Does Barkeeper’s Friend Work?

From time to time there have been posts with questions about cleaning stainless steel. One idea that gets put forward is Barkeeper’s Friend. (If you aren’t familiar with it, it is an abrasive powder product along the lines of Comet or Ajax.) Some people swear by it and others swear it doesn’t do a thing. I have personally recommended it based on some of my own limited use and seeing what a guy in our organization’s maintenance department was able to do with a “hopeless cause” bathtub.

Today I was working on old Broilmaster parts. (I plan to do a separate thread on that.) One piece is the center column which is an all stainless part that supports the firebox and conceals the LP tank and control valve. I used the tried and true Simple Green. It got the grease off and some stains, but I was less than enthusiastic about the results. So, I broke out some Barkeeper’s Friend. After doing half of the front, I took this picture:



Does Barkeeper’s Friend work? What do you think?

I will add that to Broilmaster’s credit all the stainless construction seems to be high grade non-magnetic (304?) stainless. If it had been cheap stainless maybe the results would have been different. Also, just because Barkeeper’s Friend worked so well doesn’t mean that Comet or something else wouldn’t have done just as well. But for me I will be sticking with Barkeeper’s Friend!

It's a acid-based product from what I can tell, and it does work. All you need now, Jon, is some metal polish to add some pop to the shine.

Rusty James said:

It's a acid-based product from what I can tell, and it does work. All you need now, Jon, is some metal polish to add some pop to the shine.

Click to expand...

Yes, definitely a great finishing touch. Do you have a product you recommend? Some stainless stuff I have used in the past doesn’t seem very effective.

Yep John now get out that simichrome https://www.simichrome.com/ and get to work. Take a look at this



All the shiny metal on that bike was either burned (the bike had caught fire at one point in it's life) or had been sanded with what had appeared to be 80 grit sand paper (the rims, luggage carrier, engine valve covers, side panels on gas tank) I never took photos of it prior to restoration but suffice to say it was a VERY sad piece of machinery. Like some of the people here this bike had been my "holy grail" I wanted a Moto Guzzi so bad I could not tell you. At the time the Eldorado 850 was out of my reach until I found this basket case (a 1967 Moto Guzzi V7 gray market police model). I brought home a rolling frame with a seized engine, everything burned, missing parts and so on. And I worked on it. For well over a year. My dad at the time was a partner in a metal forming/finishing plant. So all the parts (except the wheels and engine) went to a chemical stripping bath. I than researched color schemes and designs of the original machine as it would have looked in Italy. We decided on black and red with white pinstriping and polished metal/chrome
Anyway after almost 2 years of VERY hard work, trying to figure out burned wiring harnesses, a missing generator and regulator (which were subbed by one from a 1961 Chevy generator and a 1959 Ford voltage regulator) and my tool and die maker buddy and his dad making brackets out of anodized aluminum, engine rebore, new pistons, rings and so on, rebuilt gear drive...............I ended up with what you see here. can't tell you what a gorgeous ride it was. Many referred to it as an Italian Elctra Glide (some of my buddies teased me calling it "lead sled" but there was no denying what a wonderful cruiser it was
All that shiny metal was done by hand with nothing but a tin of Simichrome until my hands would ache so badly I could not move them. But I persevered LOL

Larry,
Cool story about the Moto Guzzi.

I'm liking the Pontiac in the background too. Looks like a 1974 Catalina in my memory serves me right. I bought a 1973 Pontiac Grandville back in the day for $400 and took the 455 out of it and put it in a 1979 Bonneville. Got a little overzealous one night doing burnouts and over-revved the motor (Big Block Pontiacs are torque motors, not a high-rpm motor), so I had it rebuild with a Edelbrock Performer cam, intake, and some Blackjack headers and transplanted it in a 1977 Olds Cutlass.

Oh the memories...

Jeff

IIRC it's a 73 and had a 400 with 2bbl. Dad got a deal on it at the Pontiac dealer it was a former driver ed car. Was kind of a dog LOL. I once did own a 1972 GrandVille 2 door with 455 4bbl I bought for about $500. Wasn't a looker but it flew. I used to blow corvettes off with it. They'd be so mad when that clapped out lead sled left them in the dust LOL. My sister bought it from me and one day while merging onto I294 she punched it too hard. The back end came around, and she stuffed the front end into the guardrail while the car slid sideways. Total damage to the car a broken parking light lens. It was a tank.
The Honda sitting there was my first motorcycle. a 1973 CB450. Though the paint was not stock. I did some mechanical work for a painter I knew and rather than take cash he put a show bike paint job on it. The paint was pearl black and it would look black but turn gold, red, and such depending on the angle and there was stripes on the tank that disappeared or came out as deep red depending on the light. I hated that bike but it was all I had while the "goose" was in restoration.

Jon Tofte said:

Yes, definitely a great finishing touch. Do you have a product you recommend? Some stainless stuff I have used in the past doesn’t seem very effective.

