etout00 wrote:Gary, thanks for the reply and links. Do you by any chance have some more pics you can share of the brushed finish on your continue....I might even go that route if polishing is too expensive, or not an option.

It's hard to photograph but easy to do. The point is that you start coarse and go finer all in the same direction and very carefully so the new scratches you're putting on don't wander. As you go finer you get less and less visible scratches that add up to a brushed finish. It is not nearly as hard to do this as to get rid of all scratches and shadowing for a mirror finish. If you're not sure, you can a brushed finish on the inside surface of a panel. I just took another photo of the cowl for you. This part fits around the group and the steam and water tap handles connect through the large holes. A Conti badge will sit vertically on the side. You'll see my brush finish isn't "perfect" but I'm happy with it for now, especially since the badge and handles will be the focus on this part. I can always brush it up in the future or even have it plated or mechanically polished. The bear of polishing is the redos. You can see there are some wandering hairline scratches still visible. To correct that I would need to go much coarser, replace those scratches with my deeper coarse ones and then go progressively finer. I'm more interested in getting my machine up and working than spending more time on polishing for now. This photo is pretty close-up so it emphasizes the imperfections.



Looking at photos of La Cimbali commercial machines online I've seen that some of them are painted or powder coated. Those are attractive, low fuss options for the wraparound panels.

Thanks for the included pic of your brushed finish. The closer I look at my panels the more it looks like La Cimbali users some sort of electropolishing for their factory innox finish. My panels have an appearence just like vberch's junior..just a little scuffed in a couple places. I might for the heck of it see how meguires M105/205 polish applied with a random orbital polisher looks like....vberch's panels appear to have come out great. Its not the mirror finish I was going for, but might make it look new again.

I did locate a facility nearby that does electropolishing and will get a quote.......do you remember what estimate you got when you were calling around...just curious?

etout00 wrote:I did locate a facility nearby that does electropolishing and will get a quote.......do you remember what estimate you got when you were calling around...just curious?

I never got a quote because I wanted a mirror polish.

Hi Eric, if you've done car detailing, this will be no different. I started with a Lake Country Yellow Pad with Meguiar's 105, then moved to Lake Country White Pad with Meguiar's 205 and finished with Yellow Foam Applicator Pad with Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish applied by hand.

It really was fairly easy and fast. If you have really deep scratches, you may want to do very light sanding first. Good luck!

etout00 wrote:That looks very similar to the current finish on my panels (yours look new of course)....I think Cimbali calls that their innox finish.

To get that like-new finish did you have to do any sanding up front. Also do you mind me asking what pads you used for the 105/205 combo.....I have a whole bunch of Lake Co. pads and also have the 105/205 in the bottles ready to go (I do car detailing too)

Vlad,
Thanks for the reply....I have all those pads. I guess I'll give this a try and see how it turns out. If you have any more pics if your La Cimbali Junior please feel free to PM or email me...I'd really like to see them.

etout00 wrote:The closer I look at my panels the more it looks like La Cimbali users some sort of electropolishing for their factory innox finish. My panels have an appearence just like vberch's junior..just a little scuffed in a couple places. I might for the heck of it see how meguires M105/205 polish applied with a random orbital polisher looks like....vberch's panels appear to have come out great. Its not the mirror finish I was going for, but might make it look new again.

Vlad's machine looks really good, and if that's what you want, why not give it a try? You can always test it first on the inside of a panel.

vberch wrote:If you have really deep scratches, you may want to do very light sanding first. Good luck!

However if you have really deep scratches only deeper sanding will totally take them out. A brushed finish or powdercoat would hide them better than the level of polish Vlad's done.

Metal polishing is one of my favourite things...

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-p ... g-kit.html

That link above is a great starter kit for stainless. Really deep pits and scratches are very difficult to get rid of and would need professional help.

Brushing steel is rather easier and hides a lot of stuff. When I get time I can do a thread on that.

Paul

Paul:

Is it possible to do a decent job without a large, high torque buffing motor? When I used a kit like the one you link on a small buffer I got seemingly endless shadowing. And yes, please do a thread on brushing steel. Your comment that brushing was an option got me to finally throw up my hands and choose that for my Prestina project.

Paul_Pratt wrote:Metal polishing is one of my favourite things...

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-p ... g-kit.html

That link above is a great starter kit for stainless. Really deep pits and scratches are very difficult to get rid of and would need professional help.

Brushing steel is rather easier and hides a lot of stuff. When I get time I can do a thread on that.

Paul

Paul,
Thanks for the response. I too would really like to see any pointers on how to do a brushed steel finish....this might be my only option unless I either invest in some buffing equipment or send it off to a machine shop.