER, the buttons turns out great !
- + button
- - button
So after cleaning out the panel from the old paint, I repsrayed the entire face plate with 2 coats and left for 2 hours to fully cure.
- face plate
Putting the buttons back on and re-assemble:
- re-installing buttons
You can tell, from the other original buttons, the colour looks 99.99999% identical and the best part is it also has the same rubberized feel and this paint is harder so it should withstand the daily pressing from driver and passenger.
So I figure the next test will be the headlight switch, and also the power window panels !
Total time, around 2hrs
Total cost, around $10 GBP for paint remover, masking tape and spray paint ! This is a huge saving over a new unit which can be a few hundred quid !
