Chrome polish

Whats wrong with it, rust, blued, scratched? If it is in good condition wiping it off with a soft towel should be sufficient, maybe a little glaze or wax for a little extra lustre.
It is in great shape, you recommend just cleaning with soap and water, right? Because any kind of clean may actually disturb the surface finish?
 
0000 Steel Wool

years ago we would use Brillo pads to remove rust tint and stains from chrome. It is basically steel wool impregnated with soap which helps lubricate the scrubbing. I don't know if that is acceptable with today's chrome or not.
 
Steel wool will make fine scratches on chrome, but it's good for heavily rusted finishes. For lightly rusted or tarnished finishes another German product is Wenol. Not inexpensive, but a little goes a long way and it will not leave scratches on the finish. Whatever you use, the main input is elbow grease.
 
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I agree on all points with DavidG. ...And Wenol also gives amazing results on stainless and rustless steel.
 
I recently got my t-bird (57) out on the road after many years in not great storage. Most of the chrome (bumpers etc) was rechromed about 25 years ago. It looked really poor. I used coca cola and aluminium foil followed with some wax polish and it came up really great.

I recommend this as a way of reviving tired chrome, but I don't know if it would be the best thing to do on already nice chrome.

The results, in my case were really staggering.

A test on a small relatively hidden area can't hurt, I suppose.

Mart.
 
Brasso/ dura gilt....it seems to desolve small rust areas and polishes up great...Autosol etc is a abrasive and scratches the chrome....the cotton wadding types are the best no doubt.
 
Brasso/ dura gilt....it seems to desolve small rust areas and polishes up great...Autosol etc is a abrasive and scratches the chrome....the cotton wadding types are the best no doubt.

I've read somewhere Brass also contains very fine abrassive. Does anyone know if this is true?
 
I recently got my t-bird (57) out on the road after many years in not great storage. Most of the chrome (bumpers etc) was rechromed about 25 years ago. It looked really poor. I used coca cola and aluminium foil followed with some wax polish and it came up really great....Mart.

Mart, As '57 TBird bumpers are really quite chunky in comparison, I would therefore consider Coca Cola to be far too fattening for general use on Early Ford bumpers. :rolleyes:

Further, Don't you think it unusual that a Yank should have to remind a Brit about weight control? :eek:
 
It is in great shape, you recommend just cleaning with soap and water, right? Because any kind of clean may actually disturb the surface finish?

Yes. All polish is at some level abrasive, thats why it works. If the chrome is in good shape just wash and dry it with something soft that won't scratch it. Ease of cleaning is one of the great benefits of chrome. At best, polishing good chrome is a waste of time and likely to leave fine scratches. If the chrome is rusty it is already compromised so do what you will or as advised here. A lot of good products have been mentioned.
 
Steel wool and diesel fuel. It worked wonders on the 52 Merc which had some pretty bad spots in the chrome. Surface rust disappeared. I could not improve much on the exhaust stained right rear bumper but otherwise, not bad.
 

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