Click to expand...

I'm partial Meguiar's products, but Larry's link looks intriguing.



EDIT: My emailer from the forum linking to the fist unread post of this thread has no clickable link. I had to copy and paste the URL into my browser instead. Has anyone else had this problem today?

Not sure what that is. Maybe a feature I don't use

Maybe I should post this is another forum, but here is what my emailer looks like...

Dear Rusty James,

LMichaels has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Does Barkeeper’s Friend Work? - in the Weber Gas Grills forum of The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board - An Online Community for Weber Grill Fans.

This thread is located at:
https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?74433-Does-Barkeeper’s-Friend-Work&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
Not sure what that is. Maybe a feature I don't use
***************


There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board - An Online Community for Weber Grill Fans​

The link I posted is clickable, here, but not in my emailer. This just started a few days ago, but the problem is not present in all emailers from TVWBB however.

On second thought, maybe it's an Outlook (part of Microsoft Office) issue. I just signed to my online Yahoo account, and the link was clickable.

Back on topic now.

More Nostalgia

Jeff MA said:

Larry,
Cool story about the Moto Guzzi.

I'm liking the Pontiac in the background too. Looks like a 1974 Catalina in my memory serves me right. I bought a 1973 Pontiac Grandville back in the day for $400 and took the 455 out of it and put it in a 1979 Bonneville. Got a little overzealous one night doing burnouts and over-revved the motor (Big Block Pontiacs are torque motors, not a high-rpm motor), so I had it rebuild with a Edelbrock Performer cam, intake, and some Blackjack headers and transplanted it in a 1977 Olds Cutlass.

Oh the memories...

Jeff

Click to expand...

Larry,

Thanks for sharing that special story and the great picture. I noticed the Pontiac, too. My Dad had a 1973 Catalina and then much later inherited a 1972 Bonneville.

I actually have used the Simichrome product, believe it or not, in another of my too many hobbies - restoring a 1960's toy by Remco, the Seaview submarine from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It was my childhood favorite show; Captain Crane was my hero. Remco made a plastic toy submarine with a wind up propeller motor and firing torpedoes. As a five-year old, I got one for Christmas in 1965 and for the next two Christmases after that. The last year my father told me he had to go to the Remco factory outlet in New Jersey (we lived then in Long Island). I never expected to see one again, even though my sister made inquiries at various antique shows. Enter eBay in the mid 90's and, voila, you can find just about anything.

Like so many things in my life, I wasn't content to just finally get my own Seaview after so many years. My mind went back to the cool "window box" they came in and how that looked under our Christmas tree. And it was also a special tie to my father who passed on many years ago. I put a bunch of time (and money) into finding a way to make a quality replicas of the box, and then into working to obtain and make replicas of the parts that were most often missing from the now over 50 year-old originals of these toys that still exist. My idea was to make and sell these to similarly nostalgic guys who remember this ultra-cool toy. I have sold some over the years and occasionally finish another and sell when I have time.

Here is an example of one of my replica boxes and a restored Seaview inside:



I guess this thread should now be called the "nostalgia ride!"

Jon,
Sorry for going off-topic in your thread.

That is one cool toy you have there. Today's toys don't have anything on Vintage ones.

Jeff

Pretty cool stuff Jon. I have a dew years on you so my mother took me to see the movie back in the 50's I think it was around 57 maybe 58? She didn't know how to drive then so we walked to the "Luna" theater on Luna Ave just east of Cicero Ave in Chicago. I remember being quite frightened at some of the stuff. My good friend at the time and myself would collect bottled we would find on street and bring them for the $.02 deposit until we had enough money saved up for seeing a .25 movie there also. Or going to "The Little Store" and getting little balsa wood planes or plastic ones launched with a large rubber band. It's kinda funny when I look back to when I was about 7 yo. My mother would let us ride our bikes all over the city. Up to 6 corners, or she'd say "OK but no further than Division St. or "only to The Waterfalls" (BTW any kid who grew up on the NW side of Chicago knew "The Waterfalls". Than looking back to when my own girls were say 8 and 6 I would let them ride to town here (we live about a mile outside of the village) for ice cream. And she'd give me a hard time and I'd have to remind her my and my little buddy would ride all over Chicago.
I still have my American Flyer train set I got for Christmas in 1954. They had just had my sister and were not sure how to deal with a 3.5 yo with a new baby sister at Christmas so an electric train was in order.
Love you cool toy, still look back fondly when I pull that train out at times for Christmas and run it under the tree. Good times. Not wanting to take this thread too far away but I'll share one more thing
This was taken 1971 I was 19+ 6'2" and weighed all of 135lbs. I had just gotten my draft notice Vietnam was raging and my dad and I had recently had a "talk" telling me he had saved enough money to bankroll me going to Canada because he was not gonna lose a son to that war. A little background 4 of the guys from my neighborhood had all gotten killed in the same VC ambush just 6 months earlier. It REALLY hit home.



The end of memory ln.