Tips on Repairing the Chrome of Your Car

If the old chrome on your car is dull and rusty, there are a few different things you can do. The first and most obvious is to remove and replace, but if you want to keep your car original, or if you do not have the funds to buy replacement chrome, there are less expensive alternatives.

The first option is to try and clean it off and polish it. You could purchase a professional chrome polish, but those are not only pricy, but also do not work very well. The best thing to do is polish it with Coca-Cola, Pepsi or some other type of cola beverage. It does a surprisingly good job. It may take a while for the polishing to take effect so keep rubbing with the rag. Be careful not to get any of the cola on bear metal, because the acid will encourage corrosion. Another thing you should do to prevent corrosion is wash the cola off with warm water right after you have polished it.

Another thing you car do with bad chrome, especially with extremely rare pieces that come off of old vehicles, is to remove it and get it chromed again by a professional. That is also a pricey thing, and should probably only be done if the chrome is extremely rare and almost unobtainable. You could try to cheaply chrome it yourself with aluminum tape, but it will eventually wear off and leave a sticky residue, plus it is hard to get it positioned just right so that there are no visible wrinkles.

The last resort, besides taking it off completely or leaving it alone is to paint it. To do this you will need to either take it off, or if you feel like masking everything on your car so that you won't spray on something you don't want painted. This would most likely be the best if you have a delicate looking piece of chrome that might break if you try to take it off.

Then you should choose the type of paint you want for it. I would suggest that you find a color that either matches your vehicles paint, or one that contrasts it so that it will look like a design feature rather then a bad chrome cover-up. There are a couple of chrome paints that you could try, sometimes they work, other times they do not, so it is your risk. If you choose to paint the chrome with metallic paint as it is called, you will be able to choose from different shades and colors.