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VW & Porsche pattern switches
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NASkeet
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Joined: April 29, 2006
Posts: 2947
Location: South Benfleet, Essex, UK
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 12:28 pm    Post subject: VW & Porsche pattern switches Reply with quote

Introduction

In the late-1970s, I was trying to source a matching 1968~79 VW Type 2 style (i.e. dimpled, truncated cone-shaped switch-knob), single-throw, accessory dashboard switch with integral tell-tale light, for the Minnow Fish carburettor’s electrical de-icing element, of my British specification 1973 VW 1600 Type 2 Westfalia Continental motor-caravan. There seemed to be little if anything of this kind available; although I was aware of a matching Hella triple-throw accessory switch (Hella part No. 6RE 001 596 001) for front & rear fog lights!

Generally speaking, British specification 1968~72 & 1973~79 VW Type 2s were only equipped with either four & three dashboard switches respectively; these being for: (a) headlamps, (b) interior courtesy lights, (c) hazard-warning flashers, and (d) windscreen wipers & washers [1968~72 model-years only]. In contrast to those in North America, few if any such vehicles in Great Britain, were equipped with an electrically-heated rear window, so there was no associated green-lensed switch with integral tell-tale light, which would have been ideally suited to my Minnow Fish de-icer application.

1968~79 VW Type 2 heated rear-window switch [211 959 621 A]

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Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


I had discovered during the late-1970s (and later in the 1980s & 1990s), that 1968~79 VW Type 2 vehicles seldom appeared in car breakers’ yards (I found about a half-dozen over a circa 20 year period!), but VW Types 1, 3 & 4 were commonly found. However, the VW Type 3 & 4 style (i.e. stepped, truncated cone-shaped switch-knobs) dashboard switches, including the heated rear-window switch with integral green-lensed tell-tale light & coiled-wire symbol, did not match my existing VW Type 2 switches!

Need picture of VW Type 3 & 4 heated rear-window switch

For aesthetic reasons, I wanted all of my dashboard switches to have switch-knobs of matching style, so being of a pragmatic disposition, I salvaged a second-hand, VW Type 4 style (i.e. stepped, truncated cone-shaped switch-knob) heated rear-window switch for use with the carburettor’s de-icer, together with some matching VW Type 4 style switch-knobs, to substitute onto my existing three 1973 VW Type 2 style dashboard switches. This was quite fortuitous, because I discovered many years later, that the optional glove-box-cover latch-knob and cigar-lighter knob [n.b. both are rare on British specification, 1968~79 VW Type 2s!] are of the VW Type 3 & 4 switch-knob style.

VW Type 1 style cigar lighter

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Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.



1968~79 VW Type 2 latched glove-box cover

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Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.



In later years, I acquired some additional VW Type 3 & 4 style heated rear-window switches, to use with various other accessories such as: (a) auxiliary driving lights, (b) front fog lights, (c) rear fog lights, (d) auxiliary reversing lights [to see at night when reversing], (e) roof-mounted flood-lights, etc. For these, I could make substitute tell-tale light lenses from translucent acrylic sheet of different colours (e.g. white, dark-red, light-red, orange, yellow, light-green, green, turquoise, light-blue, blue & magenta, etc), to facilitate easier & quicker identification of the switch applications; although it’s also useful to inscribe & paint appropriate standard emblems on the lenses.

In an auto-jumble during the 1990s, at one of the local Essex VW Club shows near Dunton, Essex, England, I came across a Hella single-throw, plastic-cased accessory switch, with a VW Type 3 & 4 pattern, stepped, truncated-cone shaped switch-knob and integral red-lensed tell-tale light & NO symbol, for which the £1•00 asking price was within my budget. Unlike the genuine VW switches, this was retained by a knurled circular nut.

I later re-discovered a reference to three Hella accessory switches of this type as follows, with different-coloured (i.e. red, green or amber) plain lenses, featured in a 1982/83 vintage, Swedish automotive mail-order catalogue, given to me several years earlier by a Swedish university-friend. At that time in 1982/83, they were each priced at 27 Swedish Kronor, which was about £2•50.

Hella part No. 6ED 001 566 42 1 | Red lens

Hella part No. 6ED 001 566 43 1 | Green lens

Hella part No. 6ED 001 566 44 1 | Amber lens
_________________
Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

http://www.vwt2oc.net
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