Removing wood trim from window switches (1 Viewer)

[fjcruising]

Hey everyone,

Today was the day I decided to remove the faded, sticker looking, wood grain trim from my window switches. I had heard of many people doing it, however, hadn’t seen any before and after pictures.

I used my wife’s hair dryer to warm up the adhesive. I initially started cutting the adhesive with some dental floss but found it wasn’t very effective. I quickly changed to a thin sharp knife to help with difficult to pull areas (be careful the trim piece can get scratched under the wood). After it was warm it was a breeze to pull off, just cleaned off with some goo gone and done! 30 minute job for both front doors.

 

[Pyrenees]

When I opened this thread I was perplexed at how you'd accomplish that. Then I realized that on the LC apparently they stuck the wood trim on to a standard switch assembly, whereas in my LX it's part of the assembly and there's no way to get it off. Weird that Toyota took two different approaches to accomplish exactly the same thing.

 

[MongooseGA]

Lexus uses real wood trim in their vehicles. Toyota used rubber stickers.

 

[Pyrenees]

Huh, you're right.

 

[JT4runner]

Yeah I wished there was a way to take the wood trim off of my LX.

 

[Pyrenees]

Personally I love the wood trim in my LX, I guess I just like old-school stuff.

 

[fjcruising]

Lexus uses real wood trim in their vehicles. Toyota used rubber stickers.

To my surprise, it was a sticker but it is real wood on the LC.

 

[fjcruising]

Personally I love the wood trim in my LX, I guess I just like old-school stuff.

I liked the wood too but the fade just looked awful on mine.

 

[Wesley Crusher]

When you reinstalled the switch plates, were you able to get them to sit flush?
I took mine off as a part of removing the door panels and I have not been able to get them to sit flush. I even took my rig to my shop and see if they could do it and nope, no dice. They said they’d try again next time I brought it in. So annoying....

 

[MongooseGA]

To my surprise, it was a sticker but it is real wood on the LC.

That must have been a factory option. Most that I've seen have been the port or dealer-added stick on rubber. I had to peel it off of the interior of my 2000 and it was quite bendy.

When you reinstalled the switch plates, were you able to get them to sit flush?
I took mine off as a part of removing the door panels and I have not been able to get them to sit flush. I even took my rig to my shop and see if they could do it and nope, no dice. They said they’d try again next time I brought it in. So annoying....

That's odd. They should just pop in. The only thing I could think of is that there are connectors inside holding it up. I've never had an issue getting those pieces in easily. The tweeter covers on the other hand...

 

[knewstance]

When you reinstalled the switch plates, were you able to get them to sit flush?
I took mine off as a part of removing the door panels and I have not been able to get them to sit flush. I even took my rig to my shop and see if they could do it and nope, no dice. They said they’d try again next time I brought it in. So annoying....

Had this issue recently. There is a metal retainer/surround on the door panel. I found that when I would push my switch panel back in, trying to get the front clip to snap into the retainer piece the retainer would just bend down into the black abyss of the door panel. I ended up kind of holding the retainer into place with a very small flat head and then pushed the switch plate into position and then I was able to get the switch plate clip to snap into the retainer.

 

[CloudCity]

Yeah I wished there was a way to take the wood trim off of my LX.

Post up your wood set as an exchange for a LC guy who might want real wood in his rig.

 

[MongooseGA]

Post up your wood set as an exchange for a LC guy who might want real wood in his rig.

This. I swapped the guts from a very clean LX into my LC with rough interior and broken panels. I'll do the same thing again with my next LC. Makes for (I think) a much nicer place to be inside with the soft touch door panels and the real wood trim. Personally, I think the LCs with no wood trim look super bland and (dare I say it) cheap.

For LCs that don't already have all-auto windows, there will need to be some minor modification to get the window switches in place and you still won't have all-auto windows. Also, the memory seat buttons become essentially blanks for the trucks that didn't have the option to begin with.

 

[implayaz9]

I removed mine last week. Unfortunately I had some scratches on the center shifter piece.. Might end up wrapping it

 

[CloudCity]

I removed mine last week. Unfortunately I had some scratches on the center shifter piece.. Might end up wrapping it

I've seen some great examples of them using wraps like the frosted aluminum or brushed dark metal look, or even just a solid color like white depending on rig colors would really modernize it.

 

[loeky]

Suggest getting a cheap heat gun to make the process extremely easy and prevent unnecessary scratches. I went hard at it manually before picking one up and laughed at how easy they came off...

 

[savirc]

Lexus uses real wood trim in their vehicles. Toyota used rubber stickers.

My 01 LC has reall wood veneer. I've been pickign at it slowly but the day is comign where it will come off...

 

[Pyrenees]

Post up your wood set as an exchange for a LC guy who might want real wood in his rig.

I saw a thread here where someone tried to install a LC drivers/front switch panel in an LX because it was cheaper/more available, but it didn't work because there was something different about the wiring or the harness. Someone else in another thread modified it to work, but still. I would beware of that without searching on how they did it. It may have been a model-year specific thing. I don't really remember. Just a heads-up.

Also, @CloudCity , I just noticed your location and your username makes a lot of sense now.

 

[MongooseGA]

I saw a thread here where someone tried to install a LC drivers/front switch panel in an LX because it was cheaper/more available, but it didn't work because there was something different about the wiring or the harness. Someone else in another thread modified it to work, but still. I would beware of that without searching on how they did it. It may have been a model-year specific thing. I don't really remember. Just a heads-up.

Also, @CloudCity , I just noticed your location and your username makes a lot of sense now.

That may have been one of my posts. The connectors are different on the back. You have to take a jeweler's screw driver, remove the female connector from the switch apparatus and then replace it with the one that is already on the vehicle. Takes just a minute or two per side, very easy. I had my 53 year old mother doing it for me when I was swapping interiors over.

 

[fjcruising]

When you reinstalled the switch plates, were you able to get them to sit flush?
I took mine off as a part of removing the door panels and I have not been able to get them to sit flush. I even took my rig to my shop and see if they could do it and nope, no dice. They said they’d try again next time I brought it in. So annoying....