Re: How to tell stainless?
If a magnet will stick to it, the best form of stainless you could hope for it to be would be 409. 409 stainless is the same type of steel used in a good portion of late model OEM automotive exhaust systems. (I know GM switched over to using it as a standard exhaust substrate in all their vehicles in like 94' I believe.) It is far more corrosion resistant than plain carbon steel but it WILL eventually rust if exposed to the elements. My guess would be that the parts are most likely mild steel because from a cost-of-production standpoint it makes little sense for a company to spend the extra money on a higher corrosion resistant steel if they intended to coat it with paint anyway.
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