Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

My painter/body mentor says I can buff out tiny, little, rough specks off my chrome with an SOS pad, followed by a polish with Mother's. I worry that SOS pads will leave scuff marks that won't come out. He says it will scuff, but that Mother's will remove all that and buff to a shine. Agreed?

Far better use use a buffing wheel and a little jeweler's rouge.

Thanks, Owen. Please explain like I know nothing. I have a drill. What type of buffing wheel? Also, what is jeweler's rouge? Any other product that would be a name-brand, on-the-shelf thing at Wal-Mart or Autozone?

We use #1000 steel wool here at the shop. Seems to polish & clean stainless & chrome pretty well.

Check the Eastwood catalog or perhaps their website. A buffing wheel is perhaps 6 or 8 inches in diameter, maybe 1/2 to 1 inch wide, and composed of many layers of cottom stitched together. You rotate it a a high speed and apply jeweler's rouge which is an extremely mild abrasive. This is pretty much the standard technique for polishing a wide variety of materials to extremely smooth surfaces and is what a commercial refinisher of stainless steel trim would use, though in a truly professional environment the user would have a variety of grades of abrasive and work his way towards the finest.

Check out Eastwood - they specialize in supplying these materials to the amateur.

Well, I just spent the last 3 hours reading all about metal buffing and polishing to the extent of Google's seemingly random way of getting you to half-relevant material.

English polishing has a site explaining the process to some degree. They have a video of a restoration of aluminum valve covers.

The process was shown almost all the way through, from sanding with 220, down to finer and finer levels to reach a brilliant shine.

My moldings on the front fenders have soe nasty pitting. I was wondering if I could follow this same process on those moldings.

I've always assumed not and re-plating would be the only option. Now, I am wondering.

I know the process, if it can be done, is a lot of work, but I wouldn't mind because I have lots of time to knock out a piece here and there.

Can I do it this way?

No, you really cant. The valve covers are solid aluminum with no plating and they are simply leveling the surface. The fender mouldings are pot-metal that is chrome platted.
Fine steel wool, or a buffing compound is really used to remove oxidation, and perhaps light rust stains from the chrome. If you have any pitting, then they would have to be filled or ground leveled, and replated.

Steel wool or SOS will scratch the chrome. To remove rust clean with copper scrubbing pads and Pledge. Follow up with Simichrome or Flitz for a fine shine and protect with automotive wax.

You can get copper scrubbing pads a the dollar store three for a $1 buck.

One thing I did learn while messing around was that SOS pads and steel wool leave tiny fragments of their material in the surface you are cleaning. The tiny fragments oxidize and turn to rust, causing tiny rust spots to flourish on your surface in a short amount of time.

I second Rusty's recommendation of Flitz and Simichrome, both fine products for metal polishing.