I pulled the buttons from the DK conversion I picked up over the weekend to clean them, as they were majorly stained and have some cigarette burns on them. It was really surprising, since the rest of the cabinet was pretty clean, but these things look like they'd had smoke blown on them for the last 25 years.
Following Tighe's methods, I popped them one in the drill, and tried a few different grits of sandpaper. Ended up doing 220, 320, 2000 then rubbing compound. Don't have any wax handy to finish em off, but that's fine because I may give the one I finished another go-round to try and clean it up a little bit more. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. I think for how badly discolored they are though, using a heavier grit at the start might get through it quicker and closer to the original colors.
Here's an image comparing the P1 and P2 buttons, they both looked the same in the beginning:
Following Tighe's methods, I popped them one in the drill, and tried a few different grits of sandpaper. Ended up doing 220, 320, 2000 then rubbing compound. Don't have any wax handy to finish em off, but that's fine because I may give the one I finished another go-round to try and clean it up a little bit more. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results. I think for how badly discolored they are though, using a heavier grit at the start might get through it quicker and closer to the original colors.
Here's an image comparing the P1 and P2 buttons, they both looked the same in the beginning: