# Polishing Torrington deco stem



## chitown (Feb 19, 2012)

I was told, or read here somewhere, that the Torrington deco stems were pot metal and could not be polished. So being told I can't do something was a perfect reason for me to give it a shot.

Came out pretty good I think. I used some scuffing pads on my dremel, starting with a rough grit and ending with the fine. Then used some rubbing compound and 0000 steel wool. Next was the polishing pad (5"sold for a grinder) I have rigged on my cordless drill (18volt DeWalt). Final polish with my dremel and polishing pads and compounds. I tried not to sand too much on the first rough grit as I wanted some of the casting details to still show.

Before:
View attachment 42721 View attachment 42722

After 1st pass with dremel:
View attachment 42723

After:
View attachment 42724 View attachment 42725 View attachment 42726


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## scrubbinrims (Feb 19, 2012)

Wow, all mine look like your before pics and it's amazing you got that kind of shine out of it.
I took some notes  on your maiden voyage to try it myself.
Chris


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## chitown (Feb 19, 2012)

Here's pics of the tools.

With the abrasive buffs, I use the coarse one only briefly and with a light hand. If you stay in one spot and lay into it you can create some waves in the surface. Just go enough to get the to the pits in the surface. Repeat with the medium pad. Then I went through 2 fine buff pads getting the surface to a dull polish, you can lay into it pretty good with the fine grit pads and get all the scratch marks out with it. In fact I was liking the way it looked after hand buffing with the steel wool stage.

View attachment 42790 View attachment 42791


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## wigditty (Feb 19, 2012)

*Torrington gooseneck*

The one I bought was cast aluminum, and I was able to polish to that of a mirror.  Keep polishing!


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