Is it possible to polish stainless steel?

R

RCK

New member
Hi,

I'm looking to polish some stainless exhaust tips that were missed from the factory. Any ideas on the best approach?



Joe
 
Find a chrome plating service in your area. They have the ability to polish stainless until it looks like chrome. It'll cost you about $20-35 and you be able to pick it up in 2-3 days. Best of luck.
 
You can polish SS but I believe you need the green compound to do it. That may be a little hard to find as most carry the white, black, brown and red but not green. You need to locate the green, get a really good buff and lots of rags! It will be messy and may not turn out as well as a factory polished piece. Factory tips are perfectly smooth when polished; but unpolished tips are often pitted and marked. It may only make the flaws show up even more. Ask me how I know!!
 
When I did my exhaust tips(e36 M3) they were a brushed stainless steel. When I used luster lace on them they really looked like chrome. It was very easy as well.



Peter Hsu
 
You should get a whole pile of sandpaper to start out with. Start with #400 and work your way up to #2000 using WD40 as lube. When you are done this you will be ready to use a dremel tool or a die grinder with a burnishing wheel and some compound bars.



I might have to do some aluminum cycle wheels soon if my brother wins his latest eBay auction. Not looking forward to that.
 
I'm no expert here -- especially on metal polishing. But do you really want a chrome-like finish? I ask this because I do Jaguar Concours show, and they really frown on "over-polishing" -- they go for factory-authentic. Sorry if this is off-topic. :(
 
The stock exhaust tips are stainless but I have a set of Tubi's I want to polish. They are "brushed" for lack of a better term on the interior of the tip and I want it shiny. I know a jeweller and he has the green stuff....lucky me :-)
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Are you sure those are stainless, or are they magnesium like the wheels?
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I'm not sure they still offer the magnesium wheel option. They were like $3500 or so. I don't believe the Z06 wheels are magnesium, just a better manufacturing process of aluminum that results in using less metal to get the same strength. Those mag wheels sure were cool, though. They had that same style as the DyMag (and may have also been made by DyMag) magnesium wheels that could be had with the Callaway Twin Turbo. :drool:



The exhaust on the Z06 is titanium, not magnesium, in case that is what you were thinking of. Magnesium doesn't do well with high heat... I'd imagine the tips are SS, just as he said, as they don't need to be the same material as the piping.
 
ah, Titanium, yup that is what I was thinking, just got the wrong element.



And yeah I thought that atleast for the first year of Z06 production that the wheels were magnesium. I'd have to ask the guy from my church who has one of the '01s to see if he knows (he's an extreme vette enthusiast/collector, so he might have some insight.)



yeah the wheels on the AE vettes is of the same design as the old magnesium option wheels were, but they're gold painted aluminum. Still a cool looking wheel.
 
rasx said:
Is there a way to treat a metal that can rust so that it doesn't (after sanding) ?
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None that I know of. However, I have at one time seen someone spray clearcoat right over bare metal for a unique look.
 
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