Polishing Exhuast Tips?!

[Alittleboost]

Just received my Taitec Center exit today. They the tips are discolored and I was wondering what can I do to take off the residue? It seems like they are discolored from all the road grime and from the exhuast heat.

I don't think a regular polish will do, it seems like I have to sand it down with fine grit sand paper and then use mothers polish?!....it is like having the discolorations when you install stainless steel headers and forgot to wipe the headers down before starting up the car and the finger prints are like burnt into the headers.

Any suggestions on how to get the tips looking new again?!

 

[RP-Motorsports]

To get rid of nasty corrosion, use a #0000 steel wool. Only use it on real metal, not chrome plating.

 

[pt91]

First try a cheap OTC cleaner like Eagle One Nevr Dull. You can buy a can of this at any autozone, walmart, etc.
It will help clean of the residue/soot and then you can see what discoloration, etc is left.
A bug and tar cleaner (like turtle wax) might help if you have some laying around.
Got any pictures?

 

[Veleno]

I had an RX-7 with a SS exhaust, and when the tips turned black/tarnished, I would take some liquid/cream chrome polish (it was a Turtle Wax brand I think...green/white metal can with white cap) and wipe/clean the tips after every drive while the exhaust was still hot. I used a thick sock/towel so I didn't get burned. When the polish touched the tips it would "sizzle," so you have to wipe it fast. The tips always returned to brand new condition when I did this. Not sure if it'll work for you but worth a try IMO.

 

[Alittleboost]

I tried the Polish, but the dis-coloring is deep. Is it possible to sand it down or wet sand the SS tips?! I Plan on using 600 Grit and then 1000 Grit sand paper, top it off with fine steel wool and then polish.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Try these products.

Another great metal polish is a Brit product called Solvol Autosol - especially good on billet aluminum - you can get a virtual mirror shine with that stuff! Works on Chrome too. It's a staple of Brit bikers and rapidly gaining popularity over here! Do a web search for it.

 

[pt91]

I tried the Polish, but the dis-coloring is deep. Is it possible to sand it down or wet sand the SS tips?! I Plan on using 600 Grit and then 1000 Grit sand paper, top it off with fine steel wool and then polish.

My little experience and research that I did on polishing SS showed that this metal is very hard and difficult to polish (to remove defects)
I would not sand them. I have tried a SS polish from Caswell on a 6" wheel/bench polisher. If I remember correctly it was a green compound. It takes time, effort and the right tools IMO to correct the finish in Stainless.
I think there is a forum on the Caswell site that may have more info.
Good luck.

 

[Alittleboost]

Well, heres the situation. The discoloring was pretty bad so it took me about 1h 30 mins to complete the tips. I started out with 600 grit sand paper, dipped it in water and sanded down both tips. After wet sanding it I went over again dry sanding, leaving only minor moister. I then moved on to 1000 grit to fine polish it, doing the same process mentioned above. After the tips shinned and all the discoloring was gone, just for good measure I went over with fine steel wool, cleaned it up with simple green, and used mothers polish.

Looks almost new, I didn't want the high polish look just nice and clean...so I guess I'm the only one with a Taitec JGTC center exit with polish tips.

 

[arfnsx]

I have the same exhaust and the same problem I used 3M rubbing compound and a dremel and it worked perfectly. just use some regular polish to go over it afterwards. Let me know if this works.