Any hints/instructions you care to share?
I was originally planning to polish with 'Autosol' but my local Autozone had 'Mothers' brand metal polish. But I guess any metal polish works fine!
I've used a cloth to polish my iPod on my first try. They did polish well except that they left hairline scratches on the iPod (like you see on the 40gb model and my first trial on the 15gb; attached picture).
On my second try, I decided to polish with cotton balls..apply small amount of polish with q tips and polish with cotton balls! DO NOT apply pressure when trying to polish...just be gentle. Repeat this process until you get the results that you are satisfied with! I cant remember how many times I've repeated but It was definitely more than 10 times
The cotton balls were so much better as they came out much better, almost leaving no hairline scratches (near perfect finish).
ALSO, it would be better to have some masking tape so that you cover up the engraved parts, as the polish will wear away the color of it.
iPod when I first received it...
Pretty scratched up but its not too bad as it does not have deep scratches..only hairline scratches
Metal polish applied..again, if you want your iPod to look as original as possible, try to use masking tape for the laser etched areas, otherwise, the polish will wear away the white 'paint' and will make the parts somewhat transparant.
Note how the metal polish wore off the whiteness of the logo and the writings. They have a bit of a faded look.
Still not perfect.. I could not document my second run with cotton balls..will make sure to take pictures when I get spare time to work on the 40 gb!