Dash switches oxidating - how to restore?

This is second set of OE switches I've had in my XJ since new... Now these are turning white as well.

Anyone know a way to restore these so they a black again?

I'm not interested in spray painting them like the ones I see on eBay.

Thanks

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Don't know about the switches, but on fading black trim I've heard to hit it with a heat gun, or a product by Mothers called "Back to Black".

not sure if you wanna try it but I have really good luck with seafoam. yes seafoam.

I use it on all my faded plastics, you will need to apply it a few times as it soaks in but it works pretty good.

I'm no scientist but plastic is made from petroleum and seafoam is pure petroleum distillate it just made sense.

Jay Sco said:

Don't know about the switches, but on fading black trim I've heard to hit it with a heat gun, or a product by Mothers called "Back to Black".

Click to expand...

I bought some Mothers B2B and it just rolled off the switch.. wouldn't absorb. The bottle indicates not to use on hard or shinny plastics. Wasted $10.00.

The oxidation or reaction is from UV light.. I swapped in new switches when they were still available - these are doing the same thing. I was told by a plastics engineer its the release agent used during the molding process - they used too much and eventually turns the plastic white.

I'll try my Makita heat gun to see if that changes the color... I guess as long as I don't melt the damn thing in the process.

Thanks

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AKghandi said:

not sure if you wanna try it but I have really good luck with seafoam. yes seafoam.

I use it on all my faded plastics, you will need to apply it a few times as it soaks in but it works pretty good.

I'm no scientist but plastic is made from petroleum and seafoam is pure petroleum distillate it just made sense.

Click to expand...

I'll try seafoam if the heat gun doesn't work..

Thanks

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Hi,

This is a really old thread but I found a solution to restoring the dash switches.

Take a look here... procedure and photos.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/black-dash-switches-turning-white-224378/

Whatever you do don't paint your switches.

Honda Shin Etsu grease works.

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bchulett said:

Hi,

Whatever you do don't paint your switches.


.

Click to expand...

Not sure I agree with this... I tried the heat trick and it lasted about 6 months. I tried every cleaning product I could find and nothing worked for long. I finally took them completely apart, removed the lens for the light in each (if you use a small screwdriver and push from the front, it will pop out. It has a small locking mechanism built into the lens so when you put it back it will stay in place) and painted them with a special paint specifically designed for automotive plastic parts from a company called SEM. A year later and they still look like new.


One thing I realized before I started this project was that the one switch that didn't have a light in it didn't fade as fast as the others. In fact, while it didn't look new, it was still pretty much black. That got me to thinking so I started paying attention to the temperature of the switches when they were on. I noticed that the ones with the lights would get really hot. The Transmission Comfort/Power switch was the worst and would almost burn my finger so I carefully removed each light and installed an LED. It wasn't quite as simple as a straight replacement but I found a configuration of LED and an inline resistor that worked perfectly.


For the OP, if you are interested, send me a PM and I will try to document the parts (and paint) I used. Below are some "after" pics I just took (I did the work over a year ago and the Jeep has been sitting outside in the sun since then). Note that I used "green" LED's since they seemed to look the best. The buttons still have the same orange lenses in them but as you can see from one of the pic's, you can't tell when they are on.

Very interesting, tjmotter - perhaps the heat from the lights was "cooking off" the color then?

Or it could just be the heat accelerating a chemical process.

tjmotter said:

The Transmission Comfort/Power switch was the worst and would almost burn my finger so I carefully removed each light and installed an LED. It wasn't quite as simple as a straight replacement but I found a configuration of LED and an inline resistor that worked perfectly.

Click to expand...

I've been meaning to do that to mine as well. Or just clip the light since it gets very hot and I don't like the reflection of it in the windshield at night. I don't have fogs or rear defroster.

Switching the interior lights to LEDs made a really nice difference. I had to try a few different ones to get the brightness where I wanted it in the footwells, and I actually put some white vinyl tape over the pillar lights to diffuse the light better.