The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Rust on chrome

New challenge for me now that my truck has been on the road for 3 years. Several pieces of chrome on my truck have started to rust--specifically the tail-light brackets and the antenna brackets. I purchased these pieces from our usual sources--LMC, Chevy Duty, etc- so I tried not to get poor products via low prices. I am not a big fan of wax and polish on my vehicles, but I do keep them washed, especially the 57. I have never polished or waxed the 57. Is this my problem ??, If not, what is ?

Personally it sounds like the parts had a cheap chrome job to begin with. I have seen chrome parts that held their polish for decades w/out rusting. Heck my stock bumpers on my project only have rust in the areas that have a scrape/damage & the rest of bumper shines...Joe

How bad are the rust spots? can you wipe them off with a rag? You might try some (0000)4 ott steel wool.Try it in an inconspicous(big word) place first to make sure it does'nt scratch the chrome,OR,you can use coke and aluminium foil.It really does work.

Try Simichrome Polish. It is costly but it works. A little dab will do ya. I used it on the grille of my '54 GMC and was amazed. It leaves a protective coating too.

You can't keep cheap chrome from rusting. Using a polish / wax will slow the rusting down but the end result will appear....small rust pits.
So keep polishing it, so it looks as good a it can be, but the bottom line is if you want it to look like chrome it has to be good chrome to start with.
I think good chrome is more money than the manufactures of products today want to put into their product.
Mainly because they look for ways to lower input cost so the bottom line looks better, and we the consumer can barely tell the difference when the chrome product is new.
It just doesn't last as long before it's true color shows up...rust.

Dan

I was about to toss my old 55 door handles do to rust spots. Took some steel wool and it looks almost new! But I do have some new chrome pieces from the same manufacturers and I fear that I will be facing the same situation in a year or two. I just plan on polishing and keeping the truck out of the rain if at all possible in Florida!

Russ.............
Chrome plating is only a few Microns thick at the best of times.
ANY abrasive cleaner will thin out this layer very quickly and only exacerbate the problem.
Old chrome is thick and heavy with a good layer of base metals under the chrome top layer.These will handle a bit of polish, but over time will still degrade to a thin coppery color as the chrome layer is polished away.
The best way to protect chromework is with a good wax/polish cleaner.
The idea is to protect the very thin top layer of chrome from the elements by a layer of wax.
This gets deep into the outer layer and prevents the underlying metals from contamination.

Unfortunatly, if you have newer, cheap chrome, not much can be done to prevent this process from happening.

Good Luck!