How to do this

[gsxbarmy]

Not quite the same notty, as cans are stainless, fork sliders are alloy so you would use slightly different mops and polishes, but the process is much the same. I'm happy to detail it for you if you really want to have a go yourself......

To be perfectly honest, unless you are going to do a lot of polishing, its cheaper to get them done locally, as investing in the materials necessary can be a bit of an outlay - not stupidly so for the amateur, but still substantive, circa £100 for a decent powered grinder, then the mops, soaps etc. Depends how much you really want to mirror polish things

[lawrie]

This was a stainless system I polished for a mate of mine. I used various polishing mops and grades of compound to get them like this.
Took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

That is also impressive, I have a 3hp buffing machine & hard & soft mops, but what mops exactly did you use?

[froudy]

I use this company Lawrie..
http://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/

I start off with a sisal mop, then once I've done the initial once over with grey compound I go over to a white close stitch mop with green compound. Then it's onto a G quality loose unstitched mop.
I finally finish with a soft cloth and Belgom Alu metal polish by hand.

Stainless is relatively easy to polish as it's a "Clean" metal. Aluminium however is anything but clean to polish , and you'll end up black!!

[Del]

Im really not one for polishing but when something is really bad I have used these on my angle grinder - doesnt get into the wee tight spaces but gets the job done to a standard that I can the n use a mop

I know that this may be sacrilege to some . . . Sorry 

the green one is a scouring disc and gets the metal to a cleanish state
the white one is a cotton type material (gets everywhere) and I use this with a green polishing compound

[lawrie]

I wonder if mine are too far gone, or I'm not trying enough, this is after an hour, but with mops only, as I don't have the scotch types yet, but is mine any worse than you guys, as mine look to be actual corrosion.

[gsxbarmy]

Is it actually pitted Lawrie?

[lawrie]

Yes, I believe it is, not much or very deep, but where i've REALLY buffed hard & made it shine (a bit) its come up slightly 'rippled' as though it was in fact pitted a bit.
But since I've not yet got anything abrasive yet, maybe a good old scouring of the surface might give a basis for polishing, woja-fink?

[gsxbarmy]

Indeed it might buddy, it's like with all polishing, you do what you have to to get rid of imperfections then reduce down the "scratching" by using appropriate mops and soaps to shine the surface up.

You might want to try Black Metal Polishing Compound using a Sisal Buffing wheel - maybe a 4" wheel would be the optimum. Black is used for first cut and flattening on hard metals including steel and stainless steel, then follow up with green using a colour stitch buffing wheel (4" again), followed by White on a loose fold wheel - Black/Green/White are all for the harder metals, whereas Brown / Grey / Blue are for the softer alloys.

Have you tried the harder soaps - starting with Black could just shift that anyway (perhaps)

[lawrie]

Thanks for the info,
I have brown, blue & white soaps only, plus hard & soft cloth wheels, the shopping list grows.

[gsxbarmy]

Thanks for the info,
I have brown, blue & white soaps only, plus hard & soft cloth wheels, the shopping list grows.

I'd grab a bar of black polishing soap and try that in the first instance Lawrie, that should take it off 

[VladTepes]

Lawrie I definitely think that's saveable !

[lawrie]

OK, I'll give it a go a bit later on as I'm in the middle of making a complete seat assy for the Bonnie as well as lacing up new alloy rims/hubs & spokes. 

[lawrie]

By the 'eck missus, been at it for bleedin hours, the ONLY thing that will look it, is a fine flap-wheel, had them soaking in caustic type oven cleaner, that just made the brown cleaner!!
Scotch wheels made the brown shiny!!
But out of desperation, I attacked them with a  flap-wheel, it seemed to actually remove the 'rusted' metal to reveal the pitted surface & the new underneath, trouble is now that its left grind-marks everywhere, so I might get much finer grade wheels & see how we go, at least they're becoming a bit 'metallic' now!
The actual polishing of the uncorroded  surface is VERY easy, look at the tapered part of the collector-box, that came up like that in about 30 seconds on the buffing machine.

[V_i_c_i]

This was a stainless system I polished for a mate of mine. I used various polishing mops and grades of compound to get them like this.
Took me about 2 hours from start to finish.

If you use Autosol Pickling Agent than it is 15 minutes job. So easy as is easy clean dust. 



This was 5 minutes job. If you want extra shine than after that use Autosol Metal Polish.

[lawrie]

Well, I got stuck-in & have spent several days on them!!
The 'brown' collector came up reasonable in a couple of hours, but the bloody downpipes,  are actually corroded & pitted.
No amount of polishing or buffing with ANY wheels touched them, I had to be prepared to write them off by aggressively attacking them with abrasive flap-wheels, which of course gouged & scratched them quite badly,  I then ended up with many hours on the machine, so much so that I had to wear thick welding gauntlets due to the heat generated.
This is the state of them thus far, a vast improvement, but I feel that a load more hours might not make much difference now,or should I keep on abrading the metal away,  woja-fink fellas??

Also, am I right in thinking that they 'brown' quite quickly after polishing? Never had stainless pipes before.