polishing stainless hub caps

wisbangman

wisbangman

Senior Member
A friend of mine took 4 dented, 1939 Lincoln Zephyr stainless hub caps to a respected automotive stainless polisher/restorer. He picked out the dents, and greatly improved the caps, but he said he could not just polish the caps because they were 'flash chromed' at the factory, and thus , he could not just polish the caps. Any one know about this, and what is involved to ' restore stainless caps ? My friend paid $100, but was quoted $500 to fully restore the 4 caps.
 
I have polished many original Ford caps of 30’s and 40’s. Never had a problem using a buffing wheel and two grades of polishing rouge from Eastwood.
Never had one “burn through” any coating. And I’ve got them real shiny.
 

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Yes, chrome flashing of stainless caps/wheel covers is standard practice.
The reason they are plated is that the chrome is harder and resists scratching.
I have straightened several wheel covers with the first step being to have them chrome stripped, straighten then polish without any re-plating.
The re-plating is probably the costly part and if happy with just the polished look of the stainless, the plating does not have to be done.
Yes the chrome can be just polished to a point if there is no metal finishing involved.


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A bit of steel wool , some time and effort will do wonders to a dingy old hub cap. These Meteor caps laid outdoors in all the weather for I don't know how many years and actually had some rust on them. They are not perfect but good enough for me and look good on the Merc. And the price was right. Used the same process on the bumpers.
 

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4t8v8 said:
Picked up a can of Never-Dull at Wally World. Did a great job on mine.
Click to expand...
Turtle Rubbing Compound along with the steel wool does a great job on stainless and chrome. Even diesel fuel and steel wool does a good clean and shine.
 
Thanks guys, all answers have helped, -51 MERC CT explains the process, but all the answers are great! Thanks again!
 
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