It's okay to wet sand and buff stainless steel, right?

[Tom L.]

I have scratches on the trim piece located where the convertible top meets the top of the window frame. I was planing on wet sanding and buffing, but I don't want to ruin it. Has anyone done this? Is there a particular product I should use to polish? Thanks.

[Edward J.]

Re: It's okay to wet sand and buff stainless steel, right?

Tom, I cleaned up my stainless with sanding and polishing , I think using a extra fine sand paper(1000 or 1200) and a metal polish will make the look great, maybe alitttle to good. I had some scratchs, most were fine ones. I did have adams metal polish No1 and No2. ,but theres so many polishes I would think any of them would work.

[Chuck S.]

Re: It's okay to wet sand and buff stainless steel, right?

I have scratches on the trim piece located where the convertible top meets the top of the window frame. I was planing on wet sanding and buffing, but I don't want to ruin it. Has anyone done this? Is there a particular product I should use to polish? Thanks.

Body moldings on C3s are stainless steel, but it has a thin surface film of flash chrome that gives it a "blue" color compared to stainless, which will have a brownish hue to it.

It depends on the depth of the scratches, but if you do extensive wet sanding and polishing, it will break through or remove that flash chrome. Unfortunately, if you have scratches, that's the only way to get them out...restorers usually have to plan on having the trim replated. The color difference may not be too noticeable to the average person unless there is an adjacent piece of trim that has not been similarly polished.

Removal of scratches is a trade-off...you need an aggressive sandpaper grit to quickly remove the scratches in the trim, but then you have to choose progressively finer grit paper to remove the sandpaper scratches. For very deep scratches, you may have to begin with careful use of fine files. Take it as far as you can with wet sanding (2000 or 2500 grit) before polishing; stainless is hard and polishing it is not easy. Use a white rouge compound and buffing wheel for faster polishing.