Revealing The Brushed Stainless Switch Plates

In Your 1994-96 Roadmaster

Text And Pictures Courtesy of Chris Hawkins

Click On Pictures To Enlarge

It may come as a surprise to many owners, but the cheap, black-plastic-looking switch plates for your power windows and seats are not black plastic at all.  Beneath that dull black paint lies beautiful brushed stainless.  To reveal their beauty, follow these steps:

1.  Remove switch plates from the door panels.  There are 1” locking tabs that need to be pressed toward the center of the switch plate to disengage them from the door panel.  On the front switch plates, these tabs are at the front edge.  On the rear doors these tabs are at the rear.  Use a flat bladed screwdriver (or thin dinner knife) wedged between the switch plate and the armrest.

2.  Carefully remove the power window switches and seat switches from switch plate.

3.  Remove the ash receivers and the ashtray lids.  To remove the lids, carefully disconnect the small springs (tweezers are good for this).  Squeeze the hinges in to disengage from pivots.

4.  Switch Plates:  Use the strongest, most aggressive paint remover available.  The paint appears to be a vinyl acrylic that does not want to give up its grip easily.  You will likely have to do several sessions with the paint remover.  DO NOT scrape or sand that last little speck of paint off, or you will leave scratches on the switch plate.  Let the stripper do all the work.

5.  Ashtray Lids:  These are made of plastic, but have a broad metal insert on the lid surface made of the same metal as the switch plate.  The stripper will MELT the plastic, so care must be taken to apply stripper only onto the metal insert.  Carefully mask off the edges of the lid.  I used aluminum tape and covered the whole lid, sealing carefully.  With an Exacto knife, I cut around the metal insert and removed the excess tape.  I CAREFULLY applied stripper using an artist brush with a sharp edge.

When your switch plates and ashtray lids finally are revealed in their brushed stainless glory, re-assemble and enjoy the new, upgraded appearance of the interior of your Roadmaster wagon.