The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop How To clean Stainless Steel?

I'm swapping off some labor/service with a friend of mine and he has a stainless steel bumper that came off of a Jeep. Its "clean" but doggone it, even though its clean you can still get "black" stuff off of it.

What do you guys use to spruce up stainless steel to a nice an shiny shape? I need to know, he's doing some alternator and generator work for me at a low price!

http://www.barkeepersfriend.com/

It works like a charm.

A Review by a Real-Life housewife

Thanks, its ironic that my oldest daughter has been using BKF for years. Never knew it was good for SS.

Wow Alvin, been around the metal working business since I was
a kid, worked for nearly three decades at an accelerator
that was built out of SS. I welded it for half of my time
served there, and In all those years, I never saw any SS that
would tarnish. I've seen SS trim that has sat in scrap yards
for half a century where the rest of the vehicle had rusted
away around it, and the SS still looked great and would only
take a wipe down with some chrome polish to take the grime
off.
Point is....are you sure it's SS?

Denny G
DG

new ss may not be the same quality stuff as the old ss, just like almost everything else these days

its stainless, Denny. I'm not sure of the makeup/composition but it really only needs a good cleaning. Been in the weather a long time and just needs some TLC. I got two cans of the BarKeepersFriend to try next week. It should to the trick and clean up a few tough spots.
Thanks for the input guys. Stovebolting is ALWAYS interesting.

I have worked in the food industry for years and have saw 202 - 304 SS rust but somebody scratching it with a different type metal or dragging some thing over it and making it look tarnished or dull looking. We had a bar of polishing compound that we used to get it looking great again. But this Barkeepers Friend sounds like really the cats meow when cleaning SS.
62blue
Don

NeverDull was the big deal in the 70's/80's. I still have a can and use it for that. It was a wool permeated in some kind of metal cleaner. Worked amazing on brass, but also SS. I need to get me some of the latest greatest!

Nevr-Dull, still using it after four decades and although
it's a bit dryer than it was new, it still works:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/159317093/large

Stainless steel will stain.....as Don posted, if rusty metal
or was in contact with it or if it was covered with something
that transferred to it, but those stains will come out.
Rust adjacent to a weld is often seen because there is a heat
effected band of the parent metal that cooled slowly causing
it to loose it's austenitic properties. It will also be
somewhat magnetic in this band.

dg

This is a good product for polishing metal also.
http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Produ...&sr=1-4&keywords=wizard+products

Brian