cryzko

i need to polish up the stainless on my windshield trim...any suggestions... i have some chrome rubbing compound....and a small buffing wheel...will that work?

cryzko

BBShark

There is a book called "How to Restore Metal Auto Trim" by Jeff Lilly that is available at Amazon.com or Half.com. It's about $10-15 and covers removal, restoration, die cast restoration, etc. Great information.

RoadrashOU812

Try Mothers polishing cream , works wonders .

startwith80vette

i will swear by nevr-dull til the day i die

cryzko

will i be able to buff out any small scratches with either of those compounds...... curious if i should take some fine fine fine fine steel wool to it first.....?

cryzko

ltlevil

I dont know how bad the scratches are, but something that will help you polish and remove very light scratches is aluminum foil. Even if you decide you need to use steel wool, aluminum foil is worth a shot first.

comp

need pic's to see better

Pauld

Depending on how bad the scratches are will effect the amount of work you will have to put in. If they are deep scratches then you will first have to removed the scratches by using something like a fine scotchbrite wheel, this will then leave the stainless steel looking very dull. You will then need to use a mop and progressing through polishing soaps ending in a finishing soap. This will give you a true mirror polish. You will have to do the entire area, but only use the scotchbrite on the scratched area. Takes time, but worth it in the long run.

Hitch

There was discussion the other day on this over in C1/C2 lots of good information... Take a look... I was debating pulling mine but I think now I'll research it a little more... http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=938029

stingr69

My Vette does not have much stainless but I have done stainless trim on different cars. Assuming you have no dings to work out first I will start with the rest of the steps I used.

The heavy scratches need to be sanded out or use a fine tooth file if they are realy bad. Then use finer grit until you get the tool maks off and the finish very smooth but dull. Then use black emory compound on your sisal buffing wheel. You can use less aggressive compounds and regular sewn wheels after that but most all of the sanding marks need to be removed by the emory compound and the sisal wheel when working on stainless trim as it is very hard. Clean off the compound from the piece and change wheels when changing to a lighter compound. You can finish the job with white rouge but the piece must be perfect at that point. The white rouge will not take much off stainless so it is just for the coloring step.

BE CAREFUL! the trim will tend to get hooked in the buffing wheel and then it will fly across the room, get mangled, or just cut your hands. wear gloves, a face shield and maybe even a dust mask.

Be sure to wrap each piece individualy rather than just laying them together somewhere. You will need to do the job over again because they will easily scratch each other if you just box them up together.

Works for me.

-Mark.

CGGorman

Pauld and Mark got it down.

gliot1

Eastwood sells stainless steel buffing compund. I had some pretty deep scratches in my t-top stainless trim. I first wet sanded out the scratches, then used the buffing compound and it looks like new. Get a small buffing pad to use in a drill and have at it.

viperjesse

I bought 2 cloth buffing wheels for my bench grinder at Home Depot, 1 hard and one soft and I bought some rouge for heavy scratches and some for fine buffing. I attached the wheels, hard first, added rouge and started buffing.
It worked great and my sst is shiney as ever. Some of the heavy scratches won't come out completely but they are diminished considerably. Finish off with the soft wheel and the fine rouge.
My windshield trim looks new, my T-top Tbar looks 100% better but not perfect.
I never buffed anything before and this was easy, I even started buffing my faded tail light and sidelight lenses and they brightened up nicely.
JZ

viperjesse

OH, if it's stillon your car get a wheel for your drill and just be careful of the paint.
JZ