Colt 357 trooper mk 3 questions

Colt will do a full service and check of your Trooper III.
I don't know if they've caught up on the big back log of work, but they will soon be taking work.
Read the info on their web site on sending guns in for work.

However, you DO NOT "Buff" the finish.
Nickel is just a plating and you can easily buff or polish right through it.

Attempting to polish out scratches and wear spots often does serious damage and can just polish the nickel right off, exposing the steel under it.
You can GENTLY (note GENTLY) do a little light polishing with a mild abrasive like Flitz and a soft cloth to brighten and blend light scratches.
Heavy buffing or even heavy rubbing with a mild polish can destroy the finish in short order. Polishing of bright nickel is something you do very carefully and you only do it when you absolutely have no choice.
In other words polishing of nickel is something you don't do as normal maintenance or just because you see a tiny scratch.

Ask Colt about what they can do short of a total factory refinish. If they say they can't do anything short of a total re-finish, you'd be well advised to listen.
If you want to do a little like cleanup of the finish, use a mild polish like Flitz and a microfiber cloth.
Rub VERY GENTLY and don't rub much. The black stuff you see on the cloth is polish mixed with a thin layer of the nickel, so you will have removed a thin layer of the finish.
Do this too hard or too often and you'll destroy the finish.

Me and my son want to thank all of you that helped us with this colt trooper . After staying up way to late and pissing the wife or mom off we got it !! The groves on the back of the plate had a small amount of 36 year old funk crusted in . And the nylon post was a hair to long , I only lightly filed on the third attempt . And it is working like a champ ! That was a big victory for me and my boy , and high fived like we won the super bowl .

Flitz is on the way to give it some more shine , like my son said last night " It will shoot better now , and it deserves a great shine " . What a fun project , and we got a lot of great info and tips and trouble shooting from all you guys . Thank you guys for taking the new guy in , hopefully I can help someone out in the future .

One more question . Is there a easier way to get plate and latch back on ? A trick to it ?

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There's no real trick.

What you have to do is try to keep the hand and the transfer bar in position and on their pins as you install the plate. The slightest jar and they jump off the pins.
Pull the latch back so it will fit over the roll pin on the cylinder latch pin and make sure the latch pin doesn't move backward and turn so the latch won't fit over it.
Tilt the plate slightly and insert the top of the side plate first and press down on the bottom until the plate seats.
Press the plate down gently while you cock the hammer and insure everything is working, pull the latch back to insure the latch pin is moving and nothing is binding.

The plate will not fully seat until you install and tighten the plate screws. Don't tighten the screws tightly until you again test everything, then tighten fully.