I am cleaning up some old chrome parts to add to the Fly that my dad fabbed up when he was a kid. The chrome is starting to rust a little and I want to clean it up. I did sveral searches on steel wool, rust and chrome etc. but to no avail. Is it steel wool and vinegar?
I've heard tin foil and Coca Cola. Or ketchup. But I wouldn't use any of that witchcraft on MY chrome. Get some Flitz, an old cotton sock, some elbow grease, and go to town. You don't need to add any more scratches than it probably already has.
It's pretty bad........I'm just trying to hold it over til the winter. The hamb drags is priority now.
Yeah, 0000 stuff. My friend worked over a seriously ugly and pitted horn button. It looks shiney now... and pitted. As far as I recall he went at it dry... or maybe it was an SOS pad... DAMNIT! Now I've cornfused myself.
Here is the thread I started on it. Lots of good answers. DON'T use steel wool at all. Read and see why. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86731&highlight=rust
Root, if you live close to a truck stop, check with them and see if there is a guy that polishes the big rig wheels. These guys mix their own polish up, they will not tell you whats in it, but it is the best stuff I have used on chrome that is rusty. I bought some from a guy in Little Rock, Ark. and used it on the chrome spokes that are on the Henry J that I picked up. A wash rag and a little bit of this stuff and all the rust was gone with very little elbow grease.
If it's already starting to show rust then steel wool ain't gonna hurt it. I've always used #000. 0000 is too fine and falls apart. But then again, all my chrome is really rusty!
ANY abrasive liquid and ANY cutting material like steel wool will take ALL the chrome OFF. All that will be left is the Nickle under it that looks like, well, a new nickle. And you know how they tarnish in just a few days. If I had some old parts with fair chrome on some areas and some rust "acne" in spots, I'd be tempted to wash them with thinner and shoot a thin coat of Black or dark lacquer on them and then a thin coat of White or light lacquer on that and then carefully wet sand the bumps down with a small piece of 1000 grit with a sanding block. Maybe even glue the paper to a tongue depressor or such depending on what kind of areas I needed to get into. Id stop sanding when I hit the thin Black coat and then strip the part with lacquer thinner or acetone. The lacquer should strip fairly easy if it's only a few hours or days old. Then chrome polish on a soft cloth. Steel wool REMOVES the chrome.
NOT steel wool!! That will take chrome off. Use bronze wool, the finest you can get, usually very fine will work great. I use bronze wool and just plain tap water, works great.
I use the same polishing compound that I use to buff out a paint job. I like Wizards Turbo Cut, it smells nice. Steel wool is only going to make things worse. Flitz and Simichrome are also good choices, although they're kinda pricey.
I use tin foil (balled up) and liquid dish soap. The rust is picked up by the foil and the soap is pretty much a lube. This really works well on chrome wheels Pat
I've always had good luck with Never-Dull magic wadding polish, its now sold under the Mother's name and comes in a silver tin. Inside is cotton soaked in the polish, just scrub hte hell out of the chrome with that then polish it off with a clean cloth. Works pretty good and lasts a decent amount of time.
AAAGH!!!! ROOT you knowbetter than that.!! Chrome is porous, steel migrates through chrome. When you use steel wool on it you push steel in the pores. It oxidizes which also means it becomes bigger as it unites with the oxygen and voila !! Chrome peels and does all sorts of nasty stuff. Use a quality pH neutral polish if you really want to do a job, or aluminum foil and ketchup if it needs saving for a year. I suppose I ought to offer you all my ebooklet on polishing. I normally offer it in spring to Hamb but I was otherwise busy this year. Those of you that want it send an email to polisher@englishcustompolishing.com and I'll send it back in an attachment.
I had a 62 Corvette with rusty factory knock off wire wheels. I used Navel Jelly. It takes off the rust stain which is about as good as you can do. I used a stiff artist's oil paint brush. Let it soak for a while. It worked for me.
I have used steel wool and soap....sometimes 'fine' steel wool dry work well too w.out scratching...takes even overspray off too.
"Polisher"s manual is the MUST READ for this subject and this thread. It's incredible and a huge outlay of knowledge for FREE. From someone that is a museum quality expert on the subject of polishing. Thank you so much for sharing such a weatlth of knowledge. (Having said that: I hope this comment helps your company. Your obviously a very, if not the most, knowledgable guy on this topic. You really need to have someone format that word document. It's VERY difficult to read. Even getting rid of the bold, italics and hard to read font - the sentences aren't formatted into paragraphs. Each has a return after it. And makes it very hard to read. I know you've shared this for free. But it does appear to be a marketing document created to better educate your potential customer. It would make it much more accessible if the document were formatted. And I don't mean "good english" your english is excellent - it's the word document formatting that makes is difficult.) Your a great help to us all. Everyone should read his manual on polishing. 49Lincoln
Steel wool? Haven't you guys ever heard of Scotchbrite? They don't shred as fast as steel wool, they don't rust, and they don't contaminate the shop environment.
I think using steel wool on any polished surface is a huge mistake and will propably make things worth in the future. The microscopic (and not so microscopic) scratches harbor all the nasty stuff that starts rust and corrosion. Also, you won't be able to polish it out to match the surrounding finish. Use apple cider vinager and, depending on how bad it is, soak it for 3-5 days. Another thing you may try is ospho but, I'm not sure how it's going to affect the polished finish so you better research that one.
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