Been working on a 2008 Mercedes with chrome trim that is very oxidized from magcloride here in Colorado. I think it's AL but not sure. What I have read is clean it the best I can and tell the customer to keep it clean when ever you get mag on it. I have a picture I can post but don't know how to from my phone... Any suggestions? I'm not going to spend 1-2hrs wet sanding and then polishing for another 1hr for trim. This job was a trade and i made it with out seeing the car. Well long story short I was suppose to do his Acura but asked if I could do his wife's black Mercedes.... I definitely should have looked at the car before hand. So anyone out there with some tips or tricks?
Pics kind of hard to tell but they are in bad shape I finished polishing it now I have to coat it wit opti coat.
you did a pretty good job cleaning that up, those are going to require a ton of elbow grease to get perfect. how many miles on it 50-75k?
It has 80k I figured that was the case. I use iron out on them when I washed them and a sf4500 to finish them off but wanted to know the best way to make them perfect.
With severely oxidized trim, I've found only one solution. From what I read, most of this trim is anodized in order to keep it looking shiny without polishing. However over time that anodization begins to oxidize and look chalky. So the only solution is to strip it off. On some 40 year old trim off my Beetle, oven cleaner worked wonders. Naturally you'd want to remove the trim first.
Try Duragloss Nu Glass. Although made for removing water spots on glass, it works great on chrome trim.
Thanks for the tips guys! I ended up going over the areas with a metal polish by hand it seemed to get most of it off. Not perfect but alot better. I then cleaned it with IPA and applied a coat of opticoat. So far so good according to the customer.
