The Ford Mustang S550 from 2015 up to 2023 has black coated HVAC buttons which are prone to wearing out. This also includes the heated and cooling seat buttons. As you can see in the photographs, you press them a lot and you end up with white patches where the existing paint or coating has peeled off.
What you need to do is purchase a new control panel….. But wait this will cost $200 to $300!
How about a cheaper repair? You can put a repair stickers over the buttons which have got coating wear on them, and exact sizes and exact replicas of the existing designs are available online. Go to Lozs Cool Rides on Etsy or search eBay UK for this product.
You need to have a cutting matt or board, a scalpel with a 10A blade, a small ruler, 6 inches or 15 cm. What to do first, is cut the buttons out, see my video below for a full briefing on how to do this.
Make them exactly the right size. Do a rough cut first, purely so you can position the sticker on the button to decide the final size and shape you need, to get the correct curves. You may need to trim a bit off. That’s why you need to use a scalpel. Because it’s very sharp and will make accurate cuts. It will get the fine edges off. (If you use a plastic ruler, you’ll end up slicing your hand or thumb, which you don’t want to do). It’s a bit fiddly, but it’s better than buying a whole new HVAC panel.
You probably make a better job than me with my septuagenarian type hands, seen in the video. The little back light apertures are a bit fiddly to cut out. But all you are doing is making lots of little cuts. You then push out the white vinyl rectangles from the new holes you’ve made.
Then peel off the backing sheet. A scalpel blade is good at getting underneath the backing sheet on the corner. Be careful that scalpel blade end is very sharp.
Clean the buttons up so any loose coating areas or greasy finger marks are removed before you fix the sticker in place.
Lastly we mount the sticker on to the button. It will come off easy enough for extra trimming if needed before finally fitting the button sticker.