Reviving Vintage Chrome

We haven't finished anything dramatic in the past few months, most of our weekends have been focused on spending time together and less about the myriad of projects in the queue. The past couple of weeks I have been experimenting with reviving a few chrome items we have bought at estate sales. 

We have used Barkeepers Friend on a few projects with amazing success, but when I tried it on these chrome containers it wore down the finish, the grit was too harsh for the thinner chrome finish. I ordered some Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, usually used for buffing your car's finish, assuming it would be less abrasive. The results were amazing, the Meguiar's compound lessened or removed scratches and shined areas that were faded. Once the chrome was buffed and polished, I followed up with Meguiar's Supreme Shine gloss protectant, usually used for creating hi-shine surface on vinyl, rubber, and plastic surfaces it works great on chrome.

These are the finished stacking containers.

I went ahead and buffed the wