The #8 stainless has an extremely high polish and the surface is hard, not to say there can be surface scratches from cleaning with a dirty cloth. I had the plexi in our Formula. It performed well but had a spotty haze in the sandwich of materials with slight delam on the edges, could have been heat and age. Since we manufacture motorcycle exhausts out of stainless I have access to compounds and buffers if needed. I don' think it will be necessary though.

Honestly only polished it once a season, Really never dulled up. Easy to maintain

The mirrored plexi scratches very, very easy FYI. I did it under mine last spring. I need to do it again because they rubbed my breathers & now have marks on them. Plexi is less than $200 to do both hatches on a 42. Do the stainless screws & double sided tape. also go very slow when drilling the holes, heating the bit helps also.

I went with diamond plate so it wouldn't look like Reggie Fountain's bedroom anymore.

That diamondplate looks awesome...nice job!!

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Yes, mirrorplex can be scratched so care must be taken. Scratches to the back side cause the most damage so install carefully.
I would not want to add the weight of stainless. This plex has been on six years with double sided tape.

I sent out some quote requests around the Cleveland area for customer pick -up, I received 1 response out of three requests. Qty (2) #8 Stainless 18 Gauge 21" x 50.5" with rounded corners. $244 per piece, does the pricing seem correct?

yes, its the processing that cost the money when buying cut to order metals. That seems pretty reasonable.

Check out discountsteel.com. That's where I got my diamond plate. They also made me a new dash panel when I added a chart plotter. For a shear cut piece, they're only $83 a piece in a mirrored stainless #8 your size. For a CNC laser cut, they are $138. I'm sure they will round the corners if you call and ask.

Excellent info! Just sent for a quote, hopefully they can ship the sheets.