Hi I've been trolling around this forum for a while now, and finally decided to pull the trigger and get a XDm Compact 40. With all the vast knowledge from this forum, the first thing I did to the XDm was polish the the barrel to a mirror finish. I decided to only polish the visible areas to a mirror finish to cut down on time and having to depend too much on multiple lubricants. Below is a picture of the barrel with one face polished to a mirror.
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What I did was first use 1000grit automotive wet/dry sandpaper with a drop of CLP to remove the bluing and tooling marks in the areas I wanted to polish. Then I used Ryobi "E" Buffing Compound to buff to a shine. From there I used 2000 grit sandpaper with a drop of CLP to ensure its perfectly smooth. To bring it to the desired mirror finish I used Ryobi "H" buffing compound, and Mothers Metal Polish. All these Items were purchased at my local hardware store totaling a little more than 8 dollars. A dremel was the used for the application of the buffing compound and polish.
What I did was first use 1000grit automotive wet/dry sandpaper with a drop of CLP to remove the bluing and tooling marks in the areas I wanted to polish. Then I used Ryobi "E" Buffing Compound to buff to a shine. From there I used 2000 grit sandpaper with a drop of CLP to ensure its perfectly smooth. To bring it to the desired mirror finish I used Ryobi "H" buffing compound, and Mothers Metal Polish. All these Items were purchased at my local hardware store totaling a little more than 8 dollars. A dremel was the used for the application of the buffing compound and polish.
