chrome

[SR]

Ello, bought some new rear bumpers for pickup [traveller] only 9 months ago , noticed yesterday slight surface rust allready,not an eyeball pleaser,aneone recommend some decent gear to put on em ,or should i wipe em over once a week with something ,cheers muckers,steve

[Pyoor_Kate]

I seem to recall that standard chrome care is Polish and Wax.

The bumper on the back of my car seems to have withstood the ravages of my non-cleaning policy fairly well so far with that. And t'other chrome seems to be at a static level of knackeredness....

[Gareth]

To clean it up, try using Autosol or Chrome Magic, both I think are available from Frosts or similar. Autosol, I'm 90% certain, you can get in Halfrauds. Some recommend wiping the chrome over with light machine oil, but I value my trousers too much for that... ;)

[Alec]

Hello SR,
it is a problem that you cannot judge the quality of chrome by looking at it. (Well I can't anyway) The rear bumper blades I fitted new when i restored my wife's Traveller started to show rust not long after, and require constant cleaning. In contrast one of my cars (1962 Jag) was parked outside for several years due to no garage space and the chrome was not affected.
I would happily have paid twice what I paid for new bumpers with high quality chrome than have to end up rechroming them in the near future. A thought for anyone doing a restoration, if the bumpers etc are sound, think about re-chroming rather than replacement, but look for a chromer that does the full copper\nickel\chrome sequence.

Alec

[Willie]

Unfortunately Chromium plate is porous so it is important that it
should be based on an underlying coating of nickel and,preferably,
a base metal of brass under that. (A pre war Austin seven chromed
radiator surround NEVER rusted for that reason) As Alec said it is
always worth paying extra for a well chromed item in the long run.
Because it is porous it is worth applying a good quality wax polish to chrome as it helps to fill up the 'holes'.

[bigginger]

Blimey, you learn something new every visit. I never knew chrome was porous.

a

[SR]

i paid around £50 for the pair from a popular place, not very good really , like u say boys some of the older/origanal stuff is/was quality, yet another sign of the times as these are advertised "best quality" , oh well

[aupickup]

i used beeswax polish on the original chrome parts of my van i used to have, that was kept outside for 4 years with no deteriation, ok it was old chrome

[Kevin]

Suppliers like Bull Motif sell the chrome in 2 grades, the cheaper stuff and the proper triple plated chrome, also you should not use chrome cleaner as most of it is abrasive and car polish is fine for keeping it shiny, and can even be left on unbuffed if your car spends winter time in the garage.

[rayofleamington]

Chrome cleaner is ok if you want to turn a very rusty/ heavily stained looking bumper into something that resembles metal, but as mentioned already it is abarasive so it actually damages the chrome - Therefore if your chrome is worth saving then use a high grade bodywork polish (the good ones contain chemicals to disolve the iron oxide away).
The polish then acts to make the surface non-porous but you'll need to keep up the treatment especially with our highly salted roads over winter.

[SR]

ello kev ,these are bull motifs "best quality"

[Peetee]

A few years back the process of making chromed parts was hit by a punative set of environmental taxes because of the chemicals used. The results were the cheap stuff was just that; cheap. The quality stuff was made by fewer firms and much more expensive.

[rayofleamington]

ello kev ,these are bull motifs "best quality"

Their best quality used to be 'Chrome on top of plating on top of brass'.
Either they don't do the good ones for the traveller rear end, or have changed their parts, or you got their cheaper stuff somehow!
(ie - brass isn't going to rust!!)

[sb]

Blimey, you learn something new every visit. I never knew chrome was porous.

a

certainly is, my rear light look like wood worm has had a go!!!

Tip for preserving chrome, lemonade, not joking.

[Kevin]

ello kev ,these are bull motifs "best quality"

Thats not good Steve have you tried asking them whats gone wrong as there is no way they should have been so short lived.

certainly is, my rear light look like wood worm has had a go!!!

The biggest problem with the original saloon rear lights was not the chrome but the base unit which is porous which is why the ones from Birmingham are made by a gravity fed process to make the bases solid, unfortunatly thats why they are so dear.

[Willie]

As far as I am aware it is not possible to get chromed items which
are made of brass these days (it was the norm pre-war), so a top
quality item would be made of steel with a coating of copper,then
at least two coats of nickel then the chrome. Of course it is the thickness
of the various coatings which decides if it is a quality plating or not.

[wibble_puppy]

so who's the best manufacturer/supplier?

[Kevin]

Well Bull Motif and Birmingham quote that they now how chrome made to original standards and not the cheaper stuff, however I would also think that companys like East Sussex would also sell the same quality but its best to check before buying, if its any help it should be triple plated.

[wibble_puppy]

cheers kevin (long time no see btw - happy new year!)

[custommartin]

Does general quality seem to be getting worse??????

I fitted a new set of stainless-steel kick-plates and sill finishers to the Pick-Up at the week-end.

The finishers were ok, but the kick-plates were distorted, obviously done when they were folded.

They still look good but they are not the same quality as the set I bought about 5 years ago for the convertible (from the same specialist!)