A Study Of Switch Plates

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Phil Waterman

Thought I'd add another variation to the question, most of the reproduction pictures I have seen have five switches. My late '45 HUP as a six switch plate. I've attached a couple of pictures to illustrate the differences. Can anyone shed some light on when this change took place and is it peculiar to HUPs.

Never seen another one of these 6 switch plates until Sjoerd van de Wal offered me to buy his example. I bought it as a conversation piece.

It has the usual switches plus an extra one in the 5th position (from the top) for “clear headlamp isolation”.

AC2AEED2-3810-4141-820E-EF321EA7313E.jpeg

[m606paz]

This is a plate found on Ford Fat-5.
Seems to be original..

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mariano,

They are late war plates made of steel. I can see a bit of a round gauge on the right side. I have seen earlier ones made of brass.
The brass ones only control one set of lights with each switch while this type allows three combinations of lights on three switches.

The blank space on the ignition plate is for the Autopulse (fuel pump) switch when fitted.

As is so often the case, two holes have been enlarged to fit non-standard switches. Very hard to find plates that haven't had this done to them over the years.

Cheers,

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Jacques Reed

Hi Mariano,

They are late war plates made of steel. I can see a bit of a round gauge on the right side. I have seen earlier ones made of brass.
The brass ones only control one set of lights with each switch while this type allows three combinations of lights on three switches.

The blank space on the ignition plate is for the Autopulse (fuel pump) switch when fitted.

As is so often the case, two holes have been enlarged to fit non-standard switches. Very hard to find plates that haven't had this done to them over the years.

Cheers,

The brass ones are Ford, never Chev. The unused centre place is again Ford, because on Chevs it is used for the trouble lamp socket (that when not in use is stored in the pouch on the front of the side curtain bag hung behind the seats).