Polishing the tip? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

eslai · 03-06-2006, 01:15 PM

Kind of a suggestive statement, eh.

Anyhow, in lieu of wasting money on the chrome exhaust tip that Porsche sells, would it be possible to polish the stock tip to a nice shine? I know nothing about this sort of thing.

03-06-2006, 01:22 PM

I wonder if you could remove it, and either:

1) Have someone polish it for you- some metal finishing company??

2) Take to someone that could plate it with chrome??

3) And do either #1 or #2 for less the than the +$350 that Porsche wants to charge for the chrome tip.

rdancd816 · 03-06-2006, 01:23 PM

Ironic, but I posted a suggestion to this question just about an hour ago to someone wanting to buy a new tip. I use a polishing creme called MAAS. I started using this stuff to clean stainless steel firearms...found it works great on the exhaust tip. A little elbo grease will be required but it took my 9 year old tip to a like new appearance. I bought it at Sportsman's Warehouse, but i know BassPro and several other sporting goods stores sell it. I'm sure it's available on the "net" as well. Good luck!

03-06-2006, 01:28 PM

eslai, you know, just the outer most bezel area of the chrome tip is shiny. The rest looks like the normal S tip. FYI.

03-06-2006, 01:38 PM

I have used some kind of cream on my 2.5 exhaust before with good effect (i used this cream for old coins to give them a shiny finish) can't remember the name but it did not last very long as the exhaust went back to his burnt color fairly quickly.

i don't think it is possible to keep an exhaust in a polished state all the time, funny as i was looking at the S exhaust today pondering if i should try to polish it as quite a lot of metal is visible from behind

eslai · 03-06-2006, 01:48 PM

Thanks for the responses. See, the idea I'm thinking of is not to just keep it shiny and new looking, I'm talking about getting a near-mirror finish to it like, well, all the stainless steel silverware in my kitchen drawer.

bmusatti, I had no idea the tequipment tip was that cheesy! Amazing.

Anyhow, I figure one could buff it real good and get some kind of polish out of it but that yeah, it'd be a bit of a bother to maintain. Anyone with any first-hand knowledge of that sort of thing?

03-06-2006, 01:58 PM

This is all it is:

KRZTACO · 03-06-2006, 02:03 PM

Hi Elsai,

In order to polish the tip to a near mirror like finish, you need to find out what type of stainless the tip is composed up. 98% of the time, OEM manufactures use a 409 type stainless on the exhausts. This type is unable to be polished out with a machine buffer....sorry. Your other option is to take the tip OFF and have it chromed.

At Magnaflow they use to use a 436 type stainless you could polish out all day with a machine buffer/polish. Customers would polish out thier tubing all the time, and they came out sick looking. MF then changed to a 409 Class stainless, which looked shinny, but could not be polished out to be mirror like.

Hope this helps.

KRZ

rdancd816 · 03-06-2006, 02:08 PM

If you want a "mirror" finish my suggestion will disappoint. It shines it up great but in no way is it a mirror type look. I'll be watching to see if anyone has a viable solution!

03-06-2006, 02:10 PM

eslai, check-out www.westcoastchrome.com in Modesto, CA. 209-544-2436. Maybe they can do the chrome for you.

eslai · 03-06-2006, 02:18 PM

Thanks again guys, great information!

03-06-2006, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmussatti

This is all it is:

that's very nice where is this rear coming from?

03-06-2006, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by olly986

that's very nice where is this rear coming from?

Hey Olly, the photo is from Porsche's website for thier Boxster Tequipment stuff.

03-07-2006, 02:56 PM

is the whole exhaust different or just the tip, i like the shape of that rear bumper and the exhaust bottom pipes do not show as much as mine

eslai · 03-07-2006, 03:24 PM

Oh nonono man, it's just the tip! For $400 you're lucky to get a lightbulb from Porsche.

The bumper in that picture is stock, they just make it look pretty.

03-08-2006, 01:40 PM

eslai, are you going to get the tip chromed??

eslai · 03-09-2006, 12:20 PM

Probably not, but I'll probably look into it eventually.

08-31-2006, 05:12 PM

Eslai, here is another tip to consider from the Cayman:

http://e-partssales.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=P&Product_Code=98711198100&Category_Code=987ext

09-07-2006, 04:47 PM

Eslai, did you see this?

Is your car back??

NickCats · 09-07-2006, 06:20 PM

I use Brasso to polish the exhaust tip. It works great and can be purchased at any grocery store.

http://www.stanleylondon.com/brasso.htm

I have used Maas on the exhaust pipes of my Harley and it also works great ( even better then Brasso ! )

http://www.maasinc.com/products_metalpolish.asp

Nick