Hi folks

My new-to-me 2010 L320 has LR sidesteps, fitted from new I believe. The side finishing strips are dull and corroded, wondering if anyone has any tips for getting them looking good again.

I've tried polishing (metal polish) which has made a small difference but far from good. other options

- More aggressive polishing with something that works (what?)
- Paint the strip (in body colour?)
- Leave it as is though that gets me nowhere
- Buy new sidesteps (not fancying spending £££ on this)

Pic shows state of the RH one, LH is similar. This has been washed so this surface crud isn't simply mud / dirt.

Click image to enlarge

I get the same but don't have mud flaps fitted. It's always going to get blasted with crud. I cleaned mine with a little square of red scotchbrite and it came up a treat. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

Interesting, I hadn't thought to try something actually abrasive...! No Scotchbrite to hand but I do have some coarse wire wool, gave that a try. It's made a visible improvement so that's a good start, need something to take the pitting out and polish the surface.



Too cold to do the whole job now.

I might lacquer the finisher strips once I get them looking as good as I can. Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

Well that's better. Don't go to hard as you will thin it out. I personally wouldn't bother with a lacquer as it's a harsh area and will always get battered. I do mine probably twice a year and it's still silver, almost a brushed Aluminium look. I suspect they'll rust though before I go through the silver coating.

It's blooming freezing today with the wind chill. I was going to remove the winter wheels today but no it can wait. 2006 2.7 TDV6 HSE in Cairns Blue.

Certainly better than it was. I do think that the need to polish these strips does remain though, the finish at the moment is very dull and pitted. Hopefully, it will improve as the polish cuts through the surface. When the weather improves, I hope to spend some more time on this, and will try with ever finer polishing compounds to see if I can get to a much better finish. In the meantime, this is definitely a good start. Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

I tend to use a pad on my cordless

Useful information thanks for this. Do you use a polishing compound on it?

I’ve got a cotton buffing wheel which I will try. Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

Not on my steps but used a buffing pad & T cut I found in my garage (don't know if they still make it, but Brasso will work as well. Used it on the dull Aluminium inlet tracts on my S63 Coupe. Came up like this. Worth a try. One done, one not done
 Range Rover Sport: Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe: 992 Porsche Carrera 4S

Looks good 👍🏻 thanks. Fellow 911 owner too! Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

G3 compound

Ok thanks I’ll check it out Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

I use this when any metal has to be polished on the lorries it smells bad but it does the job

If they were fitted from new, it might be worth having a look underneath to see how badly rusted they are out of sight.
My MY10 steps disintegrated from underneath, the brackets were shot and yet the finishers didn't look that bad. I ended up replacing them both. Just a thought, wouldn't want you to spend a lot of time getting the finishers looking great and then they collapse. If they are still clean underneath it may be they have been replaced recently.

Good tip. Just had a look, bit of surface rust but not too bad.

Click image to enlarge

Does the finisher come off ? if so you could take it off and polish it on a pedestal polisher....I've done this many times before to bring things back to life.