Originally Posted by
BigChief
Evaporust works great on lightly rusted chrome. Much faster than vinegar, but still usually takes an overnight soak. Once chrome rusts, it won't be as rust resistant as it was originally, but liquid car wax does a good job of protecting it. I did come up with a way of restoring hard to replace parts that have that gray finish. I'm not sure what to call this finish. Bonderizing, galvanizing, parkerizing...something like that. If you soak these, they will turn rust red again quickly. With these parts, like this 1950s guide wheel, I don't soak in Evaporust. I leave the rust in place. In this photo, I'm burnishing in a dry lubricant called Action Magic with a match stick. I gave this wheel 2 coats. It closely resembles the original finish and holds up very well. The second photo is almost a year later and it shows no sign of red rust on the surface.
Thank you for that idea. I think I'll give it a try with my guide wheel. Things are almost together for my bike. I replaced the dynohub assembly that was shorting out with an assembly from a 1955 front dynohub I found on eBay for $22.50. That all works beautifully now. At this point, I'm just waiting for Santa Fe to warm up enough to finish my touchup spraypaint outside. My first coat didn't look as nice as I wanted, but then I reminded myself that I was spray painting on top of another not quite skillful coat of spray paint from the bike's past. I am aiming for functional but not tempting to thieves. I'm probably doing well on that ground.