How to remove rust from chrome chair and table?

[eagboola]

  

Hi all,

I bought a chrome table and chairs which also have chrome legs, they have rust on them so I tried using CLR to clean them by first diluting the CLR then trying full strength and leaving it on for a few minutes but nothing worked. No change. Is there anything else I can try to remove the rust? I tried googling online and some mention aluminium foil and then a wax? 

Photos included.

Thanks again!

Elizabeth  

[Remarka6le]

Hey @eagboola , My dad and his army mates used to use Diet Coke & Aluminum Foil on their rusted chrome. I have 0 idea about why it works, but it stuck with me into my adulthood and now I use it in my Gym to clean the chrome I have in there, it just works 😂. Just apply the coke to the area and then scrub it using the AluminumFoil, it should come right off. 

[MitchellMc]

It's great to see @Remarka6le has already jumped in with some helpful advice @eagboola.

I've used coke and aluminium foil on some very rusted chrome tube and it came up reasonably well. I believe the crumbled aluminium foil acts as an abrasive, and since it's softer than the chrome plating, it doesn't scratch it. Please don't ask me about the hocus-pocus going on with the coke. I know it breaks down metal oxides, but I would have thought that was over several hours. In my experience, it seems to act like a lubricate when using the foil, and I didn't notice any difference when removing it from the equation. The wax you've read of is to seal the surface and prevent the metal from rusting again. 

You can also use a system designed for this purpose. We have Autosol 250ml Metal Life Saver and Autosol 75ml Chrome And Metal Polish. The acid-based life saver will eat away at the rust, and the metal polish will buff up your chrome and leave a protective layer over the rusted areas.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[eagboola]

Hi Mitchell,

thanks I tried the Diet Coke and foil and whilst it got some of the rust off, there are still some black marks which I can’t seem to get off. Is it worth it to try the autosol metal life saver or would a coat of silver spray paint be better to just cover the marks?

Thanks,

Elizabeth 

[Neffrey1964]

I would:

1. lightly clean rusty chrome with a FINE steel wool soap pad with warm water (Black&Gold brand from IGA is onlt $1, and it's steel fibres are quite FINE)

2. Rinse with wet cloth and dry

3. Once dry, polish with Autosol Metal Polish, then polish off with dry cloth. The residual polish should, to a degree, protect the chrome from rusting up for a while. 

Repolish every year or so with Silvo (non abrasive) to maintain a protective coating. If very light rust starts to develop over time, use the Autosol Metal Polish again. 

Some people may be against using an abrasive technique, but in my view - if the chrome is rusty, it's officially damaged, so this would be my preferred approach 😊

[EricL]

Hello @Neffrey1964

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. Thank you for joining the discussion.

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge about this topic. It looks like you've done this before. Let me tag @eagboola to make sure they see your recommendation. I believe the store equivalent is the Morgan Steel Wool Soap Pads. The Autosol Metal Polish should protect the chrome finish for quite a while. I agree that using Silvo as your yearly maintenance polish should keep those chrome legs shiny all year round.

Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge about polishing rust off chrome.

Eric

[eagboola]

Thank you, @Neffrey1964 and @EricL  I will give this one more try with the steel wool pads and then using the polish as I am not sure buying another liquid remover will work. If not this doesn’t work then I may just polish and accept the remaining rust!