I have some car parts made of stainless steel that did have a mirror finish sadly now are a bit dull, how can I bring them back to life , have a polishing mop and a bar of red stuff and brown stuff but does not make a lot of difference any help? is there a technique
- Thread starter kier
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gordon stephenson
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I have used Solvol-Autosol on small stainless parts with good results,
The red you have will be rouge and totally useless for your application, its for precious metals gold silver brass copper and normally used for finishing with loose leaf mops. A lot of people end up with rouge for some odd reason when it does not suit their application.
The brown soap you have could be one of several different types. Different manufactures have a nasty habit of using there own names for x soaps so it can be hard to quantify. There are also a few soaps that are similar in colour which again makes it even harder to identify. The chances are it may be be tripoli if you already have rouge, as this is the roughing soap for the same material group, again it is useless for what you need.
Their are a few options depending how bad the parts are if there if the need a heavy polish you can either start with a roughing soap for ally (Brown aggressive cutting) or one called steelcut (preferable). Despite its names it can also be used on ally and other harder materials very well. These soaps need to be used with a sisal mop which are hard and aggressive.
For finishing use white hyfin or white finishing soap with a stitched white mops either close stitch or open stitch will work fine..
The main problem you will have if you have very limited equipment is generating enough heat to melt the soap adequately so it releases the abrasive. This is the main classic problem home users have and why they struggle to get a satisfactory results.
These 304 stainless bezels were completed last weekend and despite the images are mirror polished to a high standard. Images never look to hot of polished parts unless you have the time and knowledge. Also flat surfaces are far harder to make look good that curved ones. something always worth remembering when polishing.
Kind regards,
Scott
A warm thanks for all the help so far , I can see where im going wrong need to find a soap supplier, I have a sisal mop if I can find it, I make some of my parts as they are non standard
loads of suppliers on ebay also looking at buffing machines im sure they are better than my converted washing machine motor on spin speed
any recomedation for a buffing machine not too expensive
there is a 2hp buffing machine single phase £149 on ebay any good?
industrial machines are expensive and probably all 3phase I have 3phase using a generator so it would be possible if it was worth it ,
loads of suppliers on ebay also looking at buffing machines im sure they are better than my converted washing machine motor on spin speed
any recomedation for a buffing machine not too expensive
there is a 2hp buffing machine single phase £149 on ebay any good?
industrial machines are expensive and probably all 3phase I have 3phase using a generator so it would be possible if it was worth it ,
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DanielW
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Don't know what the fuss is about with the mop and soap,the pic below just had a go with Brasso on a rod of SS you can see where I have cleaned with one end with the Brasso,i suppose if I let the brasso to dry and used a dry mop on it it would come up more shiny.
picture is not showing much but will try brasso , I have a double bumper to do and more so its going to be a lot of work unless i use a machine
langy
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The colour of the soap means nothing i'm afraid as different makers use differing colours, If its already polished you would use a cotton stitch mop with a high shne low cut soap.
Soaps are rated by shine and cut, normally you would start with a high cut low shine soap but as its already been polished I would use a low cut high shine soap.
Soaps are rated by shine and cut, normally you would start with a high cut low shine soap but as its already been polished I would use a low cut high shine soap.
DanielW
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Ha man, you need specsavers,
to the left the reflection lines are sharper than those to the right meaning the SS is dull and lost its shine.Guarentee the Brasso will sort your dullness,mop and polish in my opinion it to erase small scratchs and smooth the surface and polish unmachined aluminium.
cumbriasteve
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I second that: when I was building my custom bikes I used tubes galore on stainless and aluminium.
Have read a few times that toothpaste works well too, suppose if it doesn't at least you will be left with a nice minty smell.
brightspark
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DanielW
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For an extra 56p and 300g more and if you have a local outlet?....
http://www.screwfix.com/p/polishing-paste-bar-green-800g/31076
http://www.screwfix.com/p/polishing-paste-bar-green-800g/31076
langy
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Solvol is an abrasive and will scratch the finish, shouldn't be used on Chrome either
langy
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If you don't have a machine you will be wasting your money, the abrasive is encapsulated in the soap, if you don't get the required heat in to the part you won't melt the carrier for the abrasive to do its job.
cumbriasteve
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Well after using it for many years and more than one of my bikes winning awards I would be tempted to say my ali casings shone like mirrors and impressed the judges, the Chrome was pretty damn good too....thank the Lord for scratches eh.
langy
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Any chromer will tell you it scratches though.
DanielW
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Below is what I did with a mop wheel and green soap,the mop was on a stanard dril and I covered the mop with the soap whilst the drill was operating.I then applied the mop to the ally with a bit of force/pressure so it was burnishing the ally.
Only problem I encountered was the intricate parts that the mops I had couldn't get into the nooks and crannys.
Granted they still need another finishing polish but if I was bothered I could get them mirror finish.
