Polishing Out This Chrome - What would you use?

Off a 1994 Jag XJS - this is the surround of the windshield.

 

never heard of anyone polishing chrome trim. kinda interested if its even possible

 

If its metal and not plastic, try a wool pad with some metal polish like flitz or wenol.
If that dont work or you dont have a wool pad you could try #0000 steel wool with the metal polish.

 

Also tape the surrounding areas as to not damage them while polishing the metal

 

Go light and slow if you see any discoloration purple gold STOP, your going through the chrome and into the nickel.

 

I believe Diamondite and Wolfgang have polishes and compounds specifically for metal like that.

 

Thanks for all the response. Did some more digging and it is actually stainless steel.

 

Which polishes up rather nicely with some M105, wool, rotary.


Before




After

 

Don't have a rotary or wool pads. Anything I can do with a DA?

 

M105 by hand with a MF towel would likely improve them quite a bit. Various metal polishes will work too....

 

A 3" pad and da will work. Kevin Brown used a metabo 3" da and a cut down maroon pad and m105 to do a 57 Nomad stainless trim.Posted way back in 2008. Had fantastic results.Was posted on MOL with pictures.

 

Is OPT Metal Polish good stuff or is there something better out there?

 

Optimum is good for the price and on mild tarnished surfaces,it will have a tough time with scratched chrome like in the pic. I use English metal polishes myself,they come in different grades from course compound for neglected finishes down to the finish polishes. As Rasky stated most general polishes really do work great if you dont have any metal specific polishes on hand. And make note of what Piginapoke stated as well.Good info there,like paint there is a fine line between a good finish and an OH S$%#@# what the F#@! especially on trim work. I thankfully have never burned paint,but I have pushed the limit on chrome trim and lost.

Darren

 

Definitely want to be careful on this as it is no longer available.

 

I have not looked at the trim on the XJS I am working one yet, the paint is so bad I havn't even noticed if there is trim lol, but are you sure its not stainless alot of trim work is polished stainless. If it is stainless you can use much more agressive polishes as there is burn through, if its chrome and you burn through it (which I have done before) you can always just have it replated a piece that size should be under a hundred. On a side note I learned the hard way today not to use diamond bright polish on chrome even though it states that you can. I have tried Megs 105, Mothers Chrome polish, S100 polishing soap and I still have marring. Whos Jag is it? The one I am working on belongs to my father who put very little consideration into how much work it was going to be for me when he bought it.

 

It's mine. It is stainless as I found out so that's a bit of good news. Apparently all the trim but the badging is stainless. Might have a go at one of the sill plates if that's the case.

 

Maybe you can remove the trim and polish it - that would take away the danger of hitting rubber or painted areas...

Good luck with this, I am sure it will turn out great !
Dan F

 

All I've got is 5.5 inch pads for my PC. Is it worth it to get a new backing plate and some 4 inch pads to go at this? Haven't seen any 3 inch pads for a pc.

And have definitely confirmed that this is polished stainless steel.

 

try hand polishing it. if not you can use the 4 inch or 3 inch pads.