Polishing a stainless gas tank

[Rick_L]

Rustay56 makes a good point. For you to do it successfully and somewhat efficiently you'll have to spend a bunch on materials, and you'll still have to work your ass off.

If you insist on doing it yourself, do it just like a paint job - use sandpaper in fine then finer grits, use every step in the grit sizes available - and use sandpaper as long as possible up to 3000 and higher grit. Think about what it takes to do stainless trim, most of that stuff that's in good shape still requires a lot of work and those pieces are tiny compared to your tank. The big difference between paint and polishing metal is that the metal can stand far more wheel speed but needs that to make progress at all.

[chevynut]

I understand what you guys are saying, but I think I have the materials to do the job so I'll give it a shot. I'll go ahead and call Rodney and see if he wants to take on the job, but last time I talked to him he said he was booked over a year out on stainless trim work. So that's a consideration if I want to get anything done. If I can do it myself I might as well....I like the challenge, but if it gets to be too much I'll try to farm it out. I'm at the point that I want to make progress regardless of the cost.

[chevynut]

Well I think I screwed up a bit. Earlier I took my "fine" scotchbrite pads and went over my entire tank. I shouldn't have done that. It worked to remove sanding scratches at the welds, but I shouldn't have done the whole tank. I bought some "fine" pads at Goodguys and they leave a lot nicer finish. So now I have to go over the whole thing again to remove the scratches from the first pads, which apparently were "medium".

I also picked up a wool pad for my 7" angle grinder for $8 and I have a bunch of stainless and aluminum buffing compounds from Caswell. I can't seem to get the compound to do much with the grinder. I wonder why.

Once I get all the scratches taken care of I plan to take the tank to Rodney at Stainless Trim Works locally and get some advice from him. Surely he's done this before.

[Rick_L]

Take money when you take the tank. Problem solved.

[Custer55]

On my 55 you really have to fill it slowly and have a good idea how full the tank is or it will spill gas out on the side of the car. I pull the nozzle back so I can see down the filler neck to see the gas when I'm close to full. It's a real pain.
On the stainless polishing I remember spending countless hours polishing the trim on my 55. It looks great when it's done, but it takes lots of time and effort.
Brian

[chevynut]

Take money when you take the tank. Problem solved.

No Rick, it's not that simple.

I talked to Rodney at Stainless Trim Works last night and he says he's so busy he can't take on any work. He says he's booked out a year. He also says he doesn't really do work like this and focuses on trim restoration. I don't know of anyone else who does this stuff locally and I'm NOT shipping it.

I've searched the web and checked as far away as Denver to see if anyone can do this for me and found one possibility that I plan to call today. By the time I search for someone to do it, call them for an estimate and to discuss what I want, take it down and pick it back up, I'll have at least 8 hours invested.

Have you checked into the cost down there? How much would you pay to have this done?

I asked Rodney for advice on doing it myself and he said it wasn't easy and was very time consuming. He also said it was hard to get a uniform finish on flat surfaces by hand. He said not to try using a buffing wheel on a buffer for that reason, and that it's almost impossible for one guy to do it.

[Rick_L]

I don't have a local source. If I was looking for one, I'd approach a local shop that does chrome and other polishing, primarily for motorcycle stuff. And they might not want a fuel tank because of the size.

[chevynut]

I talked to a guy at Mile High Polishing in Denver today and send him some pics of my tank. He didn't act too excited to do it, so I guess we'll see if he quotes it.

In the meantime I've been re-considering polishing it. I've gone over a lot of it with the fine Scotchbrite pads on my die grinder, and it's removing the scratches from the medium Scotchbrite. Wow was it ever a mistake to do that whole tank with the medium stuff.

Anyhow, I'm considering doing more of a very fine "brushed" or "semi-gloss" finish rather than a full mirror polish. The tank has a few welds on the bottom where I welded internal baffles to it, and there's some slight warpage. A mirror finish will just amplify those defects. My son suggested I get a scotchbrite flap wheel and go over it to make the brushed finish.

Rodney also warned me about trying to polish my stainless plumbing lines, saying it's really dangerous to do on a buffer. He suggested just sanding them by hand with 600 grit and calling it good. I may try some 600 grit on the tank too, after I smooth it all with the fine scotchbrite and see how it looks.

Any thoughts?

[Custer55]

I sure it would look nice with a brushed finish as well. You could try it on a scrap piece or the top of the tank that won't show first to see how you like the finish.
I did the aluminum face plate of my council with a brushed finish and it looks good to me.

[chevynut]

Still nothing from Mile High Polishing. I really don't think he wants to do it.

I've worked on this thing for about 6 hours now and I think I have a process down that I want to use. Will post some pics as I get further along.