Author - Pim25

Source

Control panels for the electric window regulators with a wooden finish installed on the trim may also require restoration.

Here's how they looked like in my case:

Fortunately, almost all of the electrical part was functioning properly.

I only had to deal a bit with the auto-window control for the driver's door – it just needed cleaning and lubrication (understanding the logic of the sliding button :)

All the dirt from the buttons was removed using cotton buds (preferably wooden ones, plastic won't do) and cleaner 3000 or 5000.

The decorative wood finish coating, as you can see, almost completely deteriorated and needed restoration.

It's not hard to replace the wood finish nowadays – after disassembling the block and removing the top panel, it is simply handed over to an artist who either paints (if they are talented :) or applies a new image using the aquaprint technique.

However, there's a typical problem with such restoration – complete removal of previous markings like Auto, Up, Down etc.

As far as I know, this issue hasn't been resolved yet and it hinders many workshops in repair and graphic tuning of car interior plastic.

But after some thought, consultation and understanding of the matter, I managed to solve this problem!

Then my fully restored panels looked like this:

How did I achieve that?

Now I will reveal the secret of applying these markings to you, dear readers 🙂

The challenges in this process are as follows:

Firstly, not many would take up printing in WHITE.

Secondly, such workshops prefer to print on their own blanks.

Thirdly, they all prefer to print on flat smooth surfaces.

So here's the deal: find a local (nearest?) printing shop offering so-called 'ultra-violet' or UV-printing service.

Here is an example of such a shop in Vladivostok:

https://print-vl.ru/uf-pechat.html

Then, to create a template (I did it myself using CorelDraw) you need to give them factory 'grain patterns' from the panels with letters or the actual panels. Attention! This needs to be done before restoring the wood pattern!

After that, send the panels for applying the wooden finish to an appropriate workshop where they should find and apply a texture as close to the original one as possible.

Then you need to take the panels back to the print shop with the recreated image – and Attention! – convince them to print the letters for you despite raised (by 1-2 mm) parts of the panel!

They may say that the printer head will be too high up and the spray won't focus – just convince them to try :)

As you can see from my photo, it is possible to achieve a good result – and in our 'vintage' case, it's absolutely necessary!

For wear resistance, we produce additional partial UV-lacquering only on the letter areas at this shop.

The panel itself was slightly matte before applying letters - it shone too much (like brand new :) after wood restoration.)

Finally, we get a restored panel that is very similar to the original in all respects.

Such is Restoration Hack

🙂