Can somebody please tell me how to restore my 1988 300E's gray door handles to there original colour.
Thanks.

Mother's Back to Black will restore the color, but has to be kept up every couple of weeks. You might try a search, I know a lot of people have tried different products on this forum, with varying results. Hope this helps.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

I've had good luck with buffing the snot out of them with some meguiar's #7 (this will blacken some rags folks) and then putting a treatment on them. The #7 will help, but if the oxidation is severe you will need at least 1-2 more steps. Mother's B2B is good, but it tends to run down the side of the car sometimes. (think vertical zebra stripes) I put on a rubber glove and massage some Endurance into the door handles for a MINIMUM of 1 minute per handle. I then recoat the handle so there is plenty of excess and let it sit for 15 mins to 1/2 hour. Repeat on the other handles and let them sit. Come back with a clear terry and wipe off the handles. If they are still not to your satisfaction repeat as needed. You will get some endurance on the paint which will want to streak like hell, but careful application and use of the terry should keep it to a minimum. Give this a try and let me know how it works.

Hope this helps,
Lee

Mother's Back to Black brother!!!

Use masking tape around handles and then peel off after going ape**** with the Back2Black...

Takes a lot of time but, is worth it if your detailing the entire car for pictures or the first beach party of the year.

All the best!
Mike McKinney

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1989 300CE - 269,000 km
1994 SL600 - 59,000 km

No matter what product you use on them, what seems to help the most is the elbow grease....buff each handle (clean fingertip with trimmed nail please) with your fingertips for a minimum of a minute each. Let some excess sit on the handle and "soak" for awhile as well. Give it as much time as you can then buff off. If it isn't as dark as you'd like, repeat as needed. I do like hitting the handles with something to clean some of the oxidation/dead wax off them before putting any kind of darkening treatment, that way you are treating the plastic in the handle as opposed to the gunk on it. Either way....good luck.

Hope this helps,
Lee

PS let me clarify on Back to Black...it does great in the short term, but I've seen it (after downpours or whatnot) to streak/rinse down the side of the car giving you the infamous "zebra stripes" (if your car is light colored)