stainless steel...

[r0ckstrWS6]

k so I have some stainless steel parts on my car, headers, exhaust, emblems etc.. just wondering what everyones advice would be on some kind of protectant for these parts. I have P21S polishing soap and some DP wheel glaze. Can the DP wheel glaze be used on stainless steel to protect it somewhat ? TIA :)

[RossM]

your best bet would be either to high tempreture powdercoat it or just plain polish it. I don't believe there are alot of products that work well with the high tempreture that thoes parts put out.

[r0ckstrWS6]

so just polishing it regularly will help? I'm mainly concerned about the exhaust tips, they're soo sooty and get like that quickly I guess I'd just have to stay on top of cleaning them. thanks for the reply

[SwampeastMike]

Flitz is my all-time favorite metal polish. While it may take two or three applications, even exhaust tips (at least chrome plated) will clean very nicely for a long time with no special attention, but you do have to re-polish to get that liquid look...

Is this brushed stainless? If so, I would suggest that the intentional cracks will catch exhaust debris requiring that polish be used very frequently for "good" appearance.

[r0ckstrWS6]

nope all polished stainless steel.

[SwampeastMike]

Flitz has always been expensive and it's getting hard to find, but I was VERY pleased to find it at Auto Geek as my tube was running low. While I normally hand buff everything, I do prefer mechanical buffing for unpainted metal as your arm gets really tired really fast when you move it at the high speed that seems necessary. I recently bought a microfiber "buffing ball" that I use on a drill and find it far faster and easier than the simple pads I'd used before.

I'd venture to say however that polished stainless steel is not as smooth as good chrome plate and exhaust tips may still soil rather rapidly in comparison.

[Jimmie]

I'm always concerned about scratching the highly polished metals so lately I've been handling them with polish I use for paint. I use to use Polishing Soap and Simichrome but it seems like they produce swirls.
I can attest to DP Wheel Glaze being easier to use on the highly polished wheels.

[ScottB]

00000 Steel Wool , you can find it in large bags at Home Depot. Works best will a metal polish designed for stainless steel versus chrome.

[Emile]

Eagle One NEVR-DULL. $5 for the container and can be bought at a lot of retail stores such as KMart, Target, especially AutoZone. Cleans and polishes steel and removes rust. It works really great on the exhaust muffler pipes on my G35 Coupe.