Polished AMG exhaust tips for a customer
 

Top side of the AMG quad exhaust tips as they were delivered to us. Dried on dirt, some water spots, the very beginning signs of corrosion, and carbon deposits. There are some scratches in the metal that would require a machine polish to correct if they aren't too deep.
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The bottom side. Again, more dried on dirt and carbon deposits as well as some scratches from possibly bottoming out on a steep driveway or the like.
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After a bath in warm soapy water, we attacked the grime and stains with #0000 steel wool. We tried using the steel wool with Blue Magic Liquid Metal Polish first, but found it to be too mild of a combination. The steel wool alone yielded the best results, and will not scratch stainless or chrome.
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After the brushing with steel wool, the tips were all washed in warm soapy water again, then hand polished with a terry cloth pad and Eagle One Nano Polish. We like to use this polish as a final step due to it's extremely mild nature and protective property against future corrosion.
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Next, we applied two treatments of Meguiar's Carnauba Cleaner Wax to add more protection and ensure any residual polish was removed before the next step.
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Finally, three coats of Meguiar's Gold Class Carnauba Plus paste wax were applied. The first coat immediately followed by a second, 30 minutes to dry, then a third coat 30 minutes later without taking off the previous layers. This was let to stand for an hour before buffing off with a microfiber detailing towel.
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The final layer of wax setting up for an hour.
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The end result.
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Shiny!
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Note the carbon deposits are all but gone from the bottom and inside edges of the rolled tips.
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Wow nice. I never thought of actually applying wax to the exhaust tips. How well does that protect against any future carbon deposits?

It seems to last just about as well as waxing your car, up to three to four months.

The before picture are shiny compared to my black tips. I have so much carbon on them. I figure im getting my exhaust soon so no point of cleaning them lol.

Yeah mine had a bunch of buildup and I didn't even think it was possible to restore the shine but steel wool got the job done. Just follow it up with a polish and wax.

Steel wool on exhaust tips? Who would of thought. I can't believe no one has ever posted about that before.




:rolleyes:

nice shine

seems unfinished since you didn't remove all the carbon.

I usually just use headlight polisher on my exhaust tips. In all seriousness, they come out like new

I spent just as long on the little bits just inside the rolled edges as I did on the whole process (the whole process being close to three hours) and what you see is what's left. Nothing was taking it off beyond what you see. No metal polishes, combination of metal polishes, or steel wool with and without warm soapy water. I'd need some sort of buffer or the felt Dremel tips to get it done, possibly.

sadly, when people neglect their chrome/polished exhaust tips long enough, it becomes a pita to remove deposits on it.

I have titanium tips and resort to wiping them down every car wash/week. It'll never be as shiny as the chrome tips I had before and I can't take polish to them like before either cuz the titanium burnt finish would fade.

I have mentioned it on another post but spray oven cleaner works incredibly well, and cut through all of the build up on those tips with no scrubbing. spray and rinse a way just dont let it stand on the metal for more than an hour or it can etch it (not usually SS though), and you want to get it off of your paint within a couple of minutes if you get over spray.

Steel wool are so abrasive they leave scratches, and the carnuba wax fills in those scratches and wont hold up to the heat especially from the 8, so the scratches will over time show rite back up. you would have to sand and polish them again.

A none metal green scratchy pad or hogs hair (Brillo) pad is the best it wont hurt the original finish but still cut through the carbon build up. WAY less time polishing