I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

[03mach1]

I told him that I used a older megs product All metal restorant. I said that it improved my old chrome and removed most pitt marks out of the chrome. now he asks me how it restored the chrome. I also said to check out Hot mag polish which I also used on my bumpers and with time removed some pitt marks. Mike maybe some help on this one. The guy has some pitt marks on his chrome wire wheels and What would be some good suggestions to tell him.

Alex

[Mike Phillips]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

Chrome that is pitted is chrome that is missing and you can't undo the damage that caused the pitting. You can apply a metal polish and clean things up to look brighter but the pits will still be there.

While the below article is about removing scratches the same principal applies when dealing with scratched or pitted chrome.

Best bet is to polish as good as you can get it with a metal polish that's safe for Chrome and then keep it cleaned and polished so the pitting doesn't get any worse, then down the road the honest fix it to have the components re-chromed. Sorry, but that's the reality of it.

Here you go...

What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...



"Some materials and/or surface coatings don't lend themselves well to being abraded"



In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question is, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[03mach1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

Thanks mike for all that info, I will give my thunderbird friend all the info and I learned something from reading this info too about how metal is when it is pitted.
Thanks so much
Alex

[CharlesW]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

I may be in over my head here, but quite often what is called pitted chrome actually has surface rust on the chrome that makes it look much worse than it really is. A pit 1/64" or less can cause a large rust spot that will look very bad. Polishing off that rust spot may very well leave a pit that is small enough to not be noticed. You will need to keep the area waxed to prevent the rust from returning.
This is a fairly common problem on old motorcycle chrome. I have even had to go so far as to use a metal polish with 0000 steel wool to clean up some of them. Although it sounds very abrasive, when used with a polish, it does very little damage to the chrome itself. Just use a light touch and let the polish and the steel wool do the work.

[RamAirV1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

I may be in over my head here, but quite often what is called pitted chrome actually has surface rust on the chrome that makes it look much worse than it really is. A pit 1/64" or less can cause a large rust spot that will look very bad. Polishing off that rust spot may very well leave a pit that is small enough to not be noticed. You will need to keep the area waxed to prevent the rust from returning.
This is a fairly common problem on old motorcycle chrome. I have even had to go so far as to use a metal polish with 0000 steel wool to clean up some of them. Although it sounds very abrasive, when used with a polish, it does very little damage to the chrome itself. Just use a light touch and let the polish and the steel wool do the work.

Hmmm. That pretty well describes the insides of my exhaust tips:



There is a lot of debate about whether steel wool should be used on chrome though. I have seen arguments both ways.

I wonder how much it would cost to have mine re-chromed.

[03mach1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

Yeah I also would say it depends on the coditions of the spots where there are bad areas. yeah that is true to keep the area well maintained that it will not comeback if well attended like headlights when they turn yellow.
Thanks you guys for the info and good luck with the exhaust tips, my mustang has some pitting starting on the tips.

[CharlesW]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

There is a lot of debate about whether steel wool should be used on chrome though. I have seen arguments both ways.

I have been told that the steel wool will leave fine particles in the pits that will rust. I considered looking for some stainless steel wool to prevent that, but never got around to it. One of the bikes I cleaned up was around for a couple of years and it was never a problem. Another I sold as soon as I had it in good shape. I have seen it once since that time and while I didn't really inspect it, everything looked good from 5 feet away.

Your exhaust tips would be a good place to try it. You don't have much to lose.
As far as rechroming, it can get expensive and what I have had done was not very long lasting. You could price a new set from the dealer. Sometimes those types of things are more reasonable than you might expect. Of course, there's also those times when they rip your head off.

[RamAirV1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

I have been told that the steel wool will leave fine particles in the pits that will rust. I considered looking for some stainless steel wool to prevent that, but never got around to it. One of the bikes I cleaned up was around for a couple of years and it was never a problem. Another I sold as soon as I had it in good shape. I have seen it once since that time and while I didn't really inspect it, everything looked good from 5 feet away.

Your exhaust tips would be a good place to try it. You don't have much to lose.
As far as rechroming, it can get expensive and what I have had done was not very long lasting. You could price a new set from the dealer. Sometimes those types of things are more reasonable than you might expect. Of course, there's also those times when they rip your head off.

Yes, I was thinking along those same lines. I am working with the dealer on a possible warranty replacement of the exhaust pipes.

RamAirV1

[03mach1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

How old is the car? They could be under warranty.

[RamAirV1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

How old is the car? They could be under warranty.

That is a possibility.

RamAirV1

[03mach1]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

Totally. Check it out, who knows maybe you can get new ones.

[Lydia]

Re: I got a guy on my thunderbird forum site asking a ques?

I've had pretty good results with 0000 steel wool lubricated with LT on badly neglected chrome (I'm not sure if the LT technically was any good, but it came in handy to help "rinse" off the rust particles and steel wool particles). I tried NXT All Metal Polysh first, but it was so far gone it didn't do much good. After using the steel wool, I used the NXT Polysh again and it came out looking pretty good. Granted it started out rusty, so it wasn't going to be perfect, but it looks pretty decent. On chrome that isn't in so bad shape, I use NXT Polysh with either a MF or a terry towel, depending on how bad it is.