Cleaning rusty chrome

[cr480r]

Any recommendations on cleaning rust off an old chrome bmx bicycle frame? Frame is 30 years old and pretty rusty.. I just want to make it the best it can be without ruining the remaining chrome. I briefly considered powder coating or painting it, but I don't want to ruin the classic look and sentimental value. I have heard about using Cola and tin foil on rusty chrome but has anyone tried it? Or any other ideas?

[bkm]

My dad had this stuff years ago that was made by turtle wax that was a chrome polish/rust remover. It was in a little gray bottle and was a brown chunky liquid that you worked on like car wax. It actually worked pretty good on the bumper of my 65 Dart, but I haven't used it in 20 years. I don't even know if it is still available or not?

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[efhondakid]

00 steel wool.

[knappyfeet]

00 steel wool.

Steel wool and also...phosphoric acid.

If the chrome is in good shape I would use this Zep product. I used it on many things as a dip prior to steel wool....sometimes over 15 minutes. If the chrome is good it will not harm it at all. The air cleaner on my HT-1 was covered in rust....along with some other chrome bits. A good soaking then steel wool and you can tell the difference. Just look at the air cleaner housing.

Try in an inconspicuous location to make sure it will not harm anything.

Good luck

[fabiodriven]

I saw someone use a plain old piece of tinfoil very recently. I wouldn't have believed how well it worked if I hadn't seen it.


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[Bren_downe]

S.O.S pads work great

[yaegerb]

I use aluminum foil and water. Get the chrome wet and cut a 6x6 piece of aluminum foil folded over to make it a little thicker and proceed to hand polishing the frame. The chemical reaction actually removes some of the rust. It won't work for heavily damaged areas, but works pretty well for light surfaces rust. Try it out, you will be surprised. Then polish it out with mothers.

[atc12]

What kind of bike?
/

[redsox]

i'm with knappy. that zep stuff is aces!!

[atc007]

I use steel wool and polish,but there are a ton of youtubes using Coca Cola... Looks to work amazing. Either way, I drink it maybe 3 times a year

[cr480r]

What kind of bike?
/

It's an old free agent mini that I am fixing up for my kids to make a low cost bmx debut. The free agent was my lil bros, my mom bought it used when he was 6 but he lost all interest after his first crash. I have a much nicer Auburn Jr. that I have kept around since 1993, but it's still a tad big for my son.

[RamsesRibb]

Well I just tried the foil tip on light rust and it worked. Thanks.
Now I have a set of suspension forks for my atc110 that got screwed up because someone put a case of pool chemicals behind it inside the shed. Well the chlorine basically ate through the packages and then commenced to rusting all my stuff. Most of which was my old tractor parts, but It was close enough to get the fork tubes.

[efhondakid]

I've never heard of the tin foil method before.

[El Camexican]

Brother-in-law just told me that he uses Coke Cola to remove rust from chrome when he restores car parts. Didn't go into all the details, but said something about a soak period and then just wiping it off.

[cr480r]

I ended up using both tin foil and coke. The coke definately helped remove the rust.. But using the foil dry was the most impressive. It left the good chrome with a restored lustre and also filled in the pits. Next time I will only use the coke for the heavier work.