Stainless polishing

[shovelhead69]

Hey guys,
Hoping to get some advice/ suggestions. I'm a painting contractor a job I'm doing now is a remodel of what was once a bank, now housing a pharma company. They are keeping the vault, because of my interest in detailed work I have been asked to take on the polishing of the vault. It is a walk in the door being manufactured some where around 1903-04. There is some rusting and staining. I picked up a generic stainless liquid with abrasive polish and by hand have had some success. I'm open to any recommendations as far as products and procedures any suggestions are apreciated.

 

[Monofletch]

I use this...... It takes care of just about everything. Plus it’s not super expensive.

 

[22-rimfire]

Prism Metal and Fiberglass Polish a product I just got recently for mostly cleaning/polishing nickel plated firearms. It should work real well on stainless. They told me it's about a 5500 grit polish.

 

[eisman]

Any place that shows corrosion will need to be worked over with abrasives. I'd use a succession of them, depending on how deep you're going to have to go. Are you doing this by hand? In that case a hard rubber block would probably be best to back the papers. If using power tools it's going to be a bit problematic. And, of course, the complexity of the casting will add to this.

Get rid of the rust and corrosion first, then when you have everything down to around 1000 grit you can start looking at final polishing with liquids. I tend to prefer a more satin finish on stainless, but you can bring it to a mirror finish if needed. Unless that's what it had originally it's going to be a lot of work.