Polish out chrome scratches????????

[froggy47]

Do not clean your chrome rims with one of those green scrubbing pads, I did, got scratches. They are not very deep (obviously) do you think I can polish them out? What polish compound? Will need machine polisher I think, gonna be hard to get in the small spaces. The rims are zr1 style 5 spoke. Scratches on the lip only not on the spokes, thank goodness.

TIA

[Accumulator]

Chromium is really hard stuff, in my experience once it gets scratched it stays scratched. Sorry to bear bad news

I've never been able to polish out marring in chrome My Jag's chrome got scratched pre-delivery, and after 21 years it's still scratched. Some of this chrome has been worn/polished away (down to the underlying metal) and the chrome around the worn away areas still has the scratches. Nothing I've ever tried has worked.

[froggy47]

Well thanks for the post At least the scratches are not very noticable.

Anyone else?

[froggy47]

Mike P. what do you think?

Am I sol?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Mike P. what do you think?

Originally posted by froggy47
Am I sol?

The question of,

How do I remove a scratch, or scratches out of _____________

(Fill in the blank)

Comes up so often on the forum and at ever Saturday Detailing Class that I wrote this little article to address your question.

What it Means to Remove a Scratch



In order to remove a scratch out of anything, metal, plastic glass, paint, etc. You must remove material around the scratch until the surface is level or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or scratches.

The below diagram if for paint, the the same thing applies to just about an surface material or coating.



In essences, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove material around a scratch.

Then the big question is, is the material or coating workable, as in can you abrade small particles of it and leave behind an original looking surface. For example, some things you can abrade, (remove the scratch), but you can never completely remove all of your abrading marks, thus you can't really fix the problem, all you can do is exchange one set of scratches of a different set of scratches.

The next questions is, how thick is the surface material you're working on or the coating. You are limited to what you can do by the thickness of these to things, (surface coating or surface material), and whether or not this surface is workable.

Sometimes you don't know what you can so until you try. It's always a good idea to test your choice of products, applicator materials and application process, (By hand or by machine), to an inconspicuous area. If you cannot make a small area look good with your product, applicator and process, you will not be able to make the entire surface look good. It's always a good idea to test first and error on the side of caution, versus make a mistake you cannot undo.

[Tim Lingor]

Hey froggy47

Sorry, but I have to agree with Accumulator, I have tried all kinds of things to remove scratches in chrome, and none have worked. You can make it look a lot better using something like Meguiar's NXT Metal Polysh, but that is far as I have been able to repair it.

NXT Generation All Metal Polysh




Tim

[froggy47]

Thanks Mike & guys,

I was familiar with the concept of removing material etc. I was more specifically asking if ANYONE has had any success with chrome scratches & if so how did they work it out. Unless someone chimes in on the thread I will assume it's hopeless. I may play with it a bit in a small section of the rim & see where it takes me.

In the end a wheel wax/finish may hide the damage temporarilly

[Mike Phillips]

I think I left out the first part of my answer in my post above and that would be....

Originally posted by froggy47

Do not clean your chrome rims with one of those green scrubbing pads, I did, got scratches.

They are not very deep (obviously) do you think I can polish them out?

No.

Some materials don't lend themselves to be polished/cleaned/abraded with the end result being a finish that resembles the original appearance, (or better), and often time the cure is worse than the disease.

Sorry...

I would agree that polishing dull, stained neglected chrome with scratches will look a lot better than nothing at all. Possibly a good cleaning and polishing will make it harder to see fine/light scratches because your eyes will be more focused on the big picture, shiny wheels.

[froggy47]

Thanks Mike.

[Totoland Mach]

The problem with chrome and scratches is: Chrome is a micro thin layer that protects the real shine, Nickel. When you scratch the chrome layer, you are now into the nickel layer. Nickel has an underlying area of copper or bare metal. Nickel is also a soft metal and will wear away.

If you use the NXT metal polysh, you might temporarily fill in some light scratches, but they will always be there (unlike paint which you can eliminate scratches).

Hope the above helps....I used to be in the chrome plating business years ago for custom bike parts.

Totoland Mach

[froggy47]

Thanks totoland,

I will try the nxt metal polish if I can find some.