Stainless Polishing II

[travelingfools]

Tried this product http://www.gliptone.com/retail/ with great results..I have no stake in it, found it at a trade sale. Still lots of work but great results. Started out with the course and finished with the med. I paid 20 a bottle and Im guessing Ill need three or four for the whole job. Applied with cloth diapers.. Here's a pic of the test area. 

[PP]

How much time did it take to do the test area? It's looking good, Will

[travelingfools]

About 90 min to two hours, but there was a learning curve involved... I'm guessing Ill be able to do a whole bay door in that amount of time.

[Rick59-4104]

 I have read past posts on polishing and have hesitated to post my experience with polishing (seems to be somewhat of a confusing/controversial subject) but maybe my method will help someone who has to have the "shine" so here you go. Keep in mind this is just my experience over the last 20 years and I am not saying it is the best or only way but it seems to work for me and I have tried many methods.

 Keep in mind that anodized aluminum will not take a high polish, anodized aluminum has a very hard surface that will have to be removed if you want a high polish, I have no experience using chemicals to remove the anodized surface from aluminum but I have used an air angle grinder with a fine (blue) 3M Scotchbrite 3" pad on a Roloc backing pad and then going thru my buffing process. This is labor intensive and takes a pretty good size air compressor. (mine is a 10 HP)

 I make polished stainless steel and brass bound white oak stirrups for saddles, I use a stationary buffer with jewelers stitched buffing wheels for the stirrups. I have restored and polished 2 aluminum vintage travel trailers, polished a 22' Barth Aluminum RV I used to own and the best way I have found to polish is with a 7" angle grinder with an adapter to mount 2 stitched 8" tight-weave muslin jewelers buffing wheels using No 7 Rubbing compound (spread it on the surface with your finger) for the first cut and then going over a second time with a white polishing compound (comes in a bar) and 2 stacked loose-weave muslin buffing wheels. If you are happy with the polish after the No.7 Rubbing Compound you can stop there.  For a shine that will knock you socks off you can go over a 3rd time with a couple of 8" flannel jewelers buffing wheels with red or green rouge. Get a cleaning rake to keep the buffing wheels clean.

The surface needs to be cleaned before changing polishing compounds.

If you go to Barthmobile.com there is a fellow there (Lee) who has a polished Barth RV, and you can read all about his polishing experience.......It does require an annual going over to keep it looking good, stainless will keep the shine longer.

Rio Grande in Albuquerque NM is a good source for buffing compounds and supplies.

The Barth I polished still looked good the last time I saw her which was about  18 months after I polished her. There is a lot of polishing information on the Airstream Travel Trailer Sites but be warned a lot of the techniques are a lot more labor intensive and a lot more $$$$ than the process I use. IMHO

There is really no rational reason to polish a bus or a travel trailer but when you are finished the result can be striking, and when I listed my Polished Barth RV for sale I was sure wishing I had 10 of them as I had people all over the country wanting to buy it.


Have fun,
Rick

[luvrbus]

I watch these polishing threads and people use about anything when we bought our bus in 1996 the guy in AR used regular Bar Keepers Friend cleanser to put the mirror shine on the S/S 1 buck a can lol

good luck

[PP]

"I watch these polishing threads and people use about anything when we bought our bus in 1996 the guy in AR used regular Bar Keepers Friend cleanser to put the mirror shine on the S/S 1 buck a can lol

good luck "

Bar Keeper's was the first stuff I experimented with when I decided to go shiny on my SS because I use a lot of it and it was handy. I didn't have much luck. Maybe now that it's been 'sanded to a shine' the BK will keep it shiny. But it's a cleaner, not a polish, Will

[luvrbus]

Bar Keeper sure works good on windshields must have some polish to make water bead,I made a paste and used a 1200 rpm buffer with a foam to keep the stainless on my Eagle bright and shiny a wool pad didn't work great with the Bar Keeper


good luck

[artvonne]

  Man, do I have my work cut out for me. There really is no easy and simple way, is there.

  Im hopeful the stainless under the paint is as shiney as the stuff thats not.

[PP]

Bar Keeper sure works good on windshields must have some polish to make water bead,I made a paste and used a 1200 rpm buffer with a foam to keep the stainless on my Eagle bright and shiny a wool pad didn't work great with the Bar Keeper


good luck

That's what I was doing wrong!!! I made a bunch of wool pads from some old wool carpeting we pulled out of the bus and I tried them with everything that was at hand, including the BarKeeper's. I've only ever used the foam pads for applying wax on autos, never thought of using them on stainless. I learned something new today, thanks Cliff