neglect your chrome

Little tech note.
Chrome should never be polished unless it's scruffy.
It should be rinsed, washed with the cheapest soap available, toweled dry and buffed by hand.
Polish it out and you polish it away.
Chrome is only 0.00002" thick.
It most certainly should NEVER be powerbuffed.
Not unless you know exactly what you're doing.
The wrong abrasives will remove chrome in a New York heartbeat.
Once your chrome is ten-fifteen, thirty years old, that's another matter, you might want to revitalise it with a hand polishing.
Salt should always be washed off rapid, and chromed alloy rims should never be on a winter driver in the North east, the salt will eat them in 2 years if they are not REALLY looked after.

 

Good advise.

hey I got a question for ya. If someone had an old set of craigers( composit(sp) wheels) could they be rechromed?

Just curious.

 

Good question. Those craiger SS mags rust if you leave them in out in the dew overnight.

 

thanks for the info

 

Is there anything that will protect chrome other than keeping it clean?

 

Wax

 

I got an old pair (non-unilug) 4x15 that I'm probably going to use on my roadster if I don't find something else.

What I know about chrome plate you could stick in a thimble and still pour an ounce of Kentucky's best in there. But I am of the impression that chrome and steel are a different process.

I'm guess that I'll probably blast 'em and paint 'em.

 

Sometimes if I'm just getting the bugs off the front I hit the area with alittle detail spray (painted area and chromed bumper, grill and headlight bezels) and let it loosen up the bugs then wipe away. I ALWAY use a microfiber towel. Is detail spray OK on chrome?? Seems to work real well but I ceratinly don't want to harm my new chrome.

 

I like to go with some wd-40 on my chrome for protection during storage. wd has to be good for something.

 

Depends what is in the detail spray.

 

Only use wax in winter to keep salt off.
Otherwise it makes chrome look hazy and increases damage.
Of course if chrome is getting old and the nickel is getting dull, wax helps make it look brighter.

 

For storage any oil is good protection for anything containing iron.
I don't like the anti -oxidants in WD.
It's great if you use it then apply oil staight over it when it begins to dry.
But leave it to it's own resources and it drags moisture back.

 

Hey thanks for all the tips.. Now If i can find someone to pound and straighten the bumper on my 50 ford and replate it!!!!