how to polish out a scratch

[chutneypooper]

Hi all
my first tech post

I stupidly managed to scratch my pristine staintunes the other day and having trouble polishing it out
the cans are highly polished and mirror like, but where I used wet n dry then polish to get rid of the scratch its now a matt finish and now looks worse than when the scratch was in

anyone have any tips and the secret to getting a mirror like finish on stainless steel?

 

[R.Hawks]

Try some Flitz

 

[fender]

What grit paper did you start with? To polish you start out course and work your way up to 1500 grit wet dry sandpaper. With each move up you change directions. You are smothing the metal to get it to a point of not seeing the sanding lines. Once you get to 1500 grit then switch over to polishing compounds and work through that progression. But for that a felt polishing wheel on a dremel or drill is the way to go. For the polishing compounds you will need to also go through several steps courser to fine. You can try by hand but it will take some time.

 

[rbirkey]

I agree generally with the comments so far. Basically you have to gradually polish out the spot with finer and finer grit until it matches the original finish. The final steps are going to be very fine polishing compounds with very fine cloth rags or buffing wheels to get that highly polished look.

 

[chutneypooper]

thanx for the advice, looks like some work and a bit of elbow grease this weekend and a buffer on the end of a dremel

 

[fender]

Were you able to polish out the scratch?

 

[Baltobonneville]

My Staintunes also have a few superficial scratches on the left side, probably from a pillion's boot. I'm not polishing them out.

 

[chutneypooper]

Were you able to polish out the scratch?

yes I was able too, followed the advice here, used the finest wet n dry and then used metal polishes and kept at it till I got a mirror finish. basically a lot of elbow grease. a pad on a dremel would have been easier