Collector Car - Polishing Stainless trim without removing it

gardenut

gardenut

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I've got a '56 Ford Fairlane and all of my stainless trim is on the hazy side. Hand polishing just isn't making much of a difference. Anyone have experience using an electric buffer / polisher to polish up the stainless without removing it ?
I'm not getting any specific recommendations from any searches here on the site.
Can someone make a good recommendation for soemthing for the polishing that I could then also use as a general buffer later ?
 
Drill motor with very soft cotton or felt wheel. Start with softest buffing stick and begin on a hidden or nearly hidden area. can also use a Dremel with their soft cotton wheel.
 
Second that vote for using a Dremel...just go gentle.

Bill
 
Kevin Brown did a write up that I can't find at the moment....

I believe he straightened the stainless, sanded the surface until the blemeshes were out then polished with M105 on a rotary with either a foam or wool pad.....

I am a chicken with wool, I did my former Stepson's trim with a rotary and foam pad with NXT and M105 and they turned out not too bad.....

Metal Trim

I must admit, after 7, 12 hour shifts at the klink, I didn't read the whole caption. Without taking it off.....

Tape up around the trim and either polish by hand or machine, start least aggressive first. I have sucessfully polished trim on a vehicle.....

Metal Trim Swirled
 
Normally if I'm already buffing the paint out with some type of quality compound or even medium cut polish I'll buff the stainless trim at the same time, always seems to work pretty well. In the car restoration world most guys that restore stainless steel trim pieces use bench top mounted or pedestal mounted motors with cotton and felt buffing wheels and specialty compounds that come in the form of a brick.

In this thread,

1956 Pontiac Star Chief Convertible



I documented before and after results from buffing out the stainless steel fender skirts...

Here's Max checking out Earl's new addition to his car collection...
56StarCheif002.jpg



Neglected stainless steel fender skirts
56StarCheif008.jpg



There's a lot of stainless steel on this car including the fenderskirts... no black or gray pebble textured plastic trim to be seen... :D
56StarCheif020.jpg



We're going to see if we can restore some brilliance to the stainless steel...
56StarCheif021.jpg

OpenStudio04.jpg


OpenStudio05.jpg



Side-by-Side
OpenStudio06.jpg


OpenStudio07.jpg


OpenStudio08.jpg



After
OpenStudio09.jpg



Much better...
OpenStudio10.jpg


OpenStudio11.jpg





:)
 
Having owned a showcar for over ten years I can tell you maintaing stainless trim is a bear.Whatever you do don't attempt to use a drill to polish the trim on your car.It will tear through your protective tape in a second.Hand polish and tape all areas around your trim as to not scratch your paint.You will not remove scratches, but will brighten the stainless.My car has been a SEMA showcar for five consecutive years and it appears in Mike Phillips book.I speak from experience.BE CAREFULL. I have made many mistakes on the care of stainless,using a drill was one of them.
 
vegasbigron said:
Having owned a showcar for over ten years I can tell you maintaing stainless trim is a bear.Whatever you do don't attempt to use a drill to polish the trim on your car.It will tear through your protective tape in a second.Hand polish and tape all areas around your trim as to not scratch your paint.You will not remove scratches, but will brighten the stainless.My car has been a SEMA showcar for five consecutive years and it appears in Mike Phillips book.I speak from experience.BE CAREFULL. I have made many mistakes on the care of stainless,using a drill was one of them.
Click to expand...

Hi Ron,

It was a pleasure meeting you at SEMA and for everyone that has a copy of my book I think it's the picture on page 83


Yancy took "Beauty Shots" at the 2010 SEMA show and used some in the book to add color and break up the text.



:)
 
as mike said the best way to get the trim looking its best is to remove and use cotton and felt buffing wheels on a stand/bench mounted grider using a bunch of different rouge compounds, some do to metal what m105 does to paint some do to metal what po85rd does to paint. it takes hours to polish up metal using one but the results are worth it, if your just looking to bring back some shine what mike suggested would work, however if its scratched and swirled and want to remove the swirls/scratches you will need to remove trim. polishing metal is dirty work but its so worth it when you see the results. good luck!
 
edit: forgot to add that come rouge compounds are like sandpaper in a paste and with an abrasive buffing wheel like a sisal wheel can "polish" right through the trim. that rouge is meant for polishing cast aluminum and removing really deep scratches. a good place to get the buffing wheels for mounting on a drill or bench grinder(both ways i would remove trim would be easier in the long run) and the rouge blocks would be caswellplating.com. again good luck !
 
Mike;
You say you "buffed" the stainless fender skirts - was that buffing using the stand mounted buffing wheel, hand rubbing using different rouges, dremel, or power buffer ?

Are you also not recommending a power buffer ? Other responses state to NOT use power drills, but some recommend Dremel.
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Hi Ron,

It was a pleasure meeting you at SEMA and for everyone that has a copy of my book I think it's the picture on page 83


Yancy took "Beauty Shots" at the 2010 SEMA show and used some in the book to add color and break up the text.



:)
Click to expand...
It is an honor to have my car included in your book Mike.Not only is it on page 83 but on 117 also.It was great meeting you ,Todd and Nick.Nice people very good company.I have used Black Fire for many years and the compliments never stop.Quality people with quality products unmatched combination.
 
gardenut said:
Mike;
You say you "buffed" the stainless fender skirts - was that buffing using the stand mounted buffing wheel, hand rubbing using different rouges, dremel, or power buffer ?

Are you also not recommending a power buffer ? Other responses state to NOT use power drills, but some recommend Dremel.
Click to expand...


We don't have the traditional style bench mounted or pedestal mounted motors for polishing metal like trim pieces, it's not really a part of our core market.

I used what I had... a rotary buffer and if I remember correctly a wool pad and a metal polish from Gel-Coat Labs.

The stainless didn't come out perfect but I think the pictures show the stainless came out dramatically improved.


:)
 
Thanks Mike;
Then to push you just a little further down the line, I don't have a rotary buffer so which one would you recommend I purchase specifically for this task, but for longer term usage in buffing my ride which was just repainted last year ?
 
gardenut said:
Thanks Mike;
Then to push you just a little further down the line, I don't have a rotary buffer so which one would you recommend I purchase specifically for this task, but for longer term usage in buffing my ride which was just repainted last year ?
Click to expand...

If you're working by hand, any good quality medium cut or fine cut metal polish plus some elbow grease will clean the stainless and restore some level of clarity, shine and brilliance.

Wolfgang
Flitz
Blackfire
Mothers
Meguiar's
Optimum


They all make good metal polishes, more important will be the elbow grease and some terry cloth towels.

See my article here,

Put a little passion behind the pad - Mike Phillips



:)
 
Greatly appreciated and I thank you for not making a recommendation just to sell a piece of hardware. I just thought a buffer would save me work & time, but, as pointed out, too much aggression / power could cause major damage to both the stainless and my paint job.
I'll still tape off around my side molding to play it safe, roll up my sleeves, and start rubbing in a lateral motion.

Thanks for the advice.
 
can get a cheap harbor freight rotary, i use one only downside is the lack of an electronic speed control so when you put pressure down it will slow so you need to bump speed up. but for once in a while use the cheap one will work, you could get a DA and use that but i don't know if it will have the "power" to polish metal that is bad off. if you can take the trim off you can use a drill mounted buffer, even though a previous poster said not to use one with trim on the paint, as for something like that the right wheel will go right through the tape and can mar up the paint even burn into the layers of paint. so if you take it off there's really no damage that can be done minus too much pressure or bending it in half or something that extreme. i use my dremel for some polishing of metals just with the dremel the attachments are too small for certain things and will take forever. caswell plating should have a kit including rouge compounds/polishes. they also have wheels to fit on the rotary polisher. just depends on what route you want to take,how much time you want to spend, and how much defects you want removed from the metal.
 
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