Kitchen Sink Restoration

For as long as we have owned our home the kitchen sink has had a dent in the rib that separates the two bowels. An 18-gauge stainless-steel sink like the one pictured can cost as much as $280. I'm sure my old one was no more than 20-gauge. 

I found a used one that was 2" deeper on Ebay and put it on my watch list. The seller who was located in Ironwood MI, sent me an offer of $40. Although the sink had no dents, it had a lot of scratches. I watched a few Youtube videos on how to restore an old stainless sink and it didn't seem too difficult. I didn't think I would find another one at that price, so I placed the order.

A few days later the sink arrived in good condition. I went to Lowes and got some 3M moderate (black) and final (green) stripping pads. With a bucket of water and some dishwashing soap I first started with a moderate pad and then switched to the final stripping pad. 

The trick is to go in the direction of the factory brushed finish. It only took about an hour to get the result I was looking for. To finish it off, I applied a product called Stainless Steel Magic to get a nice even surface shine. You can still see a few scratches, but I think it looks fine the way it turned out.

The next step is to remove the old sink and install the new one. One of the copper pipes under the sink has a tiny leak that needs to be fixed. The leak is in a tee fitting on the hot water line. I could attempt to resolder the joint that's leaking, but I'm afraid that solder wouldn't draw into the old joint properly. I would also need to buy solder, flux, and propane. My other option is to replace the tee with a Sharkbite tee that has a valve on one side. The shutoff valve to the dishwasher needs to be replaced anyway. Sharkbite fittings cost more than traditional fittings, but you don't need to solder the joints. I will also need to replace the drain gaskets and make adjustments to the drain fittings for the new sink depth. I can't spend any more money this month, so the repairs and sink installation will have to wait. With many home repairs, the improvement you get is only marginal, which is why I'm in no hurry to finish.