Keeping the shiny bits shiny
 

After having read the oxalic acid thread and some general tips on buffing, polishing, getting everything looking real good, I'm wondering if there's any trick to keeping it looking good, and keeping the rust spots from coming back.

I polished up some chromed bits that were a bit rusty and now about 2 months later the rust is starting to show up again. I was thinking about automotive wax or something along those lines (I have most of a bottle of Pedro's bike lust floating around somewhere), but I don't know how well that would work.

Any thoughts?

My experience with chrome is that unless it has been clearcoated, rust will always rear its ugly head, dependent on how exposed to moisture/rain etc. it is. I have no idea as to whether you could apply wax or not, but it sounds like a good idea.

Wax helps. If you know where the trouble spots are, you can reapply there more frequently to keep that barrier there between the moist air and the steel.

I've done the clearcoat thing on skewers, pedal caps, etc and it works pretty well and you really can't tell it's coated without inspection.