Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

Hope everyone is out of there Turkey Stuper by now?

Wondering how you guys polish your stainless steel, by hand, by electric , or just send it off to a professional polisher?
Not sure what that cost entails?

I do have some dings I would like addressed ( not by me ).

I am getting to the stage that my stainless steel will need to be addressed
and wanted to throw that out to ya'll with the experience!

As always thanks for your time my friends,
JDarby

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

One very important thing. Do not use a mild steel wire brush on stainless and do not use any material that has been in contact with mild steel. It will cause rust spots on the stainless and I can go take photos to prove it. I'd include buffing wheel in that statement.

As for fixing dings and doing repairs or even polishing there is usually That guy or that shop in an area that repairs and polishes stainless trim. Years ago there used to be an older at the time (probably younger than I am now) gent in this area who was the go to guy to have your stainless trim repaired. I just remember that he was a restorer who had a pretty nice car who guys would take their stainless to.

I just bought and paid too much for some allegedly fantastic metal polish that comes in liquid form but haven't tried it yet. I'll have to see what it does before reporting on it though. Now you have my curiosity raised and I might run out and grab a piece of door window interior trim out of the shed and see how it polishes up.

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

I dealt with Steve at trimpolish.com Very easy to deal with and the results were amazing. He charges by the foot I believe. He made some missing pieces to join the windshield trim and one piece of my original trim had a tiny pit in it that he was unable to polish out. He offered to polish another piece if I could send him one free of charge but to be honest, the pit was so small, it didn't bother me. It wasn't inexpensive but considering the results, well worth it to me. Check out his work on his website.

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

I had my interior door window molding and my stainless dash straightend/polished here-

http://www.russellsmetalpolishing.com/

For the dash and glovebox he used a burr to get to the backside to take the dents out, so I'm going to have to figure out how to cover the holes, but it looks great when the glovebox is closed.

The window garnish is resistance welded from the factory and you can still see some traces of it after polishing, but overall it looks good too.

The window garnishes were $175 for the pair and the dash was around $225 at Russell's

I had the stainless polished after paint but before upholstery and the upholsterer managed to put a dent in the dash stainless. Cost me about $75 to have it fixed and repolished

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

I just had my Cab Trim Stainless Polished out by Gabriel Carbajal in California.

I have worked with Gabriel on Chroming and Polishing my Cameo Stuff and he does an
Excellent and Superior Job!!! My Stainless looked like Chrome after he polished it for me.
Great Guy and Honest to work with!
Gabe # is 805-453-8027

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

You guys are the greatest!!!!

This forum is the BEST!!!

Any question I ask 9 times out of ten I get the answer I am looking for!

I have been talking to Bob from up North and his $ seems in line, and his work looks amazing!
What I didn't realize is that it is a very dangerous job and can cause loss of fingers,
which I would feel awful if that happened to anyone!

Again ya'll are the best and "mr48chev" you top the list, you are a wealth of knowledge and for always answering any question!!!

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

I mostly do it by hand with a rag and some cut polish or specific metal polish. It can be sort of soothing, like honing a knife.

If a bigger piece I have a rag wheel for a drill and either the same polish or the sticks of polish that came with the rag wheel.

As noted it is easy to catch the edge of sheet metal trim with a spinning rag wheel or polishing bonnet and destroy it, the polishing wheel and maybe body parts.

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

Bob just sent me a picture of some of my finished Stainless Steel
before he sends it to me. I am Stoked, looks great!

Re: Polishing Stainless Steel?
 

I just received my polished trim from Bob and it looks concourse quality to me!

Here is a list of people who polish trim that I have gotten from the list:

58CameoAz used:Gabe # is 805-453-8027

e015475 used:http://www.russellsmetalpolishing.com/

greg_h used:Steve at trimpolish.com

JDarby used: Robert Bobin Stainless Steel Restoration 612-978-5488

All the above come highly recommended from the folks that used them!