How to easily restore old switches and cables

Update by Tim Suddard to the Austin-Healey Sprite project car
Sep 14, 2023 | Austin-Healey, Sprite, Bugeye Sprite, Austin-Healey Sprite

Photography by Tim Suddard

Old, rusty, faded switches and cables can be easily repaired, and that's often a better route than replacing them with cheaply made newer copies.

The first step: Determine if they still work:

After some initial cleaning and lubrication, it’s useful to take a moment and check if the old switch passes muster with a good and solid engagement.

If there are chunks missing, the knob or handle can be built back up with epoxy. For this task, we like using Epoxo 88.

Then it’s as simple as shaping and painting the epoxy to look just like new.

Our Sprite had switches and knobs that needed to be repaired. Follow along to see how we restored them to like-new condition.

This dull, beat-up choke cable is typical of old pull cables and knobs.

Start by cleaning it with fine steel wool, then lubricating it with a penetrating oil or general-purpose lubricant.

Clean the knob and get any dirt out of the recessed area where the lettering resides. A bamboo stick can make short work of this task.

Next, use a fairly fine polishing compound to buff the plastic knob back to like-new condition.

To buff the knob, just grasp it–be careful not to bend the cable–and rub it quickly back and forth on a cloth soaked with some rubbing compound.

With the knob compounded out and the cable cleaned and lubricated, the final touch is to add lettering paint. A painter's pen, available at most hobby shops, works great for this. (Tip: If you paint outside the lines, you can clean it off with a clean bamboo stick.)