This is a story similar to 90871FE040 – NLA. Unfortunately, the GC8 has reached the point where certain parts have simply become impossible to obtain. That’s exactly the case with 83082FA110OE and 83082FA090OE - the window switch housings for LHD facelift coupes.

Admittedly, having the switches the wrong way around is a small thing, but it’s one of those details that separates an OK car from one that’s truly worth remembering (or so I’d like to think).

Once again, modern technology came to the rescue, not laser cutting like with the reinforcement panel for the scoop, but 3D scanning and printing. I borrowed covers from my pal’s USDM coupe, which were used as the reference for scanning.

The scans are excellent; I was really pleased with their accuracy. Mounting elements, clips, and all holes are reproduced perfectly.

Passenger side:

The USDM version has four openings on the driver’s side:

• left window control,
• right window control,
• window lock,
• central locking.

And two on the passenger side:

• right window control,
• central locking.

Before printing, the central locking hole on the passenger side was filled in, it seemed redundant. After printing, the covers were treated with acetylene vapour to give them a smoother texture. The result turned out really well.

Passenger side:

Then it was time for the switches. The Internet suggested that the same model was used in the USDM versions of Nissan 200SX and Frontier (model years 1997-1999 and 1998-2004 respectively). Indeed, they look identical:

The problem is they’re hard to find, basically only available in the US and rather quite expensive. The cheapest I saw was $170 plus shipping and customs - prohibitive price. So I took a chance on a Chinese “equivalent”: 254018B800. It arrived fairly quickly and looked promising, the connector and pinout were correct.

I had to trim the housing a bit to make it fit the mounting holes:

In the end, it looked like this:

You could say it turned out very well. However, one problem appeared - the switches didn’t work. An electrician compared both mechanisms and said they are completely different and there’s no way they will ever work.

That left me with no choice but to use the JDM version, which has three openings. And since it turned out the central locking doesn’t work anyway, I decided to blank off the entire top row. If I ever fix the central locking, I’ll use a remote, or print the cover again.

The original switch fits the printed housing perfectly.

Ta-da:

I’m considering whether to paint these housings in matte black. I’ll decide that once I finish the whole interior - if I do paint them, I’ll likely do more elements at the same time.

The only downside of this solution (aside from the lack of the central locking switch) is that the AUTO is still assigned to the right (passenger) side. But that’s probably something I can live with.

• Impreza
• Gc8
• Type-R