Turning gauge cluster plastics back to white

Recently I have noticed how yellow the plastics for my gauge cluster have become after almost 20 years. Though it seems that some cars have it worse than others and from what I can gather, it comes down to how much time it has spent outside and probably some temperature swing variance as well. My car before my ownership lived up in the Saskatchewan and the pacific northwest before it then moved to Florida from 2020-2025 and lived in a parking garage so it lived in all kinds of the climates... From other gen 3 & 4 cars I have seen some gauge surrounds are still pretty white and some are very yellowed, like mine.

I did not set out to make a forum posting on this so the before and after pictures are kind of all over the place. But below you can see how the cluster surrounds started.


Since I had the dash out anyway working on some other things I figured I might as well try to tackle that. I was familiar with a process in the video game/technology side called Retrobright where it's the process of turning old once white plastics back to a more original color. There are different ways of going about this process so after some research I settled for the submerge the gauge cluster surrounds in hydrogen peroxide and leave out in the sun or other source of UV light. I chose 3% hydrogen peroxide since it is not very harsh and since the main cluster has black painted areas where the warning lights are I did not want to chance that paint peeling or flaking.



So after leaving the plastics out for a total time of around 4-5 hours per piece I have achieved a better result than what I started with and luckily no paint flaking. Since this process supposedly strips the UV protection from the plastic itself you have to add a UV protectant. I found a forum saying 303 Aerospace Protectant does a good job (and it better for $20+ a bottle!). Since I didn't have any plans to drive the car for a while I spent a few weeks where every couple days I would apply the UV protectant with a microfiber.


I did notice however that when I would pull the plastics out of the peroxide they looked great and almost completely white. Over a few days that would start to turn back slightly to the yellow-ish color it was before. But overall I would say I have restored about 70-80% of what it used to be so now it's more of a white-tan color. But especially since I did the LED conversion for the gauges the LED color is not contrasting with the yellowed plastic as much.

**NOTE** I forgot to turn on the flash for the camera so in this picture the white balance is slightly off from the pictures above. I will try to update with a picture of it in the car later.



Now I just have to see how well this process holds up since results are inconclusive if this will stay this condition for a while or not. Some people report that some plastics will go back to the yellow color after 6 months to a year and sometimes be worse. I will try my best to post an update in the future documenting what happens.

For those interested in what was used.

• A plastic bin to submerge plastics in
• Saran wrap to cover the top of the plastic bin
• 3 gallons of 3% Hydrogen peroxide (depends on what the size of your plastic bin is depends how much you will need) $40-50
• 303 Aerospace protectant ~$21
• A way to hold down the plastic under liquid. I just used some junk drill bits.

Over all it makes the car a bit younger looking than it was before

Neat! I've seen the Retrobrite thing done a ton on old plastics. Never would have thought about it on the car, but makes enough sense.

IMO, the problem is that these panels are NOT painted, and just bare white plastic. The plastics are yellowing due to UV and atmospheric conditions. It will happen again.

Easiest solution is to mask the black, and scuff/shoot them in white or another color of choice. Looks great... never repeats.

You are probably right. This is probably a short-term solution, but I figured I might as well try it and document the results later over time. Right now I am just happy it looks better than it was.

Also just as a note here is a picture of it back in the car with no backlight.

Dont get me wrong, it looks worlds better.

However the problem is that the gauge faces dont yellow... and being right next to them means its always noticeable even if its barely off color. Add that to the complexity and risk to plastics of the job, and its one of those things you only want to do once and forever.

Of course there are people who want "original at all costs" and your version is 100% the right option for them, as nothing is actually modified.