exhaust polishing

[Wadeski]

So I picked up a stunning HKS exhaust to go on my car this weekend, but it needs a bit of a polish - it mainly looks like a bit of road grime rather than any tarnish.

Its obviously stainless steel, so what would you guys recommend to clean and polish it with?

would warm water with a bit of soap in it, dry off, then standard metal polish be bad?

I've heard autosol mentioned which sounds great, but doesnt appear easy to buy (i.e. my local Halfords dont have any)...

cheers!

[E30M3SE]

Halfords

Metal polish, like autosol, Auto glym, Meguiars and wire wool works well.

[PJ S]

Should be able to get Autosol in any local motor factors aside from Halfords.
Peek is another to look out for.
Meg's Metal Polish (NXT?) is one which could be investigated, as could the Doktor Power from a local Poundstretcher/InStore if it's just purely stubborn grime baked on.

[Wadeski]

right, got the autosol - they have it, they just hide it.

from the instructions it seems you just rub it on with no prep...is that serious? not even a wash first to get any crap off?

[rsstman]

personally i wouldnt want to wire wool my exhaust just as i wouldnt want to wire wool my bodywork.

is there anything that gets the carbon blackening off of an exhaust tip?

[Justin S]

rsstman said:

personally i wouldnt want to wire wool my exhaust just as i wouldnt want to wire wool my bodywork.

is there anything that gets the carbon blackening off of an exhaust tip?

Same as I wouldn't use wire wool, scratches the chrome. My neighbour used some mild scotchbrite pad and meguiars metal polish on his M3 60k miles never cleaned exhaust recently and came up a treat.

[Justin S]

Justin S said:

rsstman said:

personally i wouldnt want to wire wool my exhaust just as i wouldnt want to wire wool my bodywork.

is there anything that gets the carbon blackening off of an exhaust tip?

Same as I wouldn't use wire wool, scratches the chrome. My neighbour used some mild scotchbrite pad and meguiars metal polish on his M3 60k miles never cleaned exhaust recently and came up a treat.Tardis is pretty good at moving dried tar marks too.

Edited by Justin S on Tuesday 2nd June 21:01

[XL5]

clay bar and autosol for the exterior

000 wire wool and autosol for inside the pipes.

[Wadeski]

well, a bit of gruntwork and its acceptably shiny. Clay bar would have actually been a pretty smart idea, ill do that next time.

inside the pipes?? I'm not that keen im afraid...they're sposed to be dirty, its inside the exhaust pipe

[PJ S]

Presume that he means the inner section of the tips - not half up the pipe leading to the exit of the backbox.

[Seez]

I have been progressively cleaning my exhaust, lots of black baked on crud and soot etc, I found using autoglym super resin polish is removing it slowly but surely and I am not risking srubbing the hell out of it.

I am using the old polishing cloths and just rubbing gently. It is going little by little.

Maybe their is a more agressive approach to it, but slowly slowly catchy monkey.

[Wadeski]

i used a washing up sponge (with the slightly stiffer back surface) and an old rag. i'll give it another go later in the week on the really dirty sections, but the cans came up a treat.