Just thought I would ask...
Does anyone know of a way to deal with pitting on chrome?

Some of my hood ornaments are way too far gone, but my lettering is not "too" bad, and is good "enough" to use. There are some small pits and slight discoloration.

Anybody have any luck polishing these items?

Thanks in advance.

 

You can polish anything that is chrome no matter what its condition. Generally, to rechrome a pitted part requires welding each pit and then sanding it down. However, I just found out today that a local chrome plater has a special metallic coating that the chrome will stick to when it's applied over body filler. So, repairing the pitted parts will be easier and faster with this metallic coating since the pitts can be filled with body filler, sanded smooth and sprayed with this metallic coating.

I haven't tried that method yet, but will likely take a piece into him to try.

 

I would like to see how that turns out.

 

I Googled the subject and didn't find much other than sanding the pits out with fine grit.
Good ole elbow grease I guess.

 

I was watching an episode of My Classic Car recently and Jay Leno was describing that process. Apparently he uses it on some of his restorations instead of chroming and it's supposedly an environmentally friendly process. I'd like to know more about it too and especially if it could be done at home...

 

There's also a powdercoat chrome. I've seen both finished products, regular chrome and powdercoat chrome, side by side. Although there's a small noticeable difference beteween the two, the powdercoat chrome looks decent.