Man sounds like a lot of labor! Do you have any photos of fine work?
Man sounds like a lot of labor! Do you have any photos of fine work?
- 1957 Chevrolet 4 dr hardtop Bel Air Sierra Gold/Adobe Beige - Purchased July 5th, 2013
- 1957 Chevrolet 4dr sedan 210 Larkspur Blue/India Ivory Sedan - Purchased Aug 6th, 2012 (not running)
- 1957 Chevrolet 4dr sedan Bel Air Canyon Coral/India Ivory Sedan - Purchased June 30th, 2013 (not running)
- 2017 Chevrolet SS Sedan - LS3 - TR6060 - Nightfall Grey Metallic - Purchased April 2017
CN.. It's 'drudge work' and can be a little dangerous too during the buffing/polishing (danger for the part and danger for the operator anyone/thing around)...
Did you buy the dual speed (1800/3600) rpm buffer? What size pads and what speed are you running for your buffing/polishing?
I just realized it's going to take me three weeks to a month of work to polish all these parts. I actually had one of the doglegs catch on the wheel and it scared the crap out of me and I thought it was going to rip out of my hands and destroy the part. Luckily it only hit the nut on the shaft, which I had covered with tape, and I only had a little ding to repair. I was polishing a headlight ring some time ago and it hooked on the wheel and completely trashed the part. Luckily it just hit the ground and I came out unscathed. Rodney told me he had a headlight ring send him to the hospital ER when it hit him in the head. He said it twisted the ring into a knotted ball.
I got the single speed buffer, 1/2 HP, 3450 RPM, which seems like plenty of power to me. It was only $107 at the time I got it. I think the slow speed buffers are for polishing plastics, not stainless. I didn't see the need for a 2-speed one and faster is better as far as I can tell. I have a home-built buffer that I built in the 80's with a 1/2 HP motor and pulleys/belt that I can slow down if I ever need to. This new one runs a lot smoother and has longer shafts. I'm using 8" buffing wheels, spiral sewn. I have some sisal wheels and some loose buffs but so far the spiral ones seem to work well. I might try a sisal wheel to see if it speeds up the rough polishing, and a loose buff and white compound to see what it does for a final finish.
I'll try to get some pics, but as we know it's hard to get good pics of shiny stuff.
Last edited by chevynut; 10-08-2019 at 09:14 PM.
56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension
Other vehicles:
56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
1962 327/340HP Corvette
1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
2001 Porsche Boxster S
2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax
Added a couple more small pieces of stainless to my list so now I have 52 pieces to polish. I did pretty good today and straightened and sanded 9 more pieces....I'm getting better at removing dents. A couple of the pieces were small, some were in better shape than others. Soon I'll be almost halfway there!!!
I still have to pick up the 4 tailgate bar clips from a local guy so I can finish assembling the last bar to the tailgate. I have 5 of them installed along with the tailgate lock assembly and center bar. Madmooks told me they're just about ready to ship my new stainless tailgate latches, rods, strikers, cable retainers, and hardware. Then I can complete the tailgate assembly and install the weatherstrip.
56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension
Other vehicles:
56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
1962 327/340HP Corvette
1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
2001 Porsche Boxster S
2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax
CN: Have you attempted polishing the glass trim as yet? In particular I'm asking about the curved (flimsy) pieces... I'm very nervous about attempting to polish mine... I may just 'hand polish' them...
By "glass", do you mean windshield? No I haven't worked on them yet because they're the last pieces I'll need. Larry wants to install the leather padded dash before I install the windshield. Actually I think they're going to be easy to do and they're probably more rigid than the fender pieces I've finished. The nice thing is they're not Nomad-specific so they're easy to find if you screw one up.
56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension
Other vehicles:
56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
1962 327/340HP Corvette
1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
2001 Porsche Boxster S
2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax
I was also referring to the upper/lower trim on the rear curved glasses... pretty flimsy and being curved makes them more difficult to handle with the buffer/polisher...
56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension
Other vehicles:
56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
1962 327/340HP Corvette
1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
2001 Porsche Boxster S
2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax
Personally, I doubt it RD... I think that would be worse than holding the pieces firmly on each side of the 'buffing action'. If you let the wheel hit the part the wrong way, or at the wrong angle... It will be torn from your hands even when held firmly. I have considered 'mounting' each piece of trim to a wooden board (using clips) in order to hold the trim in it's correct orientation, and the board would provide more to hold onto, but I haven't done that yet. It would probably work better for long straight pieces than for the curved ones.
PS. I've heard of people who tried buffing the pieces while attached to the car, but there are issues with that as well..