mavin
New member
- Apr 14, 2013
- 377
- 0
So the exhaust tips on my 2008 A4 have never been neglected for 55,000 miles, are frankly were in brutal shape. Im a newbie, and reading had led me to find that many people recommend p21s polishing soap for their exhaust tips. Well, that stuff did not touch the horror that was my exhaust tips x2.
Right
Left (After OPC and P21s polishing soap)
Knowing I need some help, I picked up some extra supplies:
--Mothers Powerball Mini
--Mothers Chrome polish
--Megs medium cut metal polish
--0000 steel wool
--Totally Awesome Cleaner (I tried straight OPC which wasnt doing much, so didnt feel like wasting the expensive stuff!)
I unfortunately did not take a lot of pics along the way because my hands were filthy. I scrubbed with the steel wool and LAs cleaner with minimal improvement. I tried a round of megs medium cut polish which also was not really touching the main issue. At that point I know that Im in trouble anyway, so I grab a razor blade and carefully scrap off some of the intense/thick carbon build up. This was very effective at getting off that thick top layer.
Once I had some metal to work with, I did two rounds of the megs medium cut polish with the power ball, and then a few more rounds with the mothers polish on the powerball. The ball worked quite well in saving me some elbow grease. I wish it was a little smaller to be honest, and I had the mini-version. It is a little tough to maneuver in tight spaces, and if it was smaller you could have a little more control. That said, I was pleased overall with it. As you can see, it took off a lot of crud!
The exhaust tips themselves have clearly suffered damage from years of neglect, and have some pitting that no amount of polishing was going to fix. However, they at least are now silver and shiney instead of black! I put on a coat of 845 after I finished to hopefully protect them a little. I left the insides black, as it was just not worth the effort of trying to get those clean.
Right
Left (After OPC and P21s polishing soap)
Knowing I need some help, I picked up some extra supplies:
--Mothers Powerball Mini
--Mothers Chrome polish
--Megs medium cut metal polish
--0000 steel wool
--Totally Awesome Cleaner (I tried straight OPC which wasnt doing much, so didnt feel like wasting the expensive stuff!)
I unfortunately did not take a lot of pics along the way because my hands were filthy. I scrubbed with the steel wool and LAs cleaner with minimal improvement. I tried a round of megs medium cut polish which also was not really touching the main issue. At that point I know that Im in trouble anyway, so I grab a razor blade and carefully scrap off some of the intense/thick carbon build up. This was very effective at getting off that thick top layer.
Once I had some metal to work with, I did two rounds of the megs medium cut polish with the power ball, and then a few more rounds with the mothers polish on the powerball. The ball worked quite well in saving me some elbow grease. I wish it was a little smaller to be honest, and I had the mini-version. It is a little tough to maneuver in tight spaces, and if it was smaller you could have a little more control. That said, I was pleased overall with it. As you can see, it took off a lot of crud!
The exhaust tips themselves have clearly suffered damage from years of neglect, and have some pitting that no amount of polishing was going to fix. However, they at least are now silver and shiney instead of black! I put on a coat of 845 after I finished to hopefully protect them a little. I left the insides black, as it was just not worth the effort of trying to get those clean.
