My stainless steel is pitiful!

Jim Staruk

Jim Staruk

PCS Member
I tried Windex, stainless steel pads, Fantastic and "Stainless Steel Magic". The trim around my windows is still dull and blotchy. Is there any solution to my sad stainless steel blues? Thank you - Jim
 
is it stainless steel or aluminium . the 66 is aluminium and has been coated . the coating is what was dull on it.
 
If it is stainless you can get a small buffing wheel for a drill, and a bar of stainless polish, and masking tape around it by the paint, and polish it up without having to take it off. i have done this in the past and in worked pretty well. And to try to figure if it is stainless or aluminum if you can get to a spot on the back of a door frame of something, you can take and try to scratch it in a small not noticeable spot, with like a small screwdriver blade or something. stainless is harder and will not let you remove material easy.
 
on the superior the up rights were aluminium and the top and bottom trim stainless steel. a magnet will stick to SS and not the rest. it may not hold good but it will stick. if it plated normally it's base metals or pot but they can plate aluminum to. what I found on the 66 superior was that the aluminium was coated with a heave clear coat. and that it had started to work lose giving it a cloudy look. on it I sanded it off and polished it back. one can rub a little metal polish on by hand and they will shine right back up. what ever thy used to coat them with was a vary hard product. almost like a power coat. it just never lasted the 50 years. I was going off the top of my head and I think the divider molding on the b pillar is aluminum to
 

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If you have a piece that you know is aluminum (magnet won't stick) and it is turning a cloudy white in spots or all over it is probably anodized aluminum. Anodizing is usually clear on aluminum and is used to preserve the polish, but it tends to go bad over decades of time. There is no way to "polish" the white out, because the chalkiness is between the anodizing and the surface of the polished aluminum. The best you can do is remove the anodizing and then polish the aluminum part, which is rather difficult no matter how you approach it. To get anodizing off, you either need to use a blasting agent that will remove it but not damage the underlying aluminum, or you need to use a chemical stripper to soften it to remove it. Oven cleaner will remove clear anodizing, but you really need to practice on a handful of scrap pieces first since it can mess up your part if you're not careful.

Once you get the clear coating off, you can polish the aluminum if it isn't otherwise damaged to an almost chrome like shine. However after you get it polished you either need to get it re-anodized, or expect to polish it every so often.

Anodizing is very durable, like powder coating, but once you get rock chips or dents in it that's what starts the process of it clouding up in between.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
on the superior the up rights were aluminum and the top and bottom trim stainless steel. a magnet will stick to SS and not the rest. it may not hold good but it will stick. if it plated normally it's base metals or pot but they can plate aluminum to. what I found on the 66 superior was that the aluminum was coated with a heave clear coat. and that it had started to work lose giving it a cloudy look. on it I sanded it off and polished it back. one can rub a little metal polish on by hand and they will shine right back up. what ever thy used to coat them with was a vary hard product. almost like a power coat. it just never lasted the 50 years. I was going off the top of my head and I think the divider molding on the b pillar is aluminum to
Click to expand...

The aluminum was anodized, a hard coating that is chemically created on the bare aluminum after polishing. The only way to restore this aluminum is to chemically remove the old surface, polish to a high luster, and then re-anodize. Today, it is getting more difficult to find a shop to do this, since the chemicals are strictly regulated by the EPA.

Home brew anodizing kit....
 
Hmmm...Paul and I appear to be joined at the brain. Scary...

I can tell you this, if you plan to attempt the oven cleaner procedure make sure you can commit the time to it. There's no "I'll get back to it later" with this procedure. Doing so will make things almost unfixable. Anodized aluminum can be cleaned up at home, but it is not a fun or easy job. You have to want it. But as Paul said, it is an antiquated procedure and it is getting harder and harder to find people to deal with it.
 
Eastwood has a st riper for the anodzied but one would have to pull the car apart to use that. same with the oven cleaner. I did not find it in time for me I had to do the 80 to 1500 grit paper route and buff.
 
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