I bought my '89 300 SE last March, and the wood was really nice except for cracks in the finish of 3 pieces. The biggest crack was in the finish of the glove box door, which was several inches long. It took awhile but I eventually found an uncracked one on ebay as well as an uncracked ashtray, both at decent prices. While they had no cracks in the finish, they were dirty with light surface scratches. I gave them the sand and polish treatment I described earlier and they came out very nice and definately darker. I'll take a photo later today and it comes out good, you'll clearly see the color difference between the untouched finish and the sanded and polished finish.

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2000 Mercedes S500
1990 Mercedes 560SEL
1970 Triumph Spitfire