Idiots Guide To Polishing Stainless Trim

[Errol62]

Inspiring stuff Scotty. I need to work on my patience.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[EK283]

Good stuff,
I must admit this is not very easy to do and takes a lot of time and patience.
The art is in the sanding before polishing, finish with 3000 grit at the end after going through all the grades of paper.

Then the polishing needs to be done with different wheels and compound.

Its no wonder that the professional polishers charge so much, damn hard and laborius work.

Greg

[In the Shed]

Great work Scott and impressive results. Well worth the time & effort you have put in. Out of curiosity what sort of budget would one be up for the machine & fittings, mops (just two or more?) and compound?

Regards
Stephen

[Harv]

Some great results there

A word of caution on the painters tape. It comes off easy at first, but over time it degrades. It's better than the buff coloured "normal" masking tape, but after about 3 weeks outside it gets obnoxious to remove. Mebbe a little better if its inside and the house is air conditioned 24/7. An alternative is to remove the tape, and use an old bedsheet (mine end up as painting sheets and dust covers). Roll one trim into the sheet so it has 2-3 layers of cloth, then roll the next one in.

Cheers,
Harv

[funkyscooter]

Its no wonder that the professional polishers charge so much, damn hard and laborius work.

Greg

Yeah Greg - got a lot of respect for those guys.It’s really easy to make things shiny, but really hard to actually remove all the blemishes. Every subsequent piece I do, I spend a bit more time trying to remove fine scratches etc, and every time when you get to the final stages of polishing they all appear again.

The secret sauce is in the prep, and I’m over sanding at 280 grit, so my results will always have issues if you look closely.

Don’t want to overdo it to the point that I’m paranoid to wash the car when its done.

Great work Scott and impressive results. Well worth the time & effort you have put in. Out of curiosity what sort of budget would one be up for the machine & fittings, mops (just two or more?) and compound?

Hey Stephen - Budget would be around $600 ($300 for the bench polisher) so not cheap but not sure what it would cost to have it all professionally polished - there is a fair bit of the stuff on these cars. I did load up on things - grey, terracotta, white and green compounds (not that expensive) and 15 mops so you don’t contaminate them with the wrong compound.The softer the mop the more expensive.

A word of caution on the painters tape.

Cheers,
Harv

I hear you Harv - initially I had them in sheets but I ran out so this was my solution.