How to polish Diamond Plate

[MojaveJoe]

Thought Id share my recent education on this subject for anyone looking for a good way to polish diamond plate.

While at a truck stop looking for a good polish for my aluminum tool box project a trucker told me he swears by a product called Wicked Metal Polish. He gets it at Flying J truck stops. Well I got some at the nearby Flying J and picked up a piece of high pile carpet from the local building supply store on the way home.

Cut the white carpet into a dozen 4"x4" squares. Used the first piece as an applicator and scrubber. Got that black residue building up fast as my box hadn't been cleaned for 3 years. It had water stains all over it. I scrubbed with the carpet pad using moderate pressure both directions. Cleaned black residue off with a cotton towel, then finish polished with a clean piece of carpet. It was better but I could still see a few water stains. I went back and made another pass with fresh polish, and the same dirty carpet pad, rubbing harder. Cleaned, and polished again with clean carpet. And voila', really clean and shiny diamond plate again. After doing the whole box, I finished off with a good synthetic polymer wax, that took that faint black haze off the metal and brightened it up even more. (Used cotton towel to apply and buff wax, and finished with a MF cloth.)

CAUTION: If you don't get the black residue right away after starting to use metal polish, STOP. You're polishing clear coat. Get some paint polish.

Conclusions - 1. This is a tough job, but carpet applicators and polishers made the job a lot easier than using plain cotton towels. Less wear and tear on the fingers. BTW, plan on throwing the black polishing carpets & cloths away

2. Rubbing with the grain of the diamond plate then across it, splitting the diamond so to speak, made the polishing work even better. Seems the carpet pile just follows the little raised areas and really gets in there to remove the stains etc.

3. If you have to polish diamond plate, may as well do it the easy way (using carpet) with a good product. Hope this helps someone else in the future. I know I was more than happy with the end result

Joe

P.S. Iam not a sales rep for this product. Just found it by sheer luck.

P.S.2. If I could figure out how to make a round rotary deep pile carpet pad for this purpose (say 7" dia) might make this job even easier.

[MojaveJoe]

Thought Id share my recent education on this subject for anyone looking for a good way to polish diamond plate.

While at a truck stop looking for a good polish for my aluminum tool box project a trucker told me he swears by a product called Wicked Metal Polish. He gets it at Flying J truck stops. Well I got some at the nearby Flying J and picked up a piece of high pile carpet from the local building supply store on the way home.

Cut the white carpet into a dozen 4"x4" squares. Used the first piece as an applicator and scrubber. Got that black residue building up fast as my box hadn't been cleaned for 3 years. It had water stains all over it. I scrubbed with the carpet pad using moderate pressure both directions. Cleaned black residue off with a cotton towel, then finish polished with a clean piece of carpet. It was better but I could still see a few water stains. I went back and made another pass with fresh polish, and the same dirty carpet pad, rubbing harder. Cleaned, and polished again with clean carpet. And voila', really clean and shiny diamond plate again. After doing the whole box, I finished off with a good synthetic polymer wax, that took that faint black haze off the metal and brightened it up even more. (Used cotton towel to apply and buff wax, and finished with a MF cloth.)

CAUTION: If you don't get the black residue right away after starting to use metal polish, STOP. You're polishing clear coat. Get some paint polish.

Conclusions - 1. This is a tough job, but carpet applicators and polishers made the job a lot easier than using plain cotton towels. Less wear and tear on the fingers. BTW, plan on throwing the black polishing carpets & cloths away

2. Rubbing with the grain of the diamond plate then across it, splitting the diamond so to speak, made the polishing work even better. Seems the carpet pile just follows the little raised areas and really gets in there to remove the stains etc.

3. If you have to polish diamond plate, may as well do it the easy way (using carpet) with a good product. Hope this helps someone else in the future. I know I was more than happy with the end result

Joe

P.S. Iam not a sales rep for this product. Just found it by sheer luck.

P.S.2. If I could figure out how to make a round rotary deep pile carpet pad for this purpose (say 7" dia) might make this job even easier.

[sjseng]

Your right about the metal polish. It works great. But what I use to apply it is the Mothers Power Ball or Mothers Mini Power ball. Attach it to your drill and it takes all the elbow greas out of the application. You then need a clean towel to clean off the polish.

[MojaveJoe]

Thanks for the tip Tyler.

I actually considered the foam power ball approach, but couldn't see it rubbing hard enough to deep clean my water stained metal. (Might work now that the box is clean and polished) Also couldn't figure out how to clean it, as it would surely fill up with black residue after I was only 10% thru my job.

Care to share your thoughts?

Joe

[sjseng]

Joe, we just got our truck back from repair and there were heavy degreaser stains and hard water stains on the diamond plate from sitting outside for a few months. The power ball worked great on most everything. The only hard parts were the calcium/hard water marks that took a little extra elbow grease. I may even use a hard brissled brush since those are more in cracks and crevises.

Whether you use the power ball or a cloth, I only do small sections at a time so the polish does not dry up. Either way, it should clean up to an almost mirror shine.

Hope that helps.