What would you use to clean and protect?

[Jimmymack22]

It seems like I post all the time here but I'm learning so I hope you guys don't mind.

What products and tools would you use to clean and protect this?

And this?

 

[Blown03]

Hey Jimmy ,

I'm not a Professional but I'll give you my experience . First are those tips Stainless Steel ? There are several ways you can go about cleaning/getting them looking nice . A very nice product that works well and leaves a little protection behind is P21s Metal Polish Soap . Very nice product at an excellent price point . You would need to clean the heavy stuff off first then do the P21s .

Depending on how far you want to go i.e. steps and time invested . I did my cat back on my Cobra . I wet sanded it , starting with an 150 grit Flapper wheel on my cordless drill . Then by hand , I think I started w/ 300 grit, stepping up 400 , 600 , 800 etc.. ending with 3K grit . Then because it was what I had on hand I used Mothers Aluminum Polish w/ one of those cotton buffer wheels you can get at Home Depot/Lowes on my cordless to finish her off . I don't care for Mothers products but have to admit this one works well . I'm looking into some other polish's but at this time can only offer my experience with these 2 . Both of those products would only be of use to you from those you have pictured , as the last couple of steps . They are good for maintaining and or cleaning up already polished pipes IME anyway.

Although the P21s Metal Soap does look like it would work well with a little elbow grease on the white car pictured ,after you washed and used an APC on them .

Hopefully some Pro's will chime in here soon for yah , I'm sure Dr. Pain or Tad can add to my short list , giving you more options ... Hope this helps for now bud ...

 

[Blown03]

Jimmy , Here's a couple photo's of when I did a cleaning of my Cobra's pipes . These pipes are 409 SS for reference . I did those wet sanding steps I said in post above 2 years ago . This was first time I cleaned them since polishing . It doesn't get driven in the rain , although it did go to NC and back from here in DE , back in April . It rained AND snowed the whole 8+ hour drive down and rained all but a day and a half the week of was there for the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang ... Yup , it sucked lol.... Well, hope this helps yah out a little , least maybe giving you an idea of things ... I'll do my best to help you out bro .

 

[Blown03]

Sorry , I know it would've helped having before pictures to go with the after , that's a whoospy on my part ..

 

[Jimmymack22]

Wow Daren looks great thanks for the reply, I ordered some of the p21s soap as I asked this question on another forum and several people said the same as you, "good product, great price" so I will be giving that a shot on the 1st car. Still not sure what I'm going to do with the 2nd car I would like to save it as its my daughters car and I really don't want to put any more money in it than I have too.........

 

[Blown03]

Thanks Jimmy . Well,wet sanding sand paper can be had pretty easy , it can get expensive for what you get . I would try that . Wash & clean them as best you can , then I'd recommend doing a small section/spot from start to finish (wet sand w/like 300- 2500)to the underside of one of the tips . This way you'll know if this avenue will work , what grits work best ,what ones you can skip ,and if the final finish will be what you're after . Doing the underside albeit a b***h , it wont show if something goes sideways .

It sounds like a allot , like going from 300 grit all the way up to 2500 but you'd be surprised how quick you can accomplish both of those tips . The process isn't nearly as bad or long and drawn out as it seems . Least I did not find that . Specially because well, you'll get excited with each step, you'll see a noticeable difference getting you excited to see the next , then the final . It is very rewarding .