I have a Borla cat back and I polished the exhaust from where it bolts on right behind the pumpkin. Its all that you can see of the exhaust. Mine separated at that point so it made my life easier. Yours may not depending on what you have. Also different metals may polish faster/slower too keep this in mind.

Before

Items Needed (Total cost should be around 20 dollars)

• 400 Grit Sand Paper 1 package
• 1000 Grit Sand Paper 1 package
• 1500 Grit Sand Paper 1 package
• 2000 Grit Sand Paper 2 packages
• Metal Polish
• If possible some sort of buffer for the final shine
• Tools to remove and reinstall your catback (each is different so look to see what you need here)
• You can also pick up an extra pack of each sand paper just to be safe as you may need it.

Sand paper I Used

Level of Difficulty
On a 1-10 this job gets a 2. The hardest part is taking the exhaust off. Expect to take around 7 hours to be done. I started at 1pm and finished at 8pm.

Step 1 - Remove Exhaust
Use ramps or jack stands, what ever you want to get the exhaust off. The stock rubber hangers are the hardest part of this. If you can get them started you can wiggle them off, it just takes a good bit of time. Try to pull down on the exhaust and pull put and shift the hanger back and forth. This little spawn of Satan can be tricky. Don’t throw things if you can help it. After you have the exhaust removed its time to clean them up and sand!

Step 2 - Clean up the exhaust
Clean up the exhaust pipes good to remove nasty road grim

Step 3 - Sand with 400 grit
You can wet sand or you can not. It makes a mess either way and the stuff that you sand off does not come off easy on what ever it gets on. Be careful where you sand your exhaust at. Take the 400 gritt peices of paper and tear them in half and use half of in about 6 inch increments down the pipe keeping an eye on the paper to see when it is used up, Keep it flat for the best results. Use a up and down and side to side motion (circular). Take your time as this is the base of it all. Pay attention to how the metal looks after its sanded, you want a uniform pattern all the way. Clean the parts up good before going on.

400 Grit Sand vs Stock Pipe cleaned up

Step 4 - Sand with 1000 grit
Do just like 400 grit, take your time and sand the entire part. It wont be as easy to see where you have been so keep tabs on to what part on the pipe you are going in each 6 inch increment. Clean the parts up good before going on.

1000 Grit vs Stock Pipe just cleaned up

Step 5 - Sand with 1500 grit
Do just like 1000 grit. Start taking a little more time here to bring out the sine good. Clean the parts up good before going on.

1500 grit vs 1000 Grit

Step 6 - Sand with 2000 grit
REALLY take your time here spend twice as much time as you did with the 1500 grit. Make extra efforts to sand the areas that will be seen the most when installed back on the car.Clean the parts up good before going on.

2000 Grit (Dirty tough looks better cleaned)

Step 7
Use some really good metal polish and apply some by hand. Do a couple good coats and let it sit for a couple of minutes and buff it off

Step 8
If you can use a buffer and some good polish to go over the parts a couple good times. Depending on the form of the metal their will be pits that wont come out without MUCH more sanding. These pits are not very noticeable so don’t lose sleep over them.

Step 9
Reinstall the exhaust and align as needed, finish off by wiping down the exhaust pipes.

That is all it takes, the finished results: