Quoted from Mancave:This is essentially the same method as polishing your stainless ball guides/anything stainless to a mirror finish (very close to mirror anyway) only difference being that the grit level is much lower down the scale. So if they have ball trails (most older ones will have) you would start at about 80 -100 (i use wet and dry paper and sand wet, cleaning as you go) to level out then gradually work your way up through the levels of grit to about 2000 or 2500 and then polish up with a calico wheel and a compound followed by a buffing wheel to finish with. The higher grit number you go to the better the finish after using the calico wheel and compound. Great guide flynnibus TY!!. Thought it would be timely to add this info also for those that may consider polishing their ball guides. I haven't got any photos at the moment to show the end result BUT i must say they come up very nice and makes a huge difference to the overall look.
Yup... but as you say, the grits are far less. I usually do emery paper if I have deep ball wear to clean out... and finish at about 600 grit if I want the grained stainless look. Going 600, 800, up to 1000 or 1500 should give you a really glossy look. But with the heavy grits, it's really important to sand in STRAIGHT lines... else you'll be fighting your own work a lot more.
But honestly I'm not a fan of the mirror finished guides for two reasons. 1) I prefer the factory gained look 2) Ball wear comes back within days or weeks of play... 3) the polished stuff shows fingerprints, etc more
I just sand out heavy ball wear if needed, move up to 320... maybe 600... and just use green polish on the tight cotton wheel on the buffer wheel. This gives me a polish level that is great, but requires very little effort.. so having it ruined with play, isn't a big deal.
Like this guide... I don't think I even sanded this one.. just used the buffer wheel.
Image uploaded from iOS (3) (resized).jpg
Image uploaded from iOS (2) (resized).jpg
I've shied away from sanding on ramps/etc because it's so hard to get a uniform finish into the corners, etc.