Polishing steel?

[Master [H]]

I'm wondering here:

I've seen some Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish around that claims to be good for all metals. I'm wondering how well it'd work for the plain old steel (paint sanded off of course).

 

[Impact9]

I've tried this with a older Yeong Yang case about 2 years ago. I stripped off the paint and sanding it down to 2000 or so grit sand paper and onto super fine steel wool. From there I used a buffer wheel and various abrasive clays to attempt to get a nice reflective surface and made several applications of turtle wax. The steel didn't really give a mirror reflection though it was smooth as glass. Color wise it looked like a brushed aluminum case but there was darker areas in the "grain" of the panels. It looked cool and tough, but finger prints would get bad and a pain to remove. Plus there was some rust and darkening issues over the long term.

All cases aren't created equal so you may have better luck than I did.

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

I remember seeing a VAIO lappy polished to a chrome finish... I'm tryin to convice my bro to do the same with his VAIO

 

[DMS]

Aliminum polishes extremely well using the method described above (sanding with progressively finer grits, then buffing with a buffing wheel) I've done this with several parts and they look just like Chrome.

Steel panels will polish, but it never quite gets that "chrome" look because of the striations in the grain of the metal. Cast steel parts will polish better.

David

 

[Impact9]

Those VAIO laptops and many others have magnesium cases which looks hella cool polished.