The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Reccommend a chrome polish

I bought a nice grille insert for my GMC at the swap meet yesterday but it doesn't want to clean up. It looks pretty good from a distance
[img]http://www.jbhardin-gallery.com/trucks/grille.jpg[/img]
but up close it has splotches.
[img]http://www.jbhardin-gallery.com/trucks/grilledetail.jpg[/img]
I used Turtlewax chrome polish and it doesn't touch them. What would you use?

A product called never -dull,it works great on chrome, comes in a silver can ,you can get it at most auto stores, old navy 51................

I have had good results with autosol. You might want to try Mothers products. I recently bought some to polish aluminum and it worked well, I am sure the store had Mothers chrome polish also

From the looks of the pic, I don't think anything is going to help but a rechrome.

Don't waste your money on Never-Dull! The stuff doesn't work. If you don't believe me, you can have an almost full can I have.

I've had good luck with Wenol products but AD-53 may have the correct solution.

Cletis - don't make the same mistake I made and have your grill rechromed. I cannot bring myself to put in back in the truck as it looks too good and makes the rest of the truck look shabby.

I bought another old grill to install in my truck till I get around to fixing up the rest of the truck, the chromed grill will go into a suburban I am building instead.

I had some really rusty hubcaps on my '35. I used rubbing compound mixed with autowax and a very fine steel wool. I coated them well and then let them sit till they dried throroughly and then polished them with an old diaper.

The key is being very gentle with the steel wool and being very agressive with the polishing after it is dry.

[img]http://www.kinemation.com/Trucks/Images/before.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.kinemation.com/Trucks/Images/after.jpg[/img]

They aren't perfect, but I felt I had nothing to lose as they are not originals and were very rusty to start with. They have stayed nice and shiney with the coat of regular old car wax the last couple of years.

Wow, that is impressive. Looks like I need to pick up some steel wool when I'm in town tommorrow.

Nah cletis, no steel wool, just a 12 pack and some cheap Mothers chrome polish. Sucks to be the man polishing, but elbow grease solves the problem--my grill was from just off the gulf coast and looked like crap, but fifty beers later, a laughing wife, and some junk chrome polish, and it looks great. And I'm Polish (kinda-and Irish... ).

Cletis I second the Toothpaste that Metalman mentioned. It is very gental but works and you dont smell bad when you are through! Before you try the steel wool try some aluminum foil.

Good luck!

I saw on the show MYTH BUSTERS, they put Pepsi Cola and tin foil up against several leading chrome cleaner. The result was that Pepsi and tin foil worked a lot better than the chrome cleaners. You get Tin foil and wad it up into a ball and then you pour Pepsi over the surface of the chrome and scrub away. I haven't tried it yet my self.
Any body ever tried the Molasses and water treatment?

I went to Ace Hardware today. They didn't have autosol, wenal, neverdull. Forgot to look for gel toothpaste (didn't put it on my list). They had a Mothers polish but it was light weight. Label said if badly tarnished use Mother's something else and they didn't carry it. So I got some rubbing compound and steel wool.

It didn't work. There is no chrome to polish in those spots. Something has eaten into the next layer of plating. Polishing it just makes it look worse.

A good wax job did make it look better from a distance. I guess I'll use it as is. I'm not building a show truck anyway. It will be a 50/50 driver.

If I do some day happen to find a couple thousand dollars laying around in my sock drawer I have a cherry painted grille in a '53 2 ton I can have chromed. The insert is the same as the 1/2 ton.