This time, M. Ito will show you how he polished, re-lacquered, and mirror-finished a trumpet. The trumpet is Nikkan Imperiale made around 1960’s. Nikkan was a Trumpet and instrument manufacturer merged by Yamaha in 1970.
As the valve casing and surrounding pipes were very rusty with the most of the lacquer has gone, most of the work has done on this area. On the contrary, the Capricorn bell formed a beautiful oxide layer, so I left it untouched.
The trumpet used has already been stripped of paint (delacer/unlacker) as explained in my previous video ( • Removing Lacquer from ... ), and has a bare metal surface.
How I polished it was very straight forward, applied compound on a cloth, polished and wiped off. I have repeated this process for about 5 hours until the trumpet gets shiny.
Then Re-Lacquered with an Acrylic Clear Lacquer Spray. First, wash off the oil and compound with a mild detergent, dry it thoroughly, and mask with the areas where lacquer is not needed before painting. When you spray the lacquer, it would be good to apply the very first spray only lightly in order to create a layer which will ease following sprays to stick on the surface without being repelled.
Final step is mirror finish, where bubbles and matte surface was polished off with #2000 sand paper and compound, as well as a Jewelry Polish Cloth giving the Trumpet shiny and elegant finish.
Be careful not to do this on lacquered or plated trumpet as this will only damage the coating if it is not applied on bare brass metal. It's a good idea to practice with a junk trumpet several times before doing it on your valuable horn.