Polishing stainless auto trim

[69CHARGER_RT]

Currently I am following your instructions for polishing in your manual. I have a few questons however...

Upon the advice of a friend I am starting off my polishing using a 400 grit wet/dry paper to remove heavier scratches in the stainless. Is this good advice?

I am using a 1/2 hp bench grinder that has an rpm of 3450 with a 4" wheel. Is this sufficient? I am starting with the black with the sisal wheel followed by the green with the spirial wheel.

Regarding pressure on the piece, how much is enough? Is hard pressure required to get out the 400 grit scratches? How much of an area shouls you polish at once? 3-4" at a time? Do you move the piece or do you hold it stationary on the section you are doing?

The reason I ask these questions is this. I did all these steps on half a piece of trim and I cant get it to be as shiney as the untouched half!! Am I doing something wrong/ Or am I not doing enough of something?

I hope this makes sense!
Thanks in advance!

[CamaroMike]

Polishing any kind of steel is fun. I've polished 18 oil pans during my professional polishing career. The best way I found to polish it was to use a grinding wheel, then a sisal wheel with black grease, and spending a long time at the cloth wheels with tripoli. As for pressure goes I really cant explain how much I used, try to go over each part equaly with the same pressure on the work piece. I would get everything smooth with the sisal wheel and then polish the heck out of the trim with the sewn cloth wheels. At first it will seem like nothings happening but after a while you'll see the results. You can make them look like they are chromed if you work at it long enough.

[69CHARGER_RT]

Thanks Mike. Thats what Im experiancing. I guess I have to spend a little more time on the wheel. It doesnt seem like anything is happening to the trim.
Hopefully if I spend a little more time things will get better.

How long should say a 1" wide by 2' long piece of SS take from start to finish? I was working on this one piece a good 2 hours trying all different techniques with poor results..........

[CamaroMike]

I could get a 1inch by 2foot section in about 30mins. I reguarly put polishing grease on the wheel. 1 quick hit against it every minute. It does take time to figure out what needs to be done. How thick do you have your wheels stacked together? If I was doing something that small I would have 3 6inch cotton sewn wheels put together to cover the whole workpiece that way you'll cover the whole part in one swipe.

[69CHARGER_RT]

At the moment I have 2 stacked together. When you say grease you mean the soild bars that Caswell sells right?
Thanks for your replies.

[CamaroMike]

Yep, the long bars that caswell sells.