I do stainless restoration , BUT, have had customers that were very pleased with my work, just unhappy because the mirror finished part I just did for them made the rest of their oxidized trim look crappy , be prepared to clean and polish all of it , , Joe
I questioned a friend of mine recently about how nice his stainless looked on a super nice bubble top Chevy & who had done the work. He informed me that when he repainted the car he had all the stainless chromed,,,no wonder it looked so good! HRP
I don't think this will do enough for old stainless. It might clean it up, but it's not gonna restore it.
If you want to ship it, try Iverson Automotive in Minnesota. He does TOP quality work, and can repair some pretty damaged stuff. He does aluminum, too... aluminum trim must have the hard anodizing chemically stripped off, or the piece will be ruined as the sanding and polishing process is done. If you break through the anodizing in one area, the soft aluminum under it will just dig down farther, causing a "pot hole" like effect. The result is bad waves everywhere you break through the anodizing. This probably isn't exactly the info you were looking for, but like it might help others. Even if you don't go with him, go to his site and check out his "10 Step Process" link--he shows you right on his site how to polish your stainless in your own shop. It's very informative. http://www.iversonautomotive.com/ -Brad
If its beat up, i understand you needing someone to get it right. If it only needs polishing, do it yourself. It only requires your time. I used Autosole for years, then tried Mothers metal polish, which was way better.
Ditto on the youtube video..........especially if you have never done much and you intend to use motor, arbor, and polishing wheels..........If not careful you can wad up a piece and you will be really Pixxed off........... But it is not hard to do......just a little technique and be willing to get dirty.
I'm not looking to invest money to set up to do a lot of polishing. All I need polished is drip rail molding for my 54 F100. That why I'm looking to farm out this job. I thought for sure there would be someone in Cincinnati that would have a lead. Im 30 miles west of Cincy in S/E Indiana. Used to be a local plating shop here that done polishing for me but the EPA rules made it impossible for him to stay in business. They were a small father and son shop that couldn't afford to keep up with the constantly changing regulations.
To remove scratches in SS, all you have to do is sand the part with several grades of paper and then buff. If its really bad, start with 60 grit on a DA that is set to spin. Follow with 180, then 4 or 600, you will have to finish with 12-- or 1500 followed by a final sanding with 3000. At this time, it almost looks good enough to put on the car but final buffing with two grades of compound will top it off. When sanding and buffing, always go across the scratches at 90 degrees with the next grade to see the course scratches disappear. I had read that all SS is chrome plated from someone on this site, I further learned that the final steps in the manufacture process that heat allows the chrome to come to the surface. The jury is still out on these statements. Could some one expand on this?
60 grit would be used only where dents were hammered out and the surface would have to be leveled or where there are deep gouged in the surface and then only at that spot.
What makes stainless steel stainless is it's chromium and nickel content. It DOES NOT ever need to be plated. 18-8 stainless is a minimum of 18% chromium and a minimum of 8% nickel, the two components in plating. It is an alloy and the chrome does NOT come to the surface with heat. It would be like wearing a T-shirt over your jacket, and that's just plain silliness ...
Just be careful on the dings & dents! Very easy when sanding/polishing it to put a hole in it, don't ask how I know....I found out the hard way that most of it is not very thick. I did most of the stainless on my '56 Fairlane using a cheap HF bench buffer and pads, lots of steel wool & sand paper. And Grainger makes some pretty good polishing rouge & compounds that I used too. It's by no means show quality but turned out pretty good and except for the time spent and experience I got, it cost lot less $$ than some of the estimates I got for it would have been. And yes, that thread (below) is very good to review:
The Jalopy Journal
