Chrome cleaning and protecting

[JonB]

Hi,

I've been cleaning my chrome hub caps with aluminium (or aluminum) foil to remove bits of rust, then using a generic car polish to try & protect.

Not really working as they've started to go rusty only 2 weeks after I cleaned them.

So what are people using on Chrome caps, bumpers etc? Anyone use Simichrome?

[syncropatrick]

Autosol.

[Plasticman]

forget it , you will have cheapo caps (maybe not to buy) prob no copper base ,no nickle, just thin tin flashed in the chrome tank and away.
sorry
mm

[eiret25]

WD40 worked great on the chrome of my honda with a bit of wire wool

[Plasticman]

your missing the point, the op has fecked caps with the rust coming through , nothin g on this planet will stop that happening
its beyond cleaning, now if you know of something that will stop the rust and make it go away please share
mm

[JonB]

Hmm the caps clean up really well to a lovely finish...(to a degree) the post was more of a query as to anyway to provide a bit of sealing to slow the rust process a little better and protect what is there.

Autosol was one of the first options I saw when googled so if someone has experience of that then it might be an option.

[bluedirtydigit]

To slow the rust down on your chrome spray it with ACF50 ten times better than wd40 which is just fish oil and is perfect to spray on your electrics to keep the old green stuff away all year round. Not cheap but worth every penny I use it all the time on my cars and bikes.

[Bigjcc55]

I agree with mm, there's no easy fix. Only way to deal with rust is to remove it.
You will be doing some amount of rubbing to keep them shiny.

[CovKid]

I'd agree with that but don't confuse it with Anusol or have the misfortune to apply Autosol where you shouldn't...

Autosol.

[JonB]

Yeah I had a childish snigger between Autosol and Anusol....something about a shiny ring.

[AdrianC]

The autosol/WD will clean the brown off, but you'll still have holes in the plating, back to bare steel. It's just that you've made that bare steel shiny again, too. You really need to cover 'em in something to then stop that shiny bare steel turning brown again. Something like a thick coat of wax, that'll stay put.

Or just give up on the Canute impression. I must get round to taking our entirely brown hubcaps off, flatting 'em off, then painting 'em red to match the van.

[boatbuilder]

Get them grit blasted and painted?

[bigherb]

Or get some stainless steel ones.

[JonB]

See my set up is like bigherbs....except the steel wheels need a paint and the hub caps have a rust patina which on the whole cleans up to a lovely shine except in the corners of the VW.

Just a shame the shine doesn't remain overtime and there doesn't appear to seal them once cleaned to protect against them tarnishing again or getting worse