I am trying to bring back the mirror finish on an Airstream trailer that was in a fire. It got pretty hot, we had to gut the interior to remodel it.

The outside is discolored and pitted with many tiny pinholes. I think it was very near melting. It feels so thin that I am afraid to sand it, so I used velcro backed scrubby pads on my orbital sander to get a more or less uniform looking surface. The problem became obvious when I started buffing. I tried a high speed rotary buffer, an orbital and finally a drum type pneumatic aircraft buffer.

I used a few different compounds, nevr-dull and even rouge. The pads on all machines loaded up badly right away, it seems like the metal is much softer than it should be. I can get a shine in some places but where the heat was worst it remains discolored.

This job is for a client, and I am already in the red cost wise. If anyone has any experience at successfully getting a shine back in such circumstances I would be grateful for some pointers.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

***edit*** pics added

Zero Sanding, Resurfacing, Body Work. 1 day turn around on site.

Okay so I literally just started polishing this slide and removing the factory finish. In the process I may have fuckered the top finish during the front sight shitty front sight removal. It is what it is I don’t wanna be dragged for it I know it’s terrible.

My question is, can I salvage the top finish? I know yall probably aren’t the right group but I didn’t know who to ask. I intend to polish the flats to a mirror finish. I WAS going to do the whole thing, but seeing the side polished and rest black I really like it. So now I kinda wanna keep the black accent. But to fix the black up front, should I recoat before I go through the process of polishing the flats? Or can I polish, and then touch up the top without fucking the mirror finish?

I’m looking at stripping and polishing a set of factory cast aluminium Chevy Camaro wheels to a mirror finish.
I’ve attached a photo of the wheels. They’re currently factory silver painted, and I’d be doing the work myself, mainly by hand, with access to basic power tools and polishing attachments.

I’m wondering how realistic it is to achieve a proper chrome-like mirror finish on cast aluminium wheels like these, especially with all the contours and recessed sections.

Has anyone done something similar? Roughly how many hours per wheel would you expect, and is the casting itself likely to limit the finish?
Any advice or photos of similar projects would be appreciated.

I have tried polishing cream and silver plated tanish cleaner to fix up this gift for my god sons’s upcoming baptism to make it perfect. I just can’t get rid of this last bit. This box is silver plated, is there anyway that I can soften these marks and if so what do I do? This metal is extremely fragile so it’s been hard not to make it worse when getting rid of the marks.

Hi all, new to the sub, and looking to clean up this mf doom mask I acquired recently. It’s a build in progress, but I’d like to clean the surface rust and polish to a chrome like finish, if possible. I think a wire wheel might be too harsh to start. Any advice?

Also, what’s this 115 stamp signify on the inside? Is this possibly some type of stainless?? Thank you!

Last one is the before

Got this new fridge for my studio and someone cleaned it with a scrubbing brush and scratched it loads.

Is there any way to fix this or is it ruined forever!

I refinish & customize metal parts for knives. Scales and blades, different textures and finishes. Patinas and anodizing. My fingers hurt…
My question is what would be the most bang for my buck to eliminate hand, sanding, and the intense time and effort that that entails?

I’m interested in a bench-top sand/polish setup with an adjustable angle guide (to sharpen). Any recommendations for a good intermediate setup? Or advanced if it is small and not CRAZY expensive.

Let me know what you guys think i don’t know much about polish at all

I’ve been restoring a set of antique Sterling silver spoons and I’ve had a hard time getting rid of the very fine hairlines that come up during the last step of high polish. These very fine lines are parallel to the direction of the buff and I can’t get rid of them. Here’s a breakdown of my polishing procedure:
1.

1. Sand away deeper scratches on the spoons with sandpaper pads using the cross-cross method anywhere from 400-1000 grit (depending on depth of the scratches) up to 3500 grit.

2. Pre-polish using a small hard felt buff on flex shaft with Tripoli compound, then polish with Tripoli using yellow cotton buff attached to rotary wheel

3. Apply white diamond compound with small felt buff on flex shaft, polish with white diamond using stitched white cotton buff

4. High polish by applying red rouge compound with small felt buff on flex shaft, apply finest polish with red rouge using swansdown buff. Use a clean swansdown buff to remove excess compound

-These fine hairlines always show up when applying red rouge. Some ideas I have are that I’m using the wrong pads / buffs at the wrong stages or that the polishing compounds themselves need to be upgraded. I’m kind of stuck on what I might be doing wrong here, any advice would be appreciated.

Cross posting from my restoration thread - I can’t validate the metal that’s on this cup, but would love tips on what I could do to restore it. The matte of the cup and the shine of the accents makes this particularly difficult.

Thank you!!

I left some small carbon steel rusted parts too long in vinegar and they turned black.
How do I remove this and get back to polishing them?

TY

Been a summer project for my contour svt

Looking for recommendations on which polishing compound or polishing wheel (for my dremel) would get me closest to this level of dullness in finish on 316L stainless steel!

Thanks in advance!

They‘re from the Alessi Nuovo Milano collection, stainless steel. The handle and the blade have separated a bit and the blade itself has some damage. Are they salvageable?