Hi folks, a good friend asked me a question and I told him I would be glad to post here on the forum, he is not a member yet, I'm trying to convince him. His Raleigh is showing some "pitting" on the chrome, should he try to polish it ? Is it possible to make it look better or just redoing the chrome. Sorry for my amateur questions, I really don't have an idea. Thanks.

Steel wool and polish will remove the corrosion from the pores in some cases but the problem is the pitting is a break in the surface/missing material. The appearance can be minimized through polishing but to make up for the missing material it is a matter for recoating.

Really? How would it be possible to remove a pit?

It's not and nobody said it was.

I wouldn't use steel wool on it. Crumpled aluminum foil and WD-40 has worked for me. Some people use bronze wool.

Thank you for the reply, here is a picture showing it. I think that if he wants it perfect, it will have to be recoated, are there shops that perform chrome recoating without taking the frame apart? For example, how to recoat the lugs?

Would steel wool damage the chrome? I've used a brass brush and water, works great. You can also use aluminum foil.

No "recoating" of chrome surfaces. The chrome is removed, the base is repaired if necessary and that part of the frame in chromed. The ajoining painted area is also effected so a repaint would also be required. Better just to clean it up and ride it unless it's a particularly rare or expensive frame.

that isn't bad at all. a metal polish such as autosol and a cotton cloth could take care of that with some hard work. An alternative would be to go to your local marina and get some super fine brass or bronze wool (softer than steel so it won't scratch) and then use a polish after.

This is also what I use and it works very well indeed.

Unless there's something I'm missing, everything in the photograph is surface crud only and will clean off entirely with a little elbow grease. I think your friend will be a little shocked at how well this combination works.

Oh, and I'd recommend brass wool over steel wool.

Or he could try automotive chrome polish and a rag....

All of these methods only serve to reduce the appearance of the corrosion. It won't be gone. The only way is to remove pitting is an extensive process.....the part must be stripped and all corrosion must be removed. This is usually done chemically. Any pits must be filled usually with a braze or copper and smoothed. Then the the part would be fully polished and get a copper plating. This is also polished and inspected before going to the chrome plating tank. The full process is more detailed, and includes a trip or two through acid baths, but that's the gist of it. Some pieces (depending on their intended use) will get an oven bake treatment to reduce or eliminate hydrogen, which may cause embrittlement in some case.

Plastic is a different process (vacuum metalizing) altogether.

In any event, it is not usually a cheap process, and can get quite expensive depending on how bad the pitting is, how challenging and complex the shape and size of the part, etc.

The process is similar for most other metal plating materials, like..nickel, brass, etc. The solutions for the type of bath differ.
In almost all cases, the chemicals used go from nasty to downright deadly (cyanide for gold plating).


Whichever method (from previous suggestions) is used, finish with a good wax and buff to keep it looking good, and maintain it !


Cheers,

Joe

However, the image shared doesn't demonstrate pitting, only surface gunk. It will clean right off. I've cleaned far worse and never had a relapse.

I mostly agree with you, in that it will clean right up with polish a rag and elbow grease. Also, most treatments or polishes have a protectant that will help seal the surface, so that it stays looking nice for quite a while.

But, there is some pitting there I believe, in that those little rust blushes are due to tiny pits in the surface of the chrome. In this case though it is not severe at all and will clean up pretty easily.

Cheers,

Joe

My '67 Carlton had similar specks of rust on the underside of the chain- and seat-stays. I used a wet rag and my own thumbnails to remove a lot of it, and followed with some sort of blue stuff highly recommended from the guy at my local auto parts store in Albuquerque. I was patient and this took about 4 hours.

The stays, and an old chromed Cateye bottle cage from another bike, came out quite good, and I was proud of the work I had done. But I had to attack each speck of rust independently, and this took a considerable amount of time.

The real sad story about my bike was the chrome socks on the fork. After all the rust was gone, there wasn't much chrome left. I used a reflective-silver nail polish to mask the color of the underlying steel, but the whole thing is a little too matte to be believable up close, and you can see the step height differences between the chromed areas and non-chromed areas.

Unfortunately I was laid off from my job only days after having my first long ride on it in its preliminary form. I'm still recovering a bit financially from my move to the Bay Area almost two months ago, but I do have plans of having the thing professionally refinished, chrome and all, once I can do so, but my bike looks FAR different from the condition you photographed here.