Polishing up your stainless steel header
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 1,092
Likes: 1
From: Shakopee MN
Polishing up your stainless steel header
Well, finally my Comptech header came. The header was used for couple of months but besides water stains/corrosion and heat blemishes, its mint. I decided I wanted to atleast bling up the runners that would be expose in the engine bay. I remember someone asking how do you clean up your stainless header, so seeing that I was doing this anyway, I figure maybe this write up will help out some of you. The results made me happy. Thanks for the header Erik! Here is what you'll need:
Scotch Bright (I was lucky enough to have the "very fine" ones from work. it leaves less hairline scratches)
Polishing compound (I used Mother's Aluminum Polish. It worked fine for me)
Buffer (unless you dont mind doing it by hand, it just takes longer)
Applicator pad to apply the compound
When I first got it, it had some water stains,corrosion and heat discolorations on it. Obviously, they will have it again when I start up the car, but atleast they wont have the corrosion on it anymore.
After I scrubbed it down with "Very fine" Scotch bright pad.
After I finished (polished it for about 2 minutes on each runner.)
Overall, for the amount of work involved, which was VERY LITTLE, I'm very pleased at the outcome. I'll take pics of it again when I start her up this weekend and it turns into the pretty gold/blue color.
Scotch Bright (I was lucky enough to have the "very fine" ones from work. it leaves less hairline scratches)
Polishing compound (I used Mother's Aluminum Polish. It worked fine for me)
Buffer (unless you dont mind doing it by hand, it just takes longer)
Applicator pad to apply the compound
When I first got it, it had some water stains,corrosion and heat discolorations on it. Obviously, they will have it again when I start up the car, but atleast they wont have the corrosion on it anymore.
After I scrubbed it down with "Very fine" Scotch bright pad.
After I finished (polished it for about 2 minutes on each runner.)
Overall, for the amount of work involved, which was VERY LITTLE, I'm very pleased at the outcome. I'll take pics of it again when I start her up this weekend and it turns into the pretty gold/blue color.
Registered User
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 374
Likes: 0
From: Vancouver B.C
I have some pics of the jdm rsr header i did for my b18c. It was completly corosion everywhere and it came up better than new. Just need to go threw the sand papers to the finest grit, wet sand polish and most importantly when you put it on, clean it spotless with windex and wax it with canuba wax. repeat every six months and it will stay a nice clean bronzy colour.
Trending Topics
Registered User
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 985
Likes: 0
From: Indidanapolis, In
That looks awesome. I think I will take my Megen Header back off and do that to mine. I bought mine slightly used and I was going to send it to get jet coated but I didn't like there price. Nice work and thanks for sharing the pics and info.