First Older car - 1972 El Camino - Need advice on old chrome?

A

ahheck01

New member
Here's a few photos of what I'm up against. Curious what you'd recommend as the best process and tools for the job. The goal isn't necessarily perfection, it's as much improvement as can be reasonably expected:



https://www.dropbox.com/s/lo7yyuj7v82prk6/0AF09476-814F-4C45-B91D-8F56DA4A9C1F.jpg



https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0f16rwo5sgzk3p/7A345325-F3D3-4789-B210-21AF05582CBA.jpg



https://www.dropbox.com/s/6hcn879s7d83t9o/7318B9F2-1B25-4D2F-95FC-04C3CB4F3359.jpg



https://www.dropbox.com/s/hxqgd6v2v6rftho/548130C8-5A9C-4AFA-B48F-76F45348E85B.jpg



How would you tackle this?
 
I have a 67 chevelle SS that I restored so I know a little about the metals you are dealing with. All of the stainless on the car can be polished up real nice. For me, to do it right, it really needs to come off the car. A stationary buffing wheel would then need to be used. Stainless is very hard so their would need to be a lot of sanding through different grits as well. Some of the trim is anodized aluminum. The anodizing gets old/oxidized and starts to peel. You can strip the anodizing off and polish the aluminum to a nice shine. You could also send it out to be re-anodized. The chrome such as your door handles look pitted. Sadly, if you want them back to new you would need to have them re-chromed. A polish could get them looking much better. Of course a lot of this stuff can be bought after market. I would much rather restore what you have as you know it fits and is nice original quality. Some of the aftermarket stuff is just horrible. Check out teamchevelle.com. Best site bar none for chevelles and elcos. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the reply. Would you use steel wool for most of it? Would m105 be effective? What would your specific approach be? Thanks again!
 
Are you asking about the stainless, the aluminum or the pitted chrome?

Englishcustompolishing.com has the wheels, the various rouges, the processes that are required to do these various finishes.
 
Ahheck01 said:
Thanks for the reply. Would you use steel wool for most of it? Would m105 be effective? What would your specific approach be? Thanks again!
Click to expand...



NO!! You do not want to use Steel Wool especially on the chrome plated parts.



M105 is definitely effective on the stainless parts, but don't expect much out of the pitted chrome -- it needs to be re-plated if a perfect appearance is desired.
 
C. Charles Hahn said:
M105 is definitely effective on the stainless parts, but don't expect much out of the pitted chrome -- it needs to be re-plated if a perfect appearance is desired.
Click to expand...



I've had surprisingly good results using M205 on chrome. I'd be just a *little* leery of using M105 even though I'm the guy who's always saying how tough chromium plating is.



But yeah, once you have pitting it means the various layers of plating are compromised and the underlying base metal is corroding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top