the long-range objective of this task is to develop a process for making a silvered stainless steel mirror that has the optical performance and service life of a silvered glass mirror coupled with the mechanical durablilty, structural strength, and flexibility of sheet steel. such reflectors are expected to minimize the cost handling, shipping, and fabrication into concentrators. applications for helistats are assumed to require a lifetime average reflectance of 90 in a full-cone aperture angle of 8 mrad. specifically, this work is designed to produce thin metal membranes with sufficiently fine surface finishes to serve as substrates for direct silver deposition or indirectly for silvered polymer films or silvered sol-gel coatings in heliostat, parabolic trough, and dish applications. our focus is on the effect of the sheet metal finish on specularity and the ways to obtain the optimum surface finish by conventional manufacturing processes. this report addresses the relationship of optical quality to surface finish and the results of a cooperative research venture with a commercial sheet manufacturer to produce specular stainless steel surfaces by cold-rolling with highly polished rollers. 14 refs., 13 figs., 4 tabs. (era citation 13:036044)