I recently found, and bought, a rare '56 Chrysler spinner hub cap. I've admired these since they were new, but they never come up for sale. The one I acquired is in very good condition, except for the chrome plating on the spinner which is badly pitted. I don't want to spend hundreds on having it replated properly -- the cap will just be a wall hanger -- nor do I want to sand it smooth and paint it silver. Anybody have a suggestion for improving the appearance of the pitted part with rubbing compound, Simichrome, newspaper, whatever? This picture is not my cap, but it's the same style:
Fora wall hanger, try some Tin foil. Works great making stuff that will never be perfect look a lot better. When I was a kid, I lost a bet to my friends old man. He bet me he could get my nasty handle bars looking good as new and all he needed was a piece of gum. I took the bet of course. Hey grabs a stick of gum, wads the foil wrapper into a ball while chewing the gum. Spits on the wadded wrapper and rubbed it on my nasty bicycle handlebars. Was amazed at how well that did.
What about these guys that do the spray plating,,I've seen some next to a show chrome piece in it comes out pretty close. HRP
I've had good luck with buffing rusty/pitted chrome with my buffer. Use a sewn cotton spiral buff and some red buffing compound, don't press too hard, just enough to bring back the shine and smooth any minor imperfections. It will still have the pits, but this does the best job I've found.
I have lightly gone over some nasty parts with a fine brass wire brush then used the cheap bumper chrome spray paint over the worse areas. Then I buff it out with chrome polish. It hides a lot of the bad areas and can make a crap chrome look great from distance. Sent via Illinois Bell Telephone Company's Car Radiotelephone
Guess I should do a little feedback on what I ended up doing. The suggestions all grouped into abrasive polish, painting, or plating/coating. I decided to do what I could with what I have around, so I polished the spinner with rubbing compound -- the red stuff. Nearly all of the pits had a kind of "cloud" around them -- a hazy sort of halo that made the chrome background dull. What I discovered was that rubbing hard or long made almost no difference compared with rubbing lightly and briefly with the compound on a red rag. It didn't affect the pits at all, of course, but it did take away the clouds and let the bling shine through! I'm pretty satisfied. Looks nice on the garage wall.
First, if you're rubbing anything other than polish or a soft cloth on chrome, it's doing more harm than good. Chrome is like paint. Would you rub fine steel wool on your paint job to get out a chip? Next, is it pitting or a slight rust through in tiny spots? Turtle Wax brand chrome polish will get SOME of that rust off, but nothing will get rid of all of it. In my stash, I have EVERY advertised GREAT brand. You name it, I have it. NONE remove scratches, major rust, bluing or pitting. NONE. But don't take my word for it. Try every suggestion. That's how I got my information and opinion on chrome fixes.
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