Oxodised chrome/waterspots

Stallingrad

Looking to polish the the chrome window chrome on a 4 year old BMW. It has plenty of waterspots. Tried a number of polishes, Maguire's scratch remover, they improved it a bit. Autosol chrome polish with a microfiber worked best, but some waterspots remains.

Google says Maguire's M205 works well?

Wondering if anyone has any tips on this.

Have you been drying it after wash?
Washing in the sun or shade?

Stallingrad

BrownFinger wrote: »

Have you been drying it after wash?
Washing in the sun or shade?

Just purchased, whatever the previous owner was doing was not great.

I would always dry after washing.

Reasonably strong acid left to sit on it for a few minutes will dissolve the minerals that left the rain spots. Vinegar.

I suggest this only because nothing else has worked so far!

listermint

I would have gone with the Autosol myself, powerful stuff. I dont know if there is much out there that would better it.

Stallingrad

90% there but still some fading evident, tried Maguires Ultimate Compound after the Autosol, improved it a bit.

Wondering if next step is a Dremel with polishing pad as elbow grease has maxed out?

Stallingrad

0000 grade steel wool was recommended to me, just concerned it would be too aggressive for this kind of trim?

MetzgerMeister

On my E92 I used a Dremmel with the polishing pad and Autosol. Brought it up 100%.

Stallingrad

Nice one, I'll be trying that next Metzger, which pad did you use?

Stallingrad

One of these?

https://www.woodies.ie/dremel-20pc-cleaning-polishing-kit-1094468?utm_source=google_shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjN7YBRCOARIsAFCb935USFBade7-1NJb0IdGOzd-Yz_RGDKtB89qf61J19PTRwuAKXuAyR0aAiJMEALw_wcB

MetzgerMeister

Yeah one of the round cotton-type pads. It was in a set I got in Aldi.

Stallingrad

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Yeah one of the round cotton-type pads. It was in a set I got in Aldi.

Just finished buffing as you suggested. My fake Dremel run too fast, was worried about heat, so used a cordless drill at a much more controllable speed. What a transformation, back to near new, could maybe use one more light pass. I tried everything and no amount of elbow grease worked. So thanks for the great suggestion, I'm delighted with the results.

Stallingrad

Bit of an update, the Autosol and Dremel initially looked good but really only removed about 50% of the oxidisation. I've now tried 0000 steel wool and various other things but no improvement. Maybe it's just too far gone.

So tried the wd40 trick. It may not be permanent and I will see how long it lasts, but within seconds all the trims look brand new! So that may be the way forward from now.

MetzgerMeister

The silicon in WD40 and the likes will "wet" the oxidation but won't by any means be permanent.

I had 100% removal when I did mine with the dremmel and Autosol. Sorry to see you didn't get the same results