My cheap(ish) 172 Cup

In the interest of science ive just tried a wipe on the clio stalks.

Before
After

Barely any noticeable improvement, so dont waste your time and money. The plastic does not respond when heavily faded. I would give them a light dusting of paint and lacquer.

My kangoo however
Before

After

Night and day. Its either different plastic, or due to not being so faded before.

I used the Ceracote trim wipes on the exterior of mine and was amazed at the difference it made.

Got loads left over so will give it a go on the seatbelt buckles at the weekend. It says not to use on interior due to fumes...sure it will be fine..

Hmm didn't see Brigsy's response, guess I won't bother then

Brigsy said:

In the interest of science ive just tried a wipe on the clio stalks.

BeforeView attachment 1803863
AfterView attachment 1803864

Barely any noticeable improvement, so dont waste your time and money. The plastic does not respond when heavily faded. I would give them a light dusting of paint and lacquer.

My kangoo however
Before
View attachment 1803865
AfterView attachment 1803866

Night and day. Its either different plastic, or due to not being so faded before.

Click to expand...

There seems to be a lot more red on the Kangoo ones so probably the oxidisation is not as deep. I sanded my Laguna ones with 180 grit and even doing that didn't reveal much red. I think the way forward is to remove (sand) the oxidisation as much as possible and then apply a kind of dye, in this case from a marker. Even my dry-wipe marker made a huge difference.

I've not had chance to pull my Clio buckle apart to see if these fit, so it could be a wasted few hours yet!

The Kangoo pre tensioners are vauxhall so might be a different material. Ive had plastics like this on the r26 that are unresponsive to ceramic, i think your right in saying the oxidisation is too deep so painted them.

As mad as it sounds, i would try a shoe /leather dye on it, something like this. Ive used them on faded plastics years ago with pretty decent results.


Keep us updated on findings. I used allsorts of little tricks like this on my old r5gtt, really freshened up the interior.

I've used a bit of red vinyl on one of mine, bit of heat forms it to the button/letters. When it starts to look grubby I replace it

I did look at doing the cover idea and it is still an option in the future. The only issue I see with that is the edges of it and how long it will last because you can’t wrap the whole button in the vinyl as it fits neatly inside the buckle housing.
I’ve just had some red markers delivered so if I get 20 minutes or so tomorrow I will go to 3000 grit on the button, clean everything and then use this Pilot 400 permanent marker on it. The colour looks as though it will be a good match and I think considering that the rest of the car is 23 years old this should be good enough to make the seatbelts look better.