Rover owners: Nice red seatbeat button

My drivers seatbelt buckle is getting old, doesn't always clip in properly, so I ordered a cheap replacement seatbelt pretensioner from ebay.

Replacement is great but the red button is very discoloured so I thought I'd have a play at getting it back to it red glory days. Ok, I was a bit bored, its hardly top of most peoples to do list.

But I'll list the steps below in case anyone else has OCD.

Taking the housing off the seatbelt pretensioner. Very easy, start at the top, it just pops open and can easily be pushed back together later.

The button was very washed out.

I tried a number of things based on suggestions online but the only one that worked for me was to remove the top layer of plastic then sand, polish and protect.

The top layer of plastic is either oxidized or bleached...I dunno, but I could not find a way to get the colour back using techniques like heating it up and using Zymol.

So I started with a dremel and took off that top layer of discoloured plastic.

I just realised how wrong that photo looks, sorry.

The result was pretty good, most of the colour was back but the dremel isn't subtle and it left a lot of pits and dents.

To get it back to being smooth I sanded it with 800 grit sandpaper (wet) then 2600 (also wet) then used my orbital polisher with a cheap restorer polish to restore the finish. I did this 2-3 times until I was happy with the finish. When I say happy, it wasn't perfect but I'd got bored. Its just a seatbelt button.

I did also heat it gently with a hairdryer for 20 secs then applied a bit of Zymol Vinyl Conditioner. Its expensive so only use if you already have some. Otherwise just protect the button with the stuff you usually clean your dash with (I use Meguiars Ultimate Protectant Dash & Trim Restorer)