instrument lights 300CE
 

The instrument panel on my 1988 300CE is very dim, dull, hard to see at night. Is there a upgrade bulb for this problem??? Im old, my cars old but Im sure there must be a solution.

it could be a simple solution

just turn the little knob which controls the instrument lighting-it should be similar to the one used to set the trip mileometer.-if you turn it clockwise,it should dim the instrument lighting and then counterclockwise, then it should brighten up-it is bit like a dimmer switch.

instrument lights 300CE
 

No not that simple. The reostat works fine. Goes from dim to dimer. I do not want to go to white faced gauges either. There must be a bulb upgrade from Mercedes.

Had the same problem - replacing the 2 instrument bulbs (in the 126 cluster) improved the light quality . You might give it a try. The bulbs do get duller and dirtier with age.
Not the ultimate solution because of the black face plate, but does help.

You may just have some bulbs burned out. You need to pull the instrucment pod, yank out every bulb you can, take them to a lightbulb store and replace them all. It should be about $2.