The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Polishing Stainless Steel parts

has anyone got any info on how to make SS shine like new money. thanks

What kind of parts are you wanting to polish?
There's really 2 good ways to do it1 is to get a good brand of metal polish (like Mothers) a pile of rags, and a whole lot o' elbow grease and work at ti (good for trim that's not in bad shape) 2 would be to buy/build a buffer and get the appropriate compounds(s). I have done both. I built my own buffer using an electric motor and an adapter arbor to mount buffer wheels on. You should be able to get the arbor, wheels, and compounds from any hardware store, farm store, Sears, and at swap meets. For the motor, again, hardware or farm stores, but they're kind of pricey. I scavanged mine off an old well pump, one from an old belt drive furnace blower would work too. Just wire it with a switch and a plug and you're set. Polishing isn't too hard, just takes some patience and a good grip on the part. Using a buffer is great for doing bolts and small parts, trip peices can be trickey, especially if the material is relatively thin/flexible. Easy to mess up a paice if you're not carefull. But it sure does a nice job. ou can make unpolished stainless shine like new chrome once you get the hang of it. Gloves are sugested (preferrably leather), as the parts will get hot, and the abrasives in the compounds can be rough on the hands.
If you'd like, I can put some pix up of my homemade buffing machine.

Check out Eastwood, they have all the stuff you need,

We used to just take a handful of plain dirt, not sand, and rub ss with it and it does as good as anything I have ever seen.

CW,

You must have different dirt than we do in SoCal.

If you polish sheetmetal parts on a buffing wheel you better be extremely careful because the wheel can snag on something and pull the part out of your hand. Wear heavy leather gloves, pay CLOSE attention to what you are doing and go slow.

Back in the 70s we sent a thin stainless steel moulding that fits around the edge of a glass sunroof out for polishing. It was mounted onto a wooden fixture of sorts so it wouldn't get warped from the polishing. The guy doing the polishing put his head through the open center of the fixture, the moulding got caught in the buffing wheel and it cut his head off.

True, that's a bit extreme but just be aware that those things are not to be taken lightly.

Well I used to work in the auto parts business years ago, I have used many different polishes and creams from meguires and many other. The one I like the best is good old fashioned white tooth paste. Yep you heard me correctly plain old tooth paste. Laugh if you want but it works as good as anything else on the market and it is a whole lot cheaper.

Years ago, almost all toothpastes contained diatomaceous earth which is in most polishing compounds. Not all (not many) modern toothpastes contain this powder made from a sedimentary rock.

True Buffing can be dangerous. I worked in a metal refinishing/motorcycle paint and repair shop. We had a guy come in who was a friend of the shop owner who wanted to polish his own primary cover for his bike and the wheel snagged it and sent it completely through the wall of the shop and out on the ground. He is lucky it was not his arm.
I too made my garage buffer from a well pump motor. It works good enough but can bog down on big aluminum pieces. Keep an old junk screw driver handy to clean the rag wheels and always wear eye protection,wear an apron unless you don't care about your cloths turning black and a mask if you don't want your lungs black also.

Diatomaceous earth can be found in some farm/feed supply stores. I use it in my chicken coops to prevent lice and fleas. It is not that expensive.

I had a older fellow at the Chrome shop tell me he uses Gold Metal Flour to polish his parts like trim. Infact he showed me the bag of flour. I used it to polish some scratches out of my Aluminum Radiator tank. Depending on how bad the surface is I have used 0000 wet or dry on some pieces along with super fine steel wool then flour. I am sure the flour will work on stainless steel also.
62Blue
Don

http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/polishingtips.html
(flour is mentioned)

http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/stainless.html

http://www.motorcycle.co.uk/articles/polishing/how_to_polish_metal.html

I have some black dirt which we call gumbo and some washes with red clay in my pasture. Putting some of this in my hand and rubbing does wonders for GMC grilles and bumpers. I've been doing this for over 50 years. And yes, we probably do have different dirt than Southern California.

I polished all the stainless on my 55 Belair..neat how you can work it..bumped it a bit and sanded it, working up to 1500 wet. then buffed it through the different rouge colours.

Working those rear quarter spears was quite a challenge. Practice on old stuff for sure.

Caswell has good prices and supplies.