Polishing stock tips?
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 364
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From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Polishing stock tips? I'm a big fan of the stock Formulas/Trans Am exhausts compared to all others available for the Firebirds. But the only thing I hate about it is the dirty rusty look they have to them. Is there anyway to get it plated in Chrome for a nicer look? Is this something I would have to pay someone to do? Or is it something I can do myself?
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,535
Likes: 1
From: The Houndstooth
You can buy a buffing kit at sears for electric drills. It is 9.99 comes with different types of buffing compounds.
Heres a big overview:
1) Sand till smooth.
2) Buff till the desired shine is there.
in a little more detail:
1) Sanding - Start off with a course grit like 60, then work up to less course sand paper, for example 60, 120, 220, 400, 800, 1200. This is where the hardest work is. You can use machines to do it but its not easy to sand tips with a machine unless you spend some big bucks for an expander wheel set up (you can read about that at eastwood.com)
2) Buffing/Polishing - You can use an electric drill with the the buffing wheels and compounds from the $10 set you got at sears. You can also get buffing wheels for bench griders or dremel tools. I think unless you are removing the exhaust completely the drill would be your best/least expensive bet. Start with black emery compound its the harshest. Then when you are confident you have the surface smooth enough, swap to another buffing wheel and use white rouge to bring out the shine. Sometimes the brown tripoli works well in between the black and white if you are doing aluminum, I'm not real sure what the tips are made out of to be honest. But if they are aluminum (and Im sure someone on here knows, but i don't since I have never had that exhaust) use black emery, tripoli, white rouge. You can spring for the blue jeweler's rouge for an ultra high shine after the white as well. Just keep in mind the compounds work best when they only use one per buff wheel.
Alot more information can be found at eastwood.com, and at the time of this post they are even a sponsor! If you get serious about polishing stuff, you can get the serious equipment to do it with from them.
Heres a big overview:
1) Sand till smooth.
2) Buff till the desired shine is there.
in a little more detail:
1) Sanding - Start off with a course grit like 60, then work up to less course sand paper, for example 60, 120, 220, 400, 800, 1200. This is where the hardest work is. You can use machines to do it but its not easy to sand tips with a machine unless you spend some big bucks for an expander wheel set up (you can read about that at eastwood.com)
2) Buffing/Polishing - You can use an electric drill with the the buffing wheels and compounds from the $10 set you got at sears. You can also get buffing wheels for bench griders or dremel tools. I think unless you are removing the exhaust completely the drill would be your best/least expensive bet. Start with black emery compound its the harshest. Then when you are confident you have the surface smooth enough, swap to another buffing wheel and use white rouge to bring out the shine. Sometimes the brown tripoli works well in between the black and white if you are doing aluminum, I'm not real sure what the tips are made out of to be honest. But if they are aluminum (and Im sure someone on here knows, but i don't since I have never had that exhaust) use black emery, tripoli, white rouge. You can spring for the blue jeweler's rouge for an ultra high shine after the white as well. Just keep in mind the compounds work best when they only use one per buff wheel.
Alot more information can be found at eastwood.com, and at the time of this post they are even a sponsor! If you get serious about polishing stuff, you can get the serious equipment to do it with from them.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,535
Likes: 1
From: The Houndstooth
Oh and one more thing, a hand polish like simichrome is great as a final touch and will help keep the parts from oxidizing as fast. Simichrome can be ordered from eastwood.com pretty cheap too (you can also sometimes pick up some generic metal polishes made by MAAC and others from the furniture polish section at your local grocery store. Follow the directions on the back of the simichrome (wipe until black/hazy, buff off with clean cotton rag)
