2work
Well Known Member
Afternoon all,
I thought I’d put a few words together after receiving a recently purchased soft touch climate control panel that needed a quick/general tidy up.
First up to note is that is particular panel already had the worn soft tough buttons swapped for hard touch buttons; probably from an A4 unit or similar.
Here’s the look of the item in the sale thread:
Looks nice enough but knew that the fascia needed attention. Here is it in natural daylight:
Yes it’s seen better days but it was exactly what I expected from the sale post, a purchase that I’m totally happy with I must add.
The main thing is that it was in decent overall condition and already sported hard touch buttons. All that is required was to strip it down to remove the years of accumulated dust and remove the soft touch paint from the fascia. A task that only takes some 30 minutes and no more.
Ahead of me showing you what 30 minutes of cleaning with a sponge soaked in alcohol can achieve, let’s get a little more intimate with this item.
I won’t go into detail of the strip down as I’m quite sure it’s been mentioned many a time and there is no doubt a How To somewhere on the Clubs pages. All I’ll say is that these can be dismantled in minutes with a quality T6 screwdriver.
Here’s the dismantled panel showing the layers of dust that needed to be wiped away:
Here it is again but this time free of dust:
Once the housing and PCBs were finished off with a quick pass of alcohol I then removed the hard touch buttons to clean the fascia.
You’ve seen the fascia above so won’t show that again pre-treatment which consisted of 10 minutes soak in warm soapy water. Then using a tired dish washing (non-scratch) sponge soaked in alcohol I gently rubbed away the paint to reveal the Soul Black plastic beneath. The soft touch paint comes away very quickly once warmed up and easily wiped away with a slight scrub with the alcohol soaked sponge.
Here’s the climate panel reassembled after drying it off with the hairdryer:
Before it makes its way into an A2 I will of course be taking it apart again to get a few thin layers of satin black paint on the fascia to look its best; but for 30 minutes work I’d say that’s quite a transformation.
I’ll possibly add to this short thread once I get the primer and paint out.
Kind regards,
Tom
I thought I’d put a few words together after receiving a recently purchased soft touch climate control panel that needed a quick/general tidy up.
First up to note is that is particular panel already had the worn soft tough buttons swapped for hard touch buttons; probably from an A4 unit or similar.
Here’s the look of the item in the sale thread:
Looks nice enough but knew that the fascia needed attention. Here is it in natural daylight:
Yes it’s seen better days but it was exactly what I expected from the sale post, a purchase that I’m totally happy with I must add.
The main thing is that it was in decent overall condition and already sported hard touch buttons. All that is required was to strip it down to remove the years of accumulated dust and remove the soft touch paint from the fascia. A task that only takes some 30 minutes and no more.
Ahead of me showing you what 30 minutes of cleaning with a sponge soaked in alcohol can achieve, let’s get a little more intimate with this item.
I won’t go into detail of the strip down as I’m quite sure it’s been mentioned many a time and there is no doubt a How To somewhere on the Clubs pages. All I’ll say is that these can be dismantled in minutes with a quality T6 screwdriver.
Here’s the dismantled panel showing the layers of dust that needed to be wiped away:
Here it is again but this time free of dust:
Once the housing and PCBs were finished off with a quick pass of alcohol I then removed the hard touch buttons to clean the fascia.
You’ve seen the fascia above so won’t show that again pre-treatment which consisted of 10 minutes soak in warm soapy water. Then using a tired dish washing (non-scratch) sponge soaked in alcohol I gently rubbed away the paint to reveal the Soul Black plastic beneath. The soft touch paint comes away very quickly once warmed up and easily wiped away with a slight scrub with the alcohol soaked sponge.
Here’s the climate panel reassembled after drying it off with the hairdryer:
Before it makes its way into an A2 I will of course be taking it apart again to get a few thin layers of satin black paint on the fascia to look its best; but for 30 minutes work I’d say that’s quite a transformation.
I’ll possibly add to this short thread once I get the primer and paint out.
Kind regards,
Tom
