Matte Finish vs Gloss Finish - Toggle Switches
 

About a year ago I visited an auto recycling facility (aka junkyard) to see whether I could find an 03 or 04 top and frame for my Boxster. That didn't work out, but the employee who showed me the car (it was an 04 S GT Silver special edition) gave me a bunch of pieces off of it. These parts included all of the toggle switches in the center of the dash that control the defrost, top and lock system and the variable intermittent wiper control. These switches were all matte finish while the switches on my 2000 are gloss. The targa switch I installed to control a Homelink transmitter is also matte finish.

When I completed my intermittent wiper control installation last weekend, I decided to replace the blanks on the left side of the dash with the blanks from the 04 special edition to see how it would look. Here's a photo:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1382146569.jpg

So now, I have one side matte and one side gloss. Since I have all the other switches, I could replace the gloss switches on the right side with matte switches. Then, only the cigarette lighter would be gloss. Of course the heater controls and every other switch in the car would be gloss as well.

I kind of like the mixed look and I'm thinking of going ahead and swapping the other switches. I know it is my car, but does anyone think that may look a little odd?

No but we all have some degree of OCD.

I think I prefer the gloss switches... Although matte doesn't look bad.

What did you use for the internals of the homelink?

Search the forum. Numerous posts. Very easy project.

These switches are not toggles, by the way. "Rocker" would be more accurate.

My garage door switch is matte, the others are glossy, and I don't care how it looks. We all tend to fixate on this type of thing, and in truth it's inconsequential. Most passengers won't even notice.

I used this article on Renntech: http://www.renntech.org/forums/tutorials/article/153-yet-another-way-to-add-a-homelink-device/

You may need to be Renntech subscriber to access it.

I used this: Wipers for the variable intermittent wipers.

I think I'm going to replace all the "rocker" switches with matte. I guess I'll never win a concours competition now that I have so many variations from stock.

I think ekam said it best - "we all have some degree of OCD." No one else is going to notice. I was at a drivers education session with another Boxster owner. He had an 04 and I had my 00. Although his car is the same color as mine, the differences such as wheels, top, lights, bumpers would be obvious to any Boxster owner (at the time I still had my plastic rear window). My wife saw a picture I had taken of his car entering the track and said, "There's your car."