Best way to polish an exhaust back to "old glory"

[Perfectlap]

Okay you guys are nuts. But talented. Bad combination.

[Chuck W.]

Originally Posted by evan9eleven

*cough*

WOW I though I was bad when I did the exhaust on my TT years back. The wife couldn't understand why I would use so much time to polish something, as she put it, "that no one will ever see." It made me happy though!

That came out great. Nice job. Power tool.... hummmm.

[evan9eleven]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

Okay you guys are nuts. But talented. Bad combination.

I think its a good combination! Being a little nuts helped me find and use talents I didn't know I had. Put another way, it doesn't matter what talents you have if you're not nuts enough to do something with them.

Of course, I am talking about bigger things then polishing an exhaust system, but you get the idea.

[ChrisZang]

OK, here is the "before" picture:



and here is "after":



I wasn't able to get the pipes back to shiny but look at the cans, what a difference!

[jcb986]

Originally Posted by Chuck W.

I am OCD with polishing things. A good day is waxing the cars. I laid 950+ feet of vinyl composite tile in my garage. Then waxed it.... and wax it. Then bought a high speed burnisher (buffer) off of Craigslist, and once a week everything gets drug out of the garage and I do my thing. Life is good....

Nice...love to sock skate on it.

[mikesz]

You guys have way too much time on your hands. But that garage is AWESOME!

[evan9eleven]

Originally Posted by Chuck W.

Mikez is right, it is stainless steel. I have about 3,000 miles on the muffler when that photo was taken. Very easy to maintain once you get it to shine.

Here is why I didn't think it was stainless... 9 years of German winters were not kind to this muffler. Though it would be a great before-and-after comparo if I polished this one up...

[Chuck W.]

Originally Posted by evan9eleven

... 9 years of German winters were not kind to this muffler.

Ahhhhhhhh..... I met my match.

My muffler (& Boxster) have never been driven in the rain much less a harsh winter.

[evan9eleven]

Yeah, I think polishing this one would be quite an acheivement!

I actually don't know what kind of life my box had in Germany before I "saved" it and took it sunny Spain. But that muffler tells the story.

[Kyle2112]

Hello Group, thanks for the motivation. This took about 7 hours. I started with heavy buffing compound and toothbrushes. I got out the orbital buffer and also used a wheel polishing head attached to a drill. To finish it all off I used stainless steel rouge (Green). I use the green gouge to polish stainless steel watch cases and bands and it works great! Again thanks for project idea.

[evan9eleven]

Originally Posted by Kyle2112

Hello Group, thanks for the motivation. This took about 7 hours. I started with heavy buffing compound and toothbrushes. I got out the orbital buffer and also used a wheel polishing head attached to a drill. To finish it all off I used stainless steel rouge (Green). I use the green gouge to polish stainless steel watch cases and bands and it works great! Again thanks for project idea.

Now thats the spirit! Nice work! :dance:

[Chuck W.]

That looks great! You will find yourself looking down there more often now.

[SeanZ4]

Chuck W., wow! that's cleaner than the 'inside' of my house! My garage is pretty clean, but that's incredible!

[evan9eleven]

There is hope for this exhaust after all... in progress of polishing it up:

[coreseller]

I'm sitting here chuckling, you guys are nuts lol.

[silver-S]

Welcome to Chuck's Cafe and Garage, where we don't discourage eating off the floor! That is amazing.

[evan9eleven]

Originally Posted by coreseller

I'm sitting here chuckling, you guys are nuts lol.

You ain't seen nothin' yet. My Capristo exhaust valves arrived today, so this weekend its time to weld up the switchable bypass. Of course, the muffler needs to be polished up before then!

[coreseller]

Since this thread has been revived.....Chuck, are you the same guy who had posted what was IMO Forensic Quality revival / refresh / refurbed / speckless shots of the underside of your 993? If you are the same guy you are WITHOUT A DOUBT anyone / everyone should refer to for cleaning ANYTHING Porsche related.

[Chuck W.]

Originally Posted by coreseller

Since this thread has been revived.....Chuck, are you the same guy who had posted what was IMO Forensic Quality revival / refresh / refurbed / speckless shots of the underside of your 993? If you are the same guy you are WITHOUT A DOUBT anyone / everyone should refer to for cleaning ANYTHING Porsche related.

Haaaaaaa.... no, that was larpy. He puts me to shame. Here is the thread and a teaser photo;

I Have Been Polishing! I Have Issues, I Know! - Rennlist Discussion Forums

[BoxsterPHD]

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.