Polishing stainless steel

I'm on a roll in getting these blogs hammered out. Today's is short and sweet, but makes such a catamount difference in the overall presentation of the car. It can only be a blessing that most of the shiny trim on a car--mostly that around the windows--is stainless steel. This means it will never rust, pit, or corrode, and with the investment of time, can be made to look better than new.

Polishing the stainless steel is a good winter activity as it doesn't require much...a warm basement shop, a bench, adequate lighting, a drill, and a polishing kit. I'm using an Eastwood metal polishing kit, which comes with 5 different buffing compounds and a bunch of different buffing pads, that mount to a drill.

Eastwood buffing kit

The kit comes with instructions that are pretty straight forward. I first wash my pieces with soap and water to get the dirt off, then pick out any small dents or imperfections that may be in them. Then it's on to buffing, moving from coarsest to finest buffing compound. Here's an example of what can be done:

This is a piece of window frame before polishing

The same piece after 40 minutes worth of polishing