Just curious if anyone has ever used the blank buttons and managed to make them work like the factory buttons? When i had my dash apart I had a solid idea on how too, that was awhile ago though. 

There are no guts behind them.  Maybe take spares from other ones but lots of work moddling things.  Assuming the upper left and right EA82 style buttons. 

post a picture of your dash so we know what model and what your vehicle is even equipped with, and we might be able to tell you a few things we've attached on ours, 

i used the blank next to the wipers on the EA82 as my switch for my 4wd since the one on the shifter rattled around when i was on the highway and eventually went out,

right bottom blank is for cruise control, left bottom blank is for choke mechanisms for 3rd world countries, left rectangular small blank is for foglights, which i used as offroading lights attached all around the wagon, just use a relay, not sure how well built the oem switches on the inside even are.

1 hour ago, DaveT said:

There are no guts behind them.  Maybe take spares from other ones but lots of work moddling things.  Assuming the upper left and right EA82 style buttons. 

That's what my thoughts were. I have a parts dash and figured I might be able to use some of the buttons off that  since i only have the rear defroster on the left side. 

 

1 hour ago, Subasaurus said:

post a picture of your dash so we know what model and what your vehicle is even equipped with, and we might be able to tell you a few things we've attached on ours, 

i used the blank next to the wipers on the EA82 as my switch for my 4wd since the one on the shifter rattled around when i was on the highway and eventually went out,

right bottom blank is for cruise control, left bottom blank is for choke mechanisms for 3rd world countries, left rectangular small blank is for foglights, which i used as offroading lights attached all around the wagon, just use a relay, not sure how well built the oem switches on the inside even are.

86 gl. I dont have any pictures of it right now. I was thinking of the blanks on the left side of the cluster. Not sure if those are the ones you were talking about? 

I think it was the xt model that had a button or 2 on the upper left bank of 6.  Maybe the turbos had something there? 

Those are probably pretty hard to find.   But if you did, they would probably be more of a pop into place kind of thing.

I  have thought about trying to convert the guts from the right side for use on the left, but never actually ran into the need to do it.

Just a picture I found on the Interwebs, These ones? I have the defroster there but nothing else. I'll see what I have left on my other dash and try and think of something. I figured it would be nice to have the extras for something in the future while still keeping the factory look. 

heres the middle one for you so you can finish your collection lol

i used to remember the bottom left one, i'll have to come back to you.

finding every individual different piece that's "suppose" to belong there will be harder than finding a 1954 P1 Subaru,

just remembered, one of those bottom ones was for activating the air suspension that some GL-10's came with, and it was an expensive option that rarely anyone got, finding a GL-10 is already really rare by itself, let alone the digi dash and air suspension.

why don't you just find a bunch of any of the 5 switches and fill in the blanks that way? ofcourse except for the defroster because that one has the different styling to it that can only correspond there, that will pretty much be the only way to fill them all in.

3 hours ago, Traxx said:

Just a picture I found on the Interwebs, These ones? I have the defroster there but nothing else. I'll see what I have left on my other dash and try and think of something. I figured it would be nice to have the extras for something in the future while still keeping the factory look. 

Looks like this one had headlight washers! Was that ever offered in the US? Any guesses on what the button to the right of the defrost does?

Factory fog lights ?

 

Definitely factory fog lights. 

The problem with using these switch panels is that you need the switch button or mod the blank that’s there so you can actually push the button and have it return back again. I tried it for my driving lights but it didn’t work out very well.

I ended up going the easier route - used aftermarket toggle switches  

I put my cruise control panel on there - but I modded one of the blanks to mount the panel on, so that’s neatly mounted and the button pushed into the panel. Looks real neat. 

Cheers 

Bennie

14 hours ago, Jack in Norfolk said:

Looks like this one had headlight washers! Was that ever offered in the US? Any guesses on what the button to the right of the defrost does?

don't think so.

dealer added foglights had the switch on the left of the dash on the bottom (next to where the choke lever would be) factory added foglights had it on the top next to the defroster switch,

so in other words, it's impossible to have every hole filled in and actually be properly functional, the factory thought about dealer added items and factory added items, 2 possible places for them on your dash just incase.

Edited November 2, 20187 yr by Subasaurus

6 hours ago, el_freddo said:

Definitely factory fog lights. 

The problem with using these switch panels is that you need the switch button or mod the blank that’s there so you can actually push the button and have it return back again. I tried it for my driving lights but it didn’t work out very well.

I ended up going the easier route - used aftermarket toggle switches  

I put my cruise control panel on there - but I modded one of the blanks to mount the panel on, so that’s neatly mounted and the button pushed into the panel. Looks real neat. 

Cheers 

Bennie

That's what i was figuring last night, I thought I had some left over buttons from a parts dash I could use but I guess I tossed them. Figured i could find some toggles that would look good on the blanks and save me another headache.

C&K switches makes some nice snap in rocker switches that are good and look nice.  I think digital key and /or mouser sell them.

I've been thinking about doing this same thing for an extra light bar for driving the highways during the dark mid winter months up here, when I end up putting it together I'll have to post back here! I'm sure my work won't look nearly as nice as Jono's sounds to be though