Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Help advice needed- chrome pump pieces

Any tips or advice on polishing chrome pieces for my gas pump. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks,Tim

If you have dirty chrome, clean it with lacquer thinner, acetone, or wax/grease remover with a soft cloth. I have attempted to polish chrome using a small buffer and glaze (not polish). The chromium layer is really thin and it's easy to go through to the copper, really easy. I had no choice and knew I had nothing to lose. You can use glaze and lightly buff by hand that's pretty safe, just make sure the glaze isn't polish because it'll scratch easy.

Are you sure you are working with chrome plated pieces?

Majority of the parts on older pumps are aluminum or stainless steel. The later late 50-60's pumps had some chrome.

Well this is the first pump I am restoring but I think some pieces may be stainless(side bars wayne 100) but I am not sure.

Stainless

Stainless is good. Can be polished to a high shine but takes a lot of work. You should be able to find many articles on polishing stainless trim.

Thanks everyone,Tim

Check with Dan Kilburn at Dans Polishing in Adamsville, TN. he does all of my polishing and plating work. Very reasonable and quick turn around. He has done work for Bobby Alloway, which is self explanatory. Never had a problem and top notch results.

Very True Stainless can be polished ,
308 is OK
316L is better
317L is the best
The reason for the better and best is They both Have higher Nickel in them 317L having the most .


Sid

Almost forgot, my brother wrote an article on how-to straighten and polish stainless trim. In his example, it's a horribly bent piece of stainless that is repaired:

http://bumpsides.com/stainless/index.html

I use a $40 bench grinder from harbor frieght to polish, works great but it's a tedious job if the stainless is damaged, if its straight and not real scratched up, easy.