Does anyone know how to restore stainless steel mouldings (windshield) back to the brilliant finish they had when brand new?? Do you use abrasives?? buffing??? Any help? Thanks for your time.

Donny, I havn't done mine yet but I was planning on using 00 steel wool maybe if someone has done this they can post a reply if not I'll let you now in a couple weeks when I get around to doing mine

You buff stainless with a felt pad and rouge. Thats how you get that nice shine back. Use steel wool on chrome.

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67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

I have always taken mine to a shop that does buffing and they come out honestly like new. If you have the equipement, I see no reason why you couldn't do this at home. I think the shop has a number of different wheels and they start out with real abrasive stuff to get the scratches out and then get finer and finer to polish up. Does anyone have any thoughts on what to use to protect these pieces after they are polished?

Be really careful when polishing the window trim. Stainless warps when it gets hot and it does not take much to heat these things up. Also, the buffing wheel will grab these thin trim pieces and cut you up like bait fish if you get them at the wrong angle.

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Click here to see see my car and hear 5-speeds. http://www.geocities.com/casanoc

carlc, your right on the buffing wheel I have one that I use to polish the trim on old gas pumps,or chrome before I goldplate and I have ruined a few piece's that why I was going to do mine by hand with polishing rouge & oo steelwool or scuff pad. I was afraid to ruin my trim !

I did all mine at home. Carlc is right about those buffing wheels taking the trim right out of your hands, and it happens quick. I never hurt any of my pieces but came close a couple of times. There's a trick to get dents out if you have any. And the method sort of depends on how bad the dent is. If it's a small dimple (like the size of the letters on your keyboard), you can tap them out gently with a cloth underneath it. It's O.K. to slightly raise it on finish side. Then use a FINE file to gently smooth out rough spot. You can then remove these scratches with 500 wet/dry sand paper. Then polish out those scratches with an abrasive wheel with compound. I can't remember the proper names of the wheels, but there are at least 3 different ones to use in stages with the different compound for each stage. A good body & paint supply store should have all the stuff you would need with helpful info on the process. Remember that the first wheel you will use, will take out some rough scratches itself. If it won't don't be afraid to use the sand paper. The buffing process will take out those scratches as well. The trick is patience. It can take alot of time depending on condition of stainless. After people realized I did my own, they all want me to do theirs. Problem is, I don't have that kind of time. Maybe for my own project. Anyway, hope this helps some.
See Ya,

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Steve
67 SS 396,4-sp
67 RS 327,4-sp
72 RS 350/350
69 4X4 suburban 350,4-sp
73 3/4 ton 454/400
http://www.geocities.com/stevocamaro

I use the red rouge first then finish polishing with the white rouge for a nice polished look but I don't do this all the time and I'am going to do my camaro trim by hand.