986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - Best way to polish an exhaust back to "old glory"

- Boxster General Discussions (http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/)

- - Best way to polish an exhaust back to "old glory" (http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/49715-best-way-polish-exhaust-back-old-glory.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoxsterPHD (Post 442421)

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but it did inspire me to have a crack at the underside of my old 986. Not perfect, but I think I got off to a decent start.

Ohhh..... you are way past the point of "a decent start". That looks great. Hell, it looks spectacular! It is one thing to polish the exhaust while it sits on the workbench. It is another to be on you back polishing all of that.

That is absolutely beautiful. Nice job.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck W. (Post 442428)

Thanks Chuck. I shall keep up the good work now the weather is getting better. Not easy when it's your daily driver though, but worth it nonetheless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoxsterPHD (Post 442421)

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but it did inspire me to have a crack at the underside of my old 986. Not perfect, but I think I got off to a decent start.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X...-no/mirror.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W...underneath.jpg

Hi,what tools/polish product did you use? Looks great!! i want to do that to mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eomak (Post 442527)

Hi,what tools/polish product did you use? Looks great!! i want to do that to mine.

These are the items I use:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7...o/IMG_8192.jpg

And here are some pics I found of what the underside looked like before (took these before I had the IMSB replaced to capture the oil leaks):

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...o/IMG_6431.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-W...o/IMG_6429.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w...o/IMG_6430.jpg

First thing I did was degrease using turps and then wash with detergent. The shield cleaned up easily enough but the braces and back box were too corroded so I painted them black.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-K...o/IMG_6571.jpg

Lived with that for a few months and then decided to attack it with a flex-drive and combination of wire brushes. The synthetic prep wheel is good for stainless steel parts as it doesn't deposit any ferrous material on the surface which will rust later on. Albright de-oxidiser is also useful for brushing on hard to reach places but leaves a slightly dull finish on the aluminium. Autosol metal polish works best on the back box, struts, sump base and suspension parts. I found a liberal coating of GT85 afterwards prevents corrosion as it leaves a thin layer of teflon. I spray it on everything including the exhaust.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...o/IMG_8020.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f...823-no/hub.jpg

After that just wipe the dirt off once a month, polish the shiny bits with Autosol if you feel like it, and coat with GT85 again. Mine still needs quite a bit of work, but it's better than it was before.