Custom Retro Electric Window Switches

I made this.

I made this.

I’ve got a friend in the UK named Ric. We’ve talked over email for a while and have helped each other out with a few Miata projects. There’s the occasional part that one can only buy if one has a UK or USA postal address, so every once in a while, one of us will buy something at the request of the other and mail it off. Like a Beatles song, I get by with a little help from my friends.

One of the collaborations was Ric’s original version of the above window switch. Turns out that the actual switches are hard to come by in the UK. I had no problem buying them with my US address. So I sent some switches to the UK at his request. (Which kinda made me shake my head. Industrial switches? “Eh. If it floats his boat,” I thought.) And Ric came up with THAT! That beautiful retro window switch. That is the most incredible window switch I’ve ever seen. It blows away anything I’ve ever seen come out of Japan. Nakamae? KG Works? In my humble opinion, Ric’s design blows them away.

Seriously. Go check out his blog post on making this switch. If you’re reading my post on this, you should also pay his blog a visit. I’ll wait.

Back to what I was saying about parts you can’t get. I have all the switches I can ever use thanks to my USA mailing address, but those little switch guards are a little bit hard to come by. As in impossible. The internet thinks the only source for those little metal guards is in the UK. And that shop doesn’t ship to the US. So… collaboration. I get by with a little help from my friends. Thanks for helping me copy your awesome design, Ric!

Anyways. On with the pix! I’ll just be showing what I did to create my switch, not really providing a how-to. For that, hit up Landwomble’s blog.

Planning

Neutered.

Neutered.

My garage is filthy with spare Miata parts. I had no fewer than three of these window switches. Now I have two. One donated its guts (er, skeleton?) and wires to my new Retro Window Switch. I hollowed it out with my dremel till it looked pretty. I left juuuuuust enough meat on the corners for my planned mounting hardware.

Cardboard prototype.

Cardboard prototype.

Mocked up.

Mocked up.

I cut out a crude cardboard prototype. The edges and measurements weren’t as important to me as where to actually mount the various parts and their distance from the center. I measured this part in inches and then switched over to millimeters for the rest of the project. The metal plate requires some pretty impressive precision. Inches are a bit too crude.

Metal Work

Machining the plate.

Machining the plate.

Precision.

Precision.

I used a nice 2mm plate of 6061 aluminum (thanks ebay!) and ground it down to size. That size is 66mm x 52mm. This aluminum is fairly soft and is nice and easy to work with. Easy to cut straight and easy to grind down the edges to the right radius (the same as a US or UK penny). I used a regular old sanding drum to radius the edges. Took just a few minutes in the (slightly cold) garage.

After getting the plate down to the right dimensions, I measured, marked, and center punched the plate. I really took my time and got it perfect.

All drilled. Maybe correctly!

All drilled. Maybe correctly!

Test fit of hardware.

Test fit of hardware.

Wiring

More wired than a freshman before finals.

More wired than a freshman before finals.

Window switch wiring

Window switch wiring

The above wiring diagram depends upon the hardware you use. All momentary toggle switches might not be labeled exactly the same (though I have a sneaking suspicion that they are). I used a set of 060-376’s from Parts Express. As of 2011, this link worked: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=060-376 but they love to switch their site around. If you search by part number 060-376, you should find the switch. It is a DPDT, 20 amp, and about $8.67.

As for the diagram, notice that it’s oriented backwards. In other words, you’re looking at the back side of the built switch plate. Up/Down refers to the direction of window travel. Passenger/Driver refers to which side window will be activated by which switch. And this is for a US left-hand-drive car.

Oh. One more thing. After wiring but BEFORE INSTALLING THE SWITCHES IN THE PLATE, you should take the switches out to your car and plug them in. You know, make sure you know which switch really does activate which window and which direction is up/down. It helps. I actually did remember to do this step, but I was surprised by the outcome. I had the switches right but up/down confused. heh

Installed

Sharka's center console.

Sharka's center console.

9 years in the making.

9 years in the making.

I’m extremely proud of these two photos. I’ve been working on this center console for nearly my whole time in the Miata world. I did the Cobra shifter ring in 2002. Next came the padded armrest in 2006. For Christmas of 2010, I got the little shiny lock button at the back there from Sazaire Factory (the only part on the console that I didn’t make). And now, for 2011, I have the Retro Window Switches.

I’m proud.

At home.

At home.

Retro.

Retro.

A few more details. I brushed the aluminum plate. (Used a green scotchbrite pad to get it nice and silky.) The idea behind brushing it was to have the window plate match my HVAC panel. It has chrome knobs and a brushed backing. Bringing that same theme back to the elbow area ties both parts into the interior more strongly than if one was by itself (like my HVAC panel used to be).

And then there’s the decal. Oh, the decal. I created the decal with my machine die cutter that I use to cut out my gauge faces. It took me a couple hours. Design, cut, apply, frown, tear off, repeat. I worked at it till it looked right. And I’m quite happy. It adds a finishing touch.

Just like it was always there.

Just like it was always there.

And that it. Thanks again Ric!!!

Update!

I now sell these in my store. They’re no different than what you see above. You can totally make one for yourself. But if you’d rather not do that, I can make you one. Just hit my order form and I’ll get you taken care of.

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  • Stoly says:

    Do mortal men even stand a chance? There is no catching Sharka. Simply the best there is. Proud of you Adam. Looks great. Oh, I’m going to need one of those stickers? 🙂

  • Stoly says:

    I can’t wait for the Sharka/Scrat drive/photoshoot. Thank you for always raising the bar.

  • ric says:

    Shucks. That looks just great. I’m about a month or so into having my panel in the car and I just love them. Lots of “hey, I’d better wind down the windo….DAMN, THESE SWITCHES ARE NICE! moments”…
    I’m really pleased with this little cross-atlantic project, looking forward to the sticker, dude. Extra props for the Lego Schumachers…!

    I may be hitting you up about some of that nice diamond-stitch black vinyl in the near future!

    • revlimiter says:

      That black vinyl is a whole other email. Expect one soon. The short of it: you’re better off getting a local shop to make you some. I may be going that way soon. The stuff I recently got in the mail is crap. Not very nice quality stitches.

      I didn’t mention in my post, but these switches are FASTER than stock!!!! I’d not cleaned my contacts in a while and they needed it bad. So that adds to the “THESE SWITCHES ARE NICE!” in a whole other level. =)

  • Will says:

    Looks really great.

    IMO hazard/barn doors would be overkill if you did them over as well.

    Awesome though!

    • revlimiter says:

      I think I agree. I’ve never been in love with any of the toggle hazard setups on the market. None were ever quite “right” you know? I think either leaving those alone or using actual metal buttons or something. Toggles don’t work in that area as well as they could.

  • ric says:

    I’m almost tempted to swap my hazard/barn door toggles for some of the billet ones here:
    http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/category/Switches,b.html
    They come in flush-mount or on alumium collar stand offs…

    • revlimiter says:

      Those are AWESOME! Do you know if they’re the right size? I’m unsure off the top of my head how big the NA buttons are.

      • ric says:

        Hmm, shall we find out…..?!

        • revlimiter says:

          I have now forgotten 3 times to measure my damn buttons.

        • ric says:

          22mm external diameter. I think I can make it work.
          My existing toggles are held in by two matching steel plates cut to fit the squared off oval depression around the factory switches. Both are threaded with locknuts onto the shaft of the toggle, with the plastic if the console between them. I think if I mimic this setup with bigger holes it may work. You’d end up with the billet switched mounted 10mm proud on a steel plate background. I might try this come payday…

  • Trip Ulvila says:

    Wow. Your car really has the best interior I’ve seen on a Miata, ever. Hands down. This is so custom and cool. I love all of the custom bits and retro parts. Such a racy, yet incredibly classy interior.

    • revlimiter says:

      Thanks! I think I’ve put the most time and energy into the interior out of any part of my car. And that’s where my next few mods will be over this winter. Much more fun to work on interior stuff in the house and bring it out to the car when finished than to stand over the cold engine in the cold garage…

  • Joe says:

    Hey,

    Would you be able to send me the illustrator file?

    I’ve built up the switches onto a D shaped aluminium panel, so rather than just a wee square panel it covers the whole black bit.

    Ta

  • Joe says:

    D’uh!

    It’s (deleted by admin)

    Thanks!

  • Frisbee says:

    I was tweeting away on twitter trying to find something to cure my boredom – and BOOM – somebody I follow tweeted this post. Now, I am not quite as bored. Thanks for posting nice material. – Frisbee

  • Casey says:

    Love your window switch, I will be building a set for my 1968 mustang. I found the switch guards at jkvstudios.com , they are very similar to the ones you used. best of all they are located in the US. They are built for Bikes

  • casey says:

    http://www.periheliondesign.com/. Here is another link with the guards, the have two hoops and one that is a copy of what is used on the space shuttle.

  • bootz says:

    Brilliant piece of retro design – except I would have shaped the aluminium back panel as a trapezoid to fit it into the console recess.

    Still another genius piece of fabrication.

    • revlimiter says:

      I’ve seen a couple done like that. It comes out looking not quite as finished for some reason. Even though it seems like it would be more integrated, it looks more stuck-on. At least in my opinion. Maybe it was just the photos I saw.

  • Chucky says:

    When I saw this site was like wow. Thanks for putting your effort in making this post.

  • Brian says:

    Rev, thanks for this. Was searching CR and came up blank. Cheers

  • josh says:

    wanted to make some of these for a while. I love toggles! thought you might want to see mine, I based them off of yours but under mounted mine rather than basing it on a stock switch, I also used a patterned aluminum for that extra bit of vintage 😉 i posted them on miata net here: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=450925

  • Blackjack800 says:

    Love this switch and the interior of this car!

  • […] Has anybody made retro window switches for a NB I've always wanted some of these toggle switches in my car so I'm trying to make some of the ones for my windows like revlimiter, except I have a NB. Does anybody know how to wire the toggle switch to the wires/harness from the car? Thanks! and this is what I'm trying to make: http://revlimiter.net/blog/2011/01/c…ndow-switches/ […]

  • Dinrahman says:

    Nice one!!! Really love the idea!! Awesome job man…how can i buy your stuffs??

  • […] Re: NA Power Window Switch DIY I've got a wiring diagram on my blog too. Retro Electric Window Switches […]

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