How to polish bright finish stainless?

[RocketFoot]

I just got this Colt Anaconda in bright stainless and the finish is just a little dull from sitting 15 years in a safe. It also has a very few small swirls and blemishes that I would like to polish out. Any suggestions as to what polish, type of cloth, etc.? Also, is there any way to freshen the factory rubber grips...they are a bit hard and aged...but still in perfect condition. This is a 1993 gun with 2 shots fired from it! My new safe queen! LOL (Nope, you know me...I shoot everything I own!)

[P89]

I don't know if this is gonna help but it's the only direction I know of to point you in. I use this on my classic car...should work, I don't see why it wouldn't. Could find something to recondition your grip too around here.
http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...&keyword=13105

[RocketFoot]

I don't know if this is gonna help but it's the only direction I know of to point you in. I use this on my classic car...should work, I don't see why it wouldn't. Could find something to recondition your grip too around here.
http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...&keyword=13105

Hmmm...looks kinda like Flitz.

http://www.flitz.com/index.html

[P89]

Never used it, I tend to stay away from "As seen on TV" stuff...that's just me though.

[1blindref]

I use Flitz and a Dremel to polish my stainless guns.
You have to be carefull with the Dremel unless you are used to using one. If you don't want to use a Dremel, Flitz on a soft cotton cloth works well also.

BTW - Nice Colt
I have a 6" stainless Python.

[Hawk]

Have you thought about stainless steel cleaner/polish they use for stainless steel appliances? My mother-in-law has a SS refrigerator that came with polish we used (works well on the frig).

If you want to try some product on it, try it on a surface covered by the grips.

Hawk,

[Frenchy]

A Little lemon never hurt any metal, you might even find it polishes up well, of course Brasso would buff it up nice, but dont get any inside the barrell and wash it all off after with hood old H2O.

Rubber, the old street racers trick to pouring javex (Bleach) water on rubber will make it soft again, to give it some luster you could use the same product you would on rubber tires, but expect that product to make them shiny and also slippery...

[roland]

If it were me I'd try jewlers rouge, on a med hard felt wheel. It'll polishi it right up. But then it might say after, Co An co a. Actually, it would make the letters, red, which is the color of the rouge. Unless you get a cleaner that ends in an "ine". Gosoline, Kerosene, etc. It'd be a mirror finish though.

[MarcS]

Flitz. It works.

[thomae]

I posted this in another related thread, but it applies to this one as well:

I have a 8" variable speed grinder that I only use for buffing. I purchased (I believe it was at my local Lowe's) their 6 different grades of buffing compounds. They are numbered 1-6 and the coarsest is for strong rust removal and the finest is for final polishing of softer metals like gold or silver (I also use it to remove scratches from CDs and DVDs.)

I purchased (at Harbor Freight, because I was there and they were very inexpensive) 6 buffing wheels. 3 of them are spiral sewn and reasonably hard (for the three coarser buffing compounds) and the other three are softer for the more fine coumpounds.

I labeled the side of each buffing wheel, using a "sharpie" marker, with the number corresponding to the buffing compound to be used on that wheel. This way, if I want to use a fine polish on some jewelry, I won't scratch it with some "left over" coarse compound from a previous buffing job.

Using progressively finer polish, I can obtain a mirror finish on almost anything. The trick is knowing which compound to start with so you don't spend unnecessary time buffing out the marks left by the courser compounds (comes with experience, & trial and error), and also being careful so that you don't change the contour of too many corners that you don't want to round over .

I have not done a whole gun, but I have polished a lot of small parts. I have a nickel plated High Power that had a rather sharp-edged stainless slide takedown lever/pin. I took a dremel to it, contoured it so it would not catch on the edge and then polished it to a mirror finish using this method.

Mostly it takes time and patience. Also, since the buffing compound is held in a wax-like substance (so it sticks and does not simply fly off the wheel), it does work better when the metal is hot, so the wax can melt, flow, and the actual grit gets spread around.

This is how I do it. There are other ways, and they may or may not be better. There is always a trade off between speed, time, dangerous chemicals, money for supplies, and what the wife will put up with.

This is my free advice to you, and it's worth exactly what you paid for it!
Have fun!
All the best,
Scott