From MopedWiki

This article is a stub.

You can help the Moped Wiki by expanding it.

So your chrome is dull, some rust may be peeking through. The only real way to make chrome look brand new is to strip it and have it re-chromed. Another option is to strip and sand the piece and paint it in a color of your choosing.

Contents 1 Polishing chrome 1.1 Pros 1.2 Cons 2 Electrolytic Rust Removal

Polishing chrome

However, there are ways to polish dull and slightly rust damaged chrome to give it a near new appearance. An easy method involves using either WD-40 or Coca-cola and fine steel wool or tin foil to buff the chrome. Simply apply the liquid to the chrome piece to be cleaned and buff it with the steel wool or crumpled tin foil.

This will shine the chrome and remove minor imperfections due to rust. However, it will not remove spots of major rust pitting or restore areas where the chrome has begun to flake off. This method also will not protect your chrome from rusting in the future. Polishing the chrome in this manner will leave the chrome with fine scratches that you would expect from a polished metal.

Other options include using commercially available chrome and general metal polishes such as Brasso.

Another option is to use lemon juice and steel wool to remove rust. After you have removed the rust followup with a coat of wax.

-Added 4-10-11-

My favorite chrome cleaner is a pumice hand soap like fast orange. Gojo, or any other pumice soap will work as well. So does polishing compound, but the soap is way cheaper and better on heavier rust. This will not work if your chrome is bubbling, peeling, or missing. Get a toothbrush (dont use it again after cleaning chrome) and apply a decent amount to the chrome in question. Scrub with the toothbrush for about a minute, and wipe off. You may need to repeat this process once or twice for best results, and finish it off with a nice chrome polish if you're into the shine. Myself, I just like it to be clean of rust, not huge on the shine. Pumice soap leaves a great finish on it though.

Pros

• Chrome looks a lot better
• Cheap/Free
• Leaves you kinda feeling like MacGyver

Cons

• Chrome still has minor imperfections and buffing marks
• Not protected from future rusting
• Will not fix major rust or areas where chrome has flaked off.

Electrolytic Rust Removal

Electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. It is fairly simple to use electrolysis to remove rust from moped parts.

To do this you will need:

• The rusty moped part, removed from the moped.
• A bucket large enough to fit the rusty part.
• Baking soda.
• Water.
• A DC power source. This can be any 10-15V DC source, but I recommend using a 12V car battery charger.
• A scrap piece of metal that you don't mind getting ruined. Preferably use something with a large surface area like sheet metal.

Process:

• Fill up the bucket with water to a height that will allow you to completely submerge the part.
• Mix in 1 tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water.
• Attach the negative lead (black on car charger) to the rusty object
• Attach the positive lead (red on a car charger) to the piece of metal You don't want to lead from the charger to be submerged or it will be ruined.
• Put both the rusty object and the metal piece in the baking soda / water solution. Make sure they aren't touching each other
• Plug the charger into a power source and wait for the rust to be chemically removed! You should start seeing bubbles rise from the object almost immediately. Also, the water may begin to have a black film on the surface.

The length of time needed will depend on how rusty the object is. When you think it is done, unplug the charger and remove the object. It should now look dark black. Take a scrub brush and water and brush off the black film, the result should be clean metal with no rust!

Its important to note that this will not prevent rust from coming back. If your chrome is pitted you should apply a finish (paint, wax, or other) to protect it.

Do you have other ways of treating rusting chrome? Share your experiences.