I didn't think there would be much metal found in bumpers today! Seems if there was any good metal the bumper would still be attached to the car! Seems most I see are the plastic covers like the Audi you found.

 

Yeah it was more of a joke. I havent seen and whole ones at all Tim. To date this winter has freaked me out. To imagine I was bumming last year because I hadnt seen a good snow fall in years. This year we had a PT Cruiser hit the snow bank on a bridge and it drove right off the over pass. Thrusday morning we had some freezing rain after two weeks of no bad weather. The highway was black ice. I saw a Ranger than flipped so bad the cab had been ripped right off. The cab was on its top and flat all the way to the door handles. No windshield frame or anything, just compacted steel. It the worst I have ever seen as far as vehicle destruction. It didnt look good for the driver either, the ambulance was parked and no one was working on the truck, I believe it was the end of the road for the driver.

Tim post us some pics when you get those seats in there. I'm interested in how high they sit.

 

I kinda figured that you weren't serious about collecting the bumpers. It was just driving me crazy seeing so many that were still in one piece, especially the one I witnessed the Audi do. After seeing it there for 3 weeks I had to have my buddy stop and pick it up. I sold it for $75 and my buddy thought I was crazy for even trying lol! I proved my point and truly do wish I would've picked up a few more, including that truck cap. Why someone would just leave the stuff laying there is beyond me.


I'll get some pics of the seats when I get them installed, but it'll be a while for sure. Gotta figure out how the tracks are going to swap over will probably take me a while. Interior is pretty far down the list but I would like to at least get the seats in there so I'm not sitting on separated petrified vinyl this summer. They should look pretty good in there, a little lighter black than the factory black but I doubt it'll bother me too much. I got pretty high backed seats but the support is awesome.


Here's a pic of the new X pipe that I got a little while ago. I realize it's exhaust and not really a big deal but the appearance is not what I was hoping it to be. It's 409 stainless but to me, looks like standard, crappy exhaust pipe. I'm just wondering if it would hurt if I tried to sand and polish it a bit? I want it to look as close as possible to my headers, mufflers and tips as possible. Just don't understand why it looks so crappy?! Never seen stainless exhaust pipes look like this before. The stainless exhaust I got for my truck 4 years ago still looks better than this. Not really worth the money I spent on it so I want to at least try to shine it up a bit. I've got some cutouts out in the garage that I wasn't planning on using but might just add 'em on there as the pipes come separated right there for that reason. Need to pick up a couple push/pull cables for the cutouts to open from inside the car but they're cheap.


Extended weather forecast is looking REALLY promising the week after next so I'm hoping that I can get some good progress made relatively soon. Here's hoping the forecast stays that way! It's crazy to think that if we see 50 degrees, that'll be a 70 degree warm up from a few weeks ago!

 

The day after St. PAtties was 81* last year. This year it was -5* in the morning and warmed to a whole 25* or so.

There are two grades of stainless used in exhausts almost exclusively. There is 304 that is pretty polishes nice and stays shiny. Then there is 409, it doesnt hold a shine for crap and to top it off will turn brown after some time. You can polish it but the closer to the header they are the more it will turn color. Mine is the same really. A little shinier but still 409. I plan on just doing the tips. The mufflers are 304 and polished to a mirror finish.
There are way more grades then these two but these are the most common. I'm no metallurgist but I think the 304 just has more nickle in it. My grill is stainless but my magnetic thermometer sticks to it. Crappy metal.

 

You're right, we were just looking at pics of us at the bar on St. Patrick's Day 2 years ago in shorts and T shirts. This year we didn't even go because it was so cold. I'm going back down for opening day for the Tigers next week and I'm not sure how they're going to play with the snow still left, plus it's supposed to rain. We'll be watching from the bar rooftop anyway lol!


They didn't offer this X pipe in 304 unfortunately. I should've got a couple better pics showing what I mean about how awful this thing looks. I'm not expecting mirror finish but an actual bit of sheen/shine would be OK with me. There's brown lines traveling up and down the whole thing, all the way around it. Just not sure what sandpaper I should start with. I'm not opposed to spending some time on it, not like it needs to go on immediately, plus I could do it in the basement and stay warm. I'm going to try at least. My headers are mirror finish and so are my mufflers and the elbows that I'm going to use to run it out in front of the rear tires. The tips are chromed. After spending all those hours making everything else under the car look brand new (most of it is) I can't just throw this thing under there without trying to make it look better. I know 409 will discolor over time but like I mentioned, the 409 pipes under my truck are almost 5 years old and every summer I polish them back up to a nice looking shine.

 

Stainless is pretty hard, unless it's the cheaper grades that test to be magnetic like Damon mentioned. I'd probably not sand it with anything coarser than 320 grit if you plan to polish it. Even 320 grit will polish it if you're not looking for a mirror finish. Test it with the magnet though, as if it's ferrous enough to stick, then it will still turn color when it gets road salt on it.

 

I'm going to start with 400 grit, I have a bunch of that here already. I realize it's going to turn color over time but I want something that I can re-polish like I do with my truck. It keeps shining back up and although the Camaro will never see salt, the truck is covered in it all winter and still shines up. I'll get started on it this week and see how it works out.

 

Probably will be pretty hard to see most of the exhaust system on a Camaro, so the part that's behind the rear axle will need the most attention, since it's the most visible.

 

A green or grey scotchbrite pad may be better. But if I were doing this for a customer back in the day I would have started with 320 dry and then a worn 320 wet, although we used kerosene and a grease stick back then. I would try 320 on a DA and then go to maybe a 600 to pull the 320. You'll have a ton of time in it that way but it will turn out nice. We used to have a term called " shiney scratches" we used for things like exhaust pipes. They have to be shiny but far from flawless. If it buffed up and you couldnt tell from arms length the scratches were there. There would be no way you would see it under the car.

I would end with a car buffer or some type of powered buffing wheel and lots of compound. The elcheapo kits at HF actually have a stainless bar in them. Black is stainless, white is aluminum, and green is supposed to be for plastic. But the black is the one I would use to get the scratches out then I would go to mothers or the white compound for final buff.

 

Is a DA a workable tool for a small round surface like an exhaust pipe Damon? I would think that a roll of 320 1.5"-2" emery cloth would be a good thing to use to polish up exhaust pipe. Could support the exhaust system at each end on saw horses and then polish it with a length of emery cloth fairly easy I'd think?