Switches look transparent??

[AndyPen]

These are dated correctly and came out of the same boxes that the other electrical stuff has been stored in for nearly 30 years, but I didn't realise until cleaning them in the sun today that they were translucent??

Is this a fading thing with time or were they made that way???

dash-switches.jpg

[Beatie]

Indicator stalk ends take on that kind of appearance over time , I always thought it was the sun ?
Perhaps it’s pigment degeneration ?

[Old English White]

Is it a fairly early car? I've seen the switches on very early Minis go like that but not seen it happen on later Mk1s. I guess the plastic material used must be slightly different?

[AndyPen]

Yes it is a February 64 car, and both the switches are marked 1/64.

I am getting to quite like the look actually, bit of patina, and know what you mean about the indicator stalks

[moita]

It is normal, it is kind of a resin and they lost pigments.
Sun is not friend as well. That why they start to crack.

[AndyPen]

Thanks - no cracks as far as I can see, but one has a very small chip.

If it comes to the worse I guess I can buy new switches, and maybe swap the plastic bits over... or just use extensions to safeguard them?

[Andrew1967]

My 60 has those type of switches - original ones.

I like them and haven't cracked in all the years so far.

I have various spare switches , some black and some like these, but they are always the older ones.

[AndyPen]

HHmmmm maybe we need to work out the change point - don't worry, I am joking

[Andrew1967]

HHmmmm maybe we need to work out the change point - don't worry, I am joking

I'm not so sure about that Andy

[1071 S]

The switches on my '64 850 were even clearer the those when I bought it in '68..

It was a Made in Oz version...

Cheers, Ian

[EMOKID]

Origional 1963 mgb swiches gone the same way

[Maddog]

UV damage. This was so prevalent in sunny Australia that people used to swear that early Minis came with clear switches! However, it is just good old UV attacking the pigment in the plastic resin. The plastic must have changed around 65 as the later ones seem to stay perfectly black even here in the Antipodes.

[AndyPen]

I shall refer to it as the 'Hobart Effect' in any future discussions, a bit like the 'fat porche' effect you have there too

I got told off when I automatically went to open the door to look inside btw - "Please don't touch the art"

[Tim]

As a resident of Hobart, I can confirm that it is very common in early 850s here, and we have some pretty intense UV here in the summer. Often you'll only find a stub of transparent material left around the metal shaft of the switch. I assume that as they fade to transparent they also become brittle. I had to swap the levers out of some later switches into the original bodies of the switches in my Traveller.

Tim