Defrost switches

[GTRS Fiero]

For a long time, I've had a nasty faded defrost switch in mottled light grey.  This switch didn't match ANYTHING else, which further bothered me.  It bothered me so much that I painted it, as well as the trunk release switch.  The trunk release switch turned out OK, except that my taping wasn't perfectly straight along the clear plastic, and my cut didn't help.  Still, the color on the trunk release switch now matched, and was passable.  Not so much for the defrost switch.  I did prep the surface, but somehow the paint didn't take.

The defrost switch on the TFS web site looked just as badly as the one I already had.  I spoke with TFS about this, and they agreed that their trunk release switches and their defrost switches were different colors.  I couldn't abide this idea--especially as these switches are in such close proximity.  So, I didn't buy their defrost switch.  Instead, I found one online that was much nicer than mine.  I bought this switch, and it sat on a shelf for the last year or so.

At a recent Fiero event, I was further irked by the fact that most of the Fieros had a nicer defrost switch than mine.

Recently, I did purchase the defrost switch from TFS, probably because I'd forgotten about the other switch, until I discovered it a few days ago.  Anyway, I'll post some comparison images.

[GTRS Fiero]

Here is the stock switch (that I tried painting) in my Fiero:


Here is a stock switch that is all nasty and faded:


And the faded switch again:

[GTRS Fiero]

Here is the set I bought on ebay, but no idea of the origin.


Here you can see the defrost switch I had painted, with the old TFS trunk switch:

[GTRS Fiero]

These are pictures of the new TFS defrost switch




It's a fairly close match to the TFS trunk switch.

[GTRS Fiero]

Here is the TFS defrost switch installed.  As you can see, it's a fair--if not exact--color match:


Here is a comparison of my stock (painted) defrost switch with the new TFS switch:

The new TFS switch is obviously the one in the bezel.  Yes, my masking was very bad.

[GTRS Fiero]

While I had the bezel out, I discovered that the defrost screw posts were both cracked:




Fortunately, I had an uncracked bezel on hand, so in it goes. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Here is what my defrost switch looked like before I painted it: