Sunday 17 August 2014

Cat and Exhaust Polishing

Last weekend whilst in Wales the heavens opened, and I hurriedly unpacked the car cover I had taken with me, and chucked it over the car... Andy jumped in to get out of the rain and Alex kinda got in the side too... See picture below.
Me, Andy and Alex taking cover from the rain on the Top Gear Mountain road.
Me, Andy and Alex taking cover from the rain on the Top Gear Mountain road.
So why am I writing this?  Well it was a case of too much haste, and not enough thought as the car cover was resting on the roasting hot cat and silencer, and subsequently melted all over it.  Needless to say it looked a mess and I was very irritated, but once it cooled it was fairly easy to pick the plastic off.  However, it left a right old mess on my cat and exhaust.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter looking a bit of a mess after plastic removed.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter looking a bit of a mess after plastic removed.
I decided to buy a stainless steel polishing kit from Halfrauds, which cost about £25 in an attempt to get the exhaust back to it's original shiny standard.
Steel and Stainless Steel Polishing Kit.
Steel and Stainless Steel Polishing Kit.
The kit comes with three different graded buffing mops, with a straight arbor which allows them to be used in your hand drill.  Also supplied are three different compounds for using with each mop.  The instructions state to use only the correct compound with the right mop.
Steel Polishing Mops and Compounds.
Steel Polishing Mops and Compounds.
Below is a picture of the silencer and catalytic converter ready for polishing.
Caterham R500 Standard Silencer and Catalytic Converter ready for polishing.
Caterham R500 Standard Silencer and Catalytic Converter ready for polishing.
Close up picture of cat below.  As you can see there is quite a lot of tarnish on there from the heat which is fine, but where the plastic stuck to the cat you can see the tarnish has been removed and it just looks a little unpleasant.
Close up picture of my catalytic converter looking a bit sorry for itself.
Close up picture of my catalytic converter looking a bit sorry for itself.
At first I thought it would be ok to use the softest fishing mop, but I quickly found that the hardest mop (called a sisal mop) and the grey compound worked quickest.  Sometimes it's worth following the instructions!  However, the hardest mop did look very abrasive, hence my apprehension to use it straight away.   It took a good hour or so to get all the tarnish off as you can see in the picture below. The instructions suggested spending the most time on stage one, then less on stage two and stage three would be fairly quick.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter at first stage of polishing after using Sisal Mop and Grey Compound.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter at first stage of polishing after using Sisal Mop and Grey Compound.
Next it was onto the firm mop and pink compound.  It took about half an hour to polish it up to the standard below, but after seeing it slowly polish up it was very satisfying.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter at middle stage of polishing after using Firm Mop and Pink Compound.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter at middle stage of polishing after using Firm Mop and Pink Compound.
And the final stage was a quick polish with the soft mop and the blue compound for a mirror finish.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter polished after using final Soft Mop and Blue Compound.
Caterham R500 Catalytic Converter polished after using final Soft Mop and Blue Compound.
A couple of hours of polishing, and two battery re-charges of my hand drill later, here is the end result.  I think with a corded drill you may get a better RPM, so a quicker polish, but I'm still happy with the finish and it didn't take up too much of my Sunday.
R500 Silencer and Catalytic Converter looking nice and shiny... again!
R500 Silencer and Catalytic Converter looking nice and shiny... again!
So I fitted the silencer and cat, then took the picture below.
Freshly polished silencer and catalytic converter refitted to my Caterham R500.
Freshly polished silencer and catalytic converter refitted to my Caterham R500.
I'm very happy with the end result, shame the cat won't be on there for much longer as I've ordered (another) cat bypass pipe... My existing cat bypass pipe had to be cut to allow the massive Raceco silencer to fit.  But... I'll be looking forward to hearing what it'll sound like with the cat bypass pipe, standard exhaust and Pipercross air filter!

The question I'm left with now... Does this make me a 'polisher' :-( ???

2 comments:

  1. does it make you a polisher? of course it does!! But you are forgiven as you then actually go out and use your car, instead of sitting and posting negative comments on various web forums like some people!! Looks great anyway, i am cleaning mine at the moment, so i can go back to the std exhaust for a while, but my polishing consists of a big rag and a tube of Autosol!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Nigel... Good to hear from you....
      :o) the polishing kit is actually very good... I doubt I would've got the same results with Autosol...

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