Mose's C&B got me wondering about chrome polishing. I do the wheels on my dd by hand, but I've got a '68 Olds with chrome bumpers that I've never polished. They don't necessarily need it, but I was thinking about seeing if polishing would make them any better. Since they have a lot of area that is pretty flat, I wondered if I could do it via my PC. I didn't come across any mention of this anywhere, so I'm wondering if anyone has done it and has any tips. I thought I'd try throwing on a black LC pad and use my Mothers chrome polish.
Chrome Polishing via machine?
- Thread starter Grimm
- Start date
Brad B
New member
Yes, it works fine. I do this on many of the classics I work on.
C. Charles Hahn
CCH Auto Appearance, LLC
Absolutely you can! Either a DA or Rotary do wonders for chrome and stainless trim.
Ron Ketcham
Active member
I use a rotary with a blended yarn pad and a mild compound.
A little business I have created here in this area is polishing aluminum, stainless and chrome.
Chrome is one tough "mutha", and hard to hurt, so get agressive on it.
Recently did the bumper on a rare 1957 Pontiac Safari, rusted, should have been rechromed, but the owner was not ready to spend that much money.
Did a few of my tricks on them and he is happy for "now".
The stainless, that is a whole different animal.
Don't be afraid to polish chrome with a rotary, a DA just don't cut it for getting it looking and lasting, good.
Grumpy
A little business I have created here in this area is polishing aluminum, stainless and chrome.
Chrome is one tough "mutha", and hard to hurt, so get agressive on it.
Recently did the bumper on a rare 1957 Pontiac Safari, rusted, should have been rechromed, but the owner was not ready to spend that much money.
Did a few of my tricks on them and he is happy for "now".
The stainless, that is a whole different animal.
Don't be afraid to polish chrome with a rotary, a DA just don't cut it for getting it looking and lasting, good.
Grumpy
Accumulator
Well-known member
Brad B.- Lots of chrome on MKIIs, huh? Used M205 on my pal's and he thought it looked better than right after the resto, just happened to be a perfect product for the plating on his particular car (forget which shop did it).
Nothing that you're often warning that what apparently works for me is "don't try this at home, kids!" stuff, flip-side this time...
I'd caution people to be a bit careful getting all aggressive on chrome, even though real chromium plating (as opposed to "chromed plastic") is awfully tough stuff- Two of my vehicles have chrome plating that's been buffed away (down to the underlying layers of plating or even the base metal) by either decades of gentle polishing or moments of idiot-with-a-buffer work.
And that chromed plastic can be mighty fragile; I have lots of it that's all worn down to the plastic base for the same two reasons.
Ron Ketcham said:
Nothing that you're often warning that what apparently works for me is "don't try this at home, kids!" stuff, flip-side this time...
I'd caution people to be a bit careful getting all aggressive on chrome, even though real chromium plating (as opposed to "chromed plastic") is awfully tough stuff- Two of my vehicles have chrome plating that's been buffed away (down to the underlying layers of plating or even the base metal) by either decades of gentle polishing or moments of idiot-with-a-buffer work.
And that chromed plastic can be mighty fragile; I have lots of it that's all worn down to the plastic base for the same two reasons.
Ron Ketcham
Active member
I often forget that many here are novices and are not aware of the difference you point out.
Plastic chrome is used more these days than real chrome on real steel.
Keeps the weight down and is cheaper to produce.
For plastic chrome, I just use any mild polish or a sealant to clean and polish and do it by "hand", not a machine.
See much of this "plastic chrome,that are "pitted" due to rocks, etc hitting them, have not found a way to correct this, just have to live with it or replace the part.
The majority of real chrome, etc that I restore or work on, is from the late 40's, 50's 60's and mid 70's.
You know, back when a car was a car, not a pile of fancy electronics and plastic parts.
One more tip when doing real chrome.
The lower parts (IE not readily visable to the eye when standing and looking at the vehicle) will normally have less of a chrome deposit over the nickel and copper.
These are the areas that one must be careful when using a buffer, easy to take off.
Grumpy
Plastic chrome is used more these days than real chrome on real steel.
Keeps the weight down and is cheaper to produce.
For plastic chrome, I just use any mild polish or a sealant to clean and polish and do it by "hand", not a machine.
See much of this "plastic chrome,that are "pitted" due to rocks, etc hitting them, have not found a way to correct this, just have to live with it or replace the part.
The majority of real chrome, etc that I restore or work on, is from the late 40's, 50's 60's and mid 70's.
You know, back when a car was a car, not a pile of fancy electronics and plastic parts.
One more tip when doing real chrome.
The lower parts (IE not readily visable to the eye when standing and looking at the vehicle) will normally have less of a chrome deposit over the nickel and copper.
These are the areas that one must be careful when using a buffer, easy to take off.
Grumpy
Accumulator
Well-known member
Ron Ketcham said:
Right. Here's the only thing I've found helpful, and this is on a garage-queen:
The upper grille of my Jag is chromed plastic and it's suffered a bit over the last few decades. I've been able to arrest the damage to an incredible extent (utterly amazed me, thought I was wasting my time) with many coats of KSG, and I don't mean just six or eight. A more modern/better approach might be the use of something like OptiCoat.
The chips were starting to peel, and one had turned into a crack in the coating that really started to delaminate in an awful way. I spent a few weeks doing a coat whenever I had time. Result- no progression of the damage since I KSGed it, though admittedly the car's been in mothballs for part of that time.