Polishing stainless

[ShineTimeDetail]

What kind of cleaner can I use to clean it and us there a special polish that works good?

[jamores23]

Clr makes a cleaner

[Y2KSVT]

Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner Plus at 4:1 with #0000 steel wool does a fantastic job of cleaning up stainless steel. I did my entire grill with this, as well as the exhaust tips on my car. Both came out looking brand new. You probably already have APC+ on hand and the steel wool is cheap.

Mark

[ShineTimeDetail]

Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner Plus at 4:1 with #0000 steel wool does a fantastic job of cleaning up stainless steel. I did my entire grill with this, as well as the exhaust tips on my car. Both came out looking brand new. You probably already have APC+ on hand and the steel wool is cheap.

Mark

So just use apc to clean it the use steel wool? Sounds easy...but is it lol

[C. Charles Hahn]

So just use apc to clean it the use steel wool? Sounds easy...but is it lol

Use the APC as "lubricant" for the steel wool -- treat it almost like you're claying paint, but the steel wool is the "clay" for your stainless parts.

As far as polishing goes, I've gotten really good results from M105 on stainless parts/trim. I recently did a bunch of it with a wool pad on my rotary that came out great.

[Dr Oldz]

Poorboys Pro Polish and Pro Polish2 really work great on stainless.

[Scarelane]

Fliz makes a cleaner and a polish and they work well. Optimum metal polish works really good too.

[SameGuy]

How about polishing up raw stainless for the first time? Ie.: I just had a new inter-cooler pipe made from un-polished 1.75" 304L tubing and I'd like to give it some gleam (not necessarily a mirror finish like chrome or aluminum).

[feds27]

Britemax Easy Cut followed by Britemax Final Shine. I've used these twins on dirty motorcycle pipes and they worked much better than any other cleaner/polish on the market. Simichrome would be my 2nd choice.

[forrest@mothers]

Remember that stainless is much harder than aluminum - speed will be your friend when polishing, regardless the polish used.

[James K]

How about polishing up raw stainless for the first time? Ie.: I just had a new inter-cooler pipe made from un-polished 1.75" 304L tubing and I'd like to give it some gleam (not necessarily a mirror finish like chrome or aluminum).

I have polished raw stainless exhaust before and had great results. What I do is start off wetsanding the steel starting at around 500 grit and working my up to 2200. After that I use Mothers compounds and polishes with foam pads on my rotary. I basically treated it like paint.

I wish I had pics of the actual exhaust still, but I do not. Sorry. It was a very lengthy process, but well worth it for the owner.

[HeavyMetal]

What are you trying to polish? If it's satin finish exhaust tips, then a brillo pad or #0000 steel wool and some APC will do just fine. Follow up with any good commercial metal polish. I like Simichrome, UC Metal Glo or Pikal. I used all of these in industry. Pikal is tougher to find, but it's very good. Simichrome would be my next choice. It's available just about everywhere, it's cheap and it's darn good. It's what I have at the house now for general polishing.

If you're trying to polish mirror-finish SS, then I'd go to your local industrial supply (or Amazon) and get some fine green rouge - that's the recommended polish for SS and what I used in industry. It works best with sewn cotton or sisal rotary buffs.

[Mike Phillips]

On page 3 of this thread I did some testing of a product that I think is going to be in the new Marine Line...

1956 Pontiac Star Chief Convertible (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/34525-1956-pontiac-star-chief-convertible.html)


Stainless Steel Fender Skirts - Before
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/56StarCheif008.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/56StarCheif021.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio04.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio05.jpg


Side-by-Side
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio06.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio07.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio08.jpg


After
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio09.jpg


Much better...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio10.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1084/OpenStudio11.jpg


http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/images/smilies/xyxthumbs.gif

[HeavyMetal]

Not bad, Mike. If you wanna get those scratches out, start with around 200 grit wetsand, then buff with black emory compund and then fine green chromium compound. You'll create a mirror. 'Course you'll have to coat it with a hard wheel clear or first drive down the road it'll be all nicked up again.

[Mike Phillips]

Not bad, Mike. If you wanna get those scratches out, start with around 200 grit wetsand, then buff with black emory compound and then fine green chromium compound. You'll create a mirror. 'Course you'll have to coat it with a hard wheel clear or first drive down the road it'll be all nicked up again.

I'll give that a try sometime...

In the above example I was asked to test one product and see what it would do so I tested it and then took some pictures to show the results. Just a coincidence I had the stainless steel fender skirts when the lab sample came in.


:)