Rusted chrome

[Lydia]

A very good friend of mine wants me to detail his newer (2003 maybe?) black Gold Wing. The main problem is, it has been stored outside. Humidity around here is pretty high, so a lot of the custom chrome pieces on it are getting rusted. I am willing to spend as much time on this as I have to, and get whatever products I need to. I'm just wondering, once I get the rust off, how can I protect the chrome so it doesn't have this problem again in a while? I was thinking, if I get it cleaned up very well, maybe I could take the pieces off and very carefully clear coat them? I don't know if that is something that is even possible though. Would that work? If not, what suggestions do you have to prevent the chrome pieces from rusting again? As I mentioned, I'm willing to do whatever needs to be done to fix this problem. We are storing his bike in our garage for a while (until I get it detailed and he gets a better shelter) so there's plenty of time to work on it. I hope to be able to do something with his Valkyrie too. Same problem with it. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[the3dwizard]

Re: Rusted chrome

I use the NXT All Metal Polysh on my chrome exhaust tips and have been pleased with it. Might be worth a try. It is suppost to have protectants in it.

http://www.meguiars.com/?wheel-care/NXT-Generation-All-Metal-Polysh

There is also Metal Guard which I haven't used but look interesting.

http://www.meguiars.com/?boat-metal-aluminum-care/metal-guard

[Murr1525]

Re: Rusted chrome

With solid metal, you can get the rust off and be left with bare metal. But chrome is completly different, as it is a thin coating of metal, I believe over another thin coat of metal, then over a base metal. And with rust, there is usualy flaking of the top layers of metal. That is to say, once it flakes, the chrome is gone. So you are kind of stuck...

[RZ Autodetailing]

Re: Rusted chrome

I personally use neverdull on the chrome first to get off any imperfections , then i top it with #21, but you can use any LSP of your choice.The results are amazing.I use this method on all the chrome i work on and I would not try clearing coating the chrome , just try this out and see how it works .

[Lydia]

Re: Rusted chrome

Thanks for the tips, y'all! I've actually done this bike once before. I used very fine steel wool on it to get the rust off and it looked great. Unfortunately, it started rusting again (OK so I expected that, but it's still frustrating). He lives on an island, so I don't know if he some how gets salt spray on the bike, or if it's just because of the high humidity, but things rust easily. I'm thinking I'll just use steel wool and NXT metal polish again to deal with the rust (I might see how clay works too), but I'm wanting something more long term to protect it (that's why I thought of clear coat paint). I don't know if there is anything like that even. I suppose if all else fails I'll just put a good coat of wax on it, and try to wax it every month or so. I was just hoping there was something else that would last longer.