How to polish stainless steel

[timkins]

My sedan has a stainless steel firewall in it and I am trying to figure out what to use to clean and bring the luster back.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I've had good luck with Flitz and Wenol (spelling?) paste stuff....

[Sean]

I've never tried getting it to a Mirror shine, but I have heard that Simichrome (sp?) also works well.

[purplepickup]

I made a stainless firewall, battery box, and covers for my fuel tank in the front of the box in my pickup and I had them all electro polished.  I made three different firewalls and the first one I tried to polish myself with a big buffer and different compounds.  I couldn't get the finish evenly polished enough to suit me and it looked like crap in the sunlight.  The second one I took to a local polishing shop that said they could do it right but it wasn't much better than the one I did.  I'd heard of electropolishing and visited a shop that did that to learn more about it.  The owner showed me the process and some production parts he was running.  I liked the look...it's kind of semi-gloss.  It doesn't take out imperfections but for me it was perfect since I was making all my parts from fresh metal.  I think he charged me $150 for all the pieces, which was their minimum order charge.  I looked in the Thomas Registry and there's some shops in your area that do electro polishing.  If you do a Google search you should find some information.  Here's one site I found on Google  http://www.pfonline.com/articles/110004.html .  Here's the company I went to http://www.kepcoinc.com/

This picture is of my battery box and you can also see part of the fuel tank cover in the front of my box.  The strips on the bed are not stainless, they're just aluminum bar stock.

[Bruce Dorsi]

Thanks for the links, George, and your post!

I learned a lot today!

What do you do to maintain the appearance of your electropolished parts?

~~~Bruce

[timkins]

My sedan has a stainless steel firewall in it and I am trying to figure out what to use to clean and bring the luster back.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for the information on where to look for a company to polish the Stailess Steel. I learned something today also.

[purplepickup]

What do you do to maintain the appearance of your electropolished parts?

~~~Bruce

I used 304 stainless which is considered corrosion resistant but technically it can lose it's luster and corrode a little due to foreign metals that get on the surface as a result of processing, for example steel particles from the tools used to fabricate, i.e. saw, drills, shear,  press brake, etc.  Electro polishing also passivates the surface which removes the remnants of foreign metals and forms a uniform oxide layer that protects the surface from corrosion.

As far as cleaning it goes, I wipe it with a damp or wet cloth then dry it with a clean cotton towel.  The surface will get scratches in it if you wipe it with a dry cloth or paper towel, especially if it has dirt or dust on it.  It will get swirl marks in it similar to a poly carbonate motorcycle windshield can get if it isn't cleaned properly.  You can see the swirls in direct sunlight.  It's a car and it sees all kinds of environments so eventually any polished surface will react the same way.  Because the electro polishing is such a uniform, semi-shiney finish I don't use a buffer.  That would take away the uniformity that I like.  There have been people that have wiped their finger across the surface when gritty dust was on it and it leaves a mark.  When that happens I use a very fine anti swirl finishing compound and gently hand buff the area with good results.  Mine still looks pretty good after 10 years and 60K+ miles.

[31suv]

Check this out http://alsacop.com/index.htm

[purplepickup]

Check this out http://alsacop.com/index.htm

Your link didn't work but I think this is the stuff you're talking about.  http://alsacorp.com/products/sheetingfx/shfx_show.htm  They've got some neat stuff.

[reborn55]

great post--thanks for the info