Metal polishing?

S

sixspeed

Senior member
 Surrey, UK
So since we now have some light evenings again, and I wanted to tart the car up a little for the N.Wales meet at the weekend, I thought I'd pick up a metal polishing kit to give my stainless exhaust tips a going over. They're usually neglected by me (the only part on the car that is!), and as such are looking in quite a sorry state - with a general gold tarnished appearance, and lots of darker brown/gold discoloured spots in the metal finish, that both Autosol and Belgum Alu so far haven't managed to shift by hand!

So I've got a set of Dremel polishing discs and some rubbing compound on it's way (this to be exact). Anyone done this before? Fairly simple job? I've not used metal polishing compound before so don't really know how to use it but figured I'd just have a go since I can't make the tips any worse than they are now. Any advice would be appreciated tho...

Will take some pics, and then post them if the job turns out to be a good 'un ... :D
 
They are really good sixspeed, used mine a few weeks ago with the AG metal polish. One thing to watch is the felt buffers do wear out and then you run the risk of scratching the item you are polishing with the metal spindle. Apart from that its a breeze.


Dan
 
Ive also used the autosol and belgium alu with the machine buffers to good effect.
obviously the machine is much quicker than by hand but you know the above products are pretty safe ,so the two combined gives good results.
 
Sixspeed - what metal are you exhaust tips? Are they stainless steel or chrome plated. Makes a big difference as if stainless you can polish away to your hearts content, if chrome you'll go through it to base metal if you polish aggressively.

Generally with metal polished on power tools use a little polish and often apply it. Too much and it burns and streaks horribly. Equally no need to apply a lot of pressure, let the tool do the work.
 
Mine are chrome tipped: A few splodges of chrome polish (a little coarser than T-Cut) drape the cloth round over the top of each pipe and pull the cloth from either side quickly like the street shoe buffers doo - works a treat :) I really wouldnt bother with power tools unless its to clean the inner lip
 
Mine are just pure stainless, not chrome. They were polished up from new, but have slowly discoloured due to heat and road contaminants etc, so need a bit of work to get them back.

I've tried the usual suspects (Autosol etc) by hand, and not been able to make much difference. So I figured I'd need something a bit more aggressive, and since I hardly put my Dremel to use thought I'd look for a metal polishing kit for it. It's also an ideal tool for working on the exhaust tips when they're in quite a tight space next to the bumper trim, as a drill polishing kit would be a bit too unwieldy.

Will get pics of the exhaust tonight so you can see what I mean by how bad they are! Hopefully I'll get the kit arrive in a day or two, in time to attack the tips before Sunday :D
 
Still waiting for my kit to arrive, but snapped these this morning, so you can see the level of what I have to try and get back. The first picture is one I tried polishing recently with Autosol, and some other metal polishes, so its a bit shinier, but still has a lot of discolouration. The second photo, of the tips on the right, are just suffering from neglect full-stop!

IMAG0266.jpg

IMAG0267.jpg


Looking forward to producing some (hopefully) gleaming after shots! :D
 
Thats Shocking!!! I would be onto H&S about that. Regardless of cleaning they should not be that bad!
 
Hmmm... I think it's a trait of stainless steel, combined with being a high-flow system and getting lots of track work (abuse? :D), which means a lot of heat gets transferrred to the rear boxes/tips. Stainless will naturally go golden in colour when exposed to high temperatures, and the tips on this do get pretty damn hot after a track session. Most aftermarket systems have sleeved tips to provide some insulation from the heat, or they're chrome plated which won't discolour the same... however neither are present on my system.

See this discussion:

http://www.finishing.com/277/14.shtml
 
Will be inspecting your results with great interest on Sunday. Mine's stainless too, although probably not running anywhere near as hot.
 
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