chrome

Asked by jesel Oct 04, 2010 at 05:41 PM about the 1981 Ford Fairmont

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

i need chrome for a 81 fairmont all of it mine is bad

8 Answers

445

I will tell you right now that body parts and interior parts for these cars are very hard to find. They are more so than often expensive if you do find what you are looking for. I had a garbage truck sideswipe my passenger side fender. It do much damage but all I can say is straighten it out as much as possible untill you get replacement chrome.

85

My chrome has weird water like spots on it, they never come off. Other than that its not that bad.

85

How bad can your chrome really be? If its just the trim (along the sides) you might want to consider taking it off, thats probably what I'm going to do. The only Fairmont for parts (U-Pull it) near me is in Sherwood, OR. 2+ hour drive. However the Fairmont in Sherwood had decent trim. Does anyone have a suggestion for removing the weird chrome water spots? Am I the only one?

1 people found this helpful.
445

Yah same here the closest fairmont at a U pull it for me is like 2+ hours and its a four door and it has like three cars stacked on it so no good. Idk about the water spots on the chrome. Have you tried rubbing compound or polish? Just suggesting

1 people found this helpful.
85

How does one polish chrome? I think my dad and I have tried regular pain polish. Is it time to break out a buffing wheel?

445

That looks like in the pictures that the metal is oxidizing under the clear coat of the metal. My bumpers have the same thing going on and I guess they were clearcoated at the factory to keep the aluminum from oxidizing. There really isnt much you can do about that because I tired to rid of it on my bumpers and that was no good. The only thing I can think of is if you can remove the clear coat you can rid of the problem but you would have to polish it regular to keep it from oxidizing. Aluminum when exposed to air instantly oxidize. So you either remove the clear coat, polish, then re coat or you can remove the coat and keep polishing it. Also, you can anodize it which I dont know much about, but here is a link http://www.focuser.com/anodize.html

2 people found this helpful.
215

Yes, Chrome Polish can help on some. Yes there is a clear coat on the bumpers and some of the chrome trim. The clear coat is the same thing they use on modern day alum. wheels. Some guys have used Easy Off oven cleaner to remove the coating. Takes several coats of the Easy Off and it will turn black...but will wash off and polish out. If you want the trim and the bumpers to look more like chrome, just sand with fine grits of sand paper...like start at 220 and go up to 1000 or courser then 220 if you have deep defects. Then after to finish at 1000, start polishing with compounds. Its a lot of back breaking work, but it totally is worth it in the end. After you are happy, re-clear coat or continue to keep up with regular polishings. The finish will last a long time depending how much you drive it, care for it, wash it, etc.....

2 people found this helpful.

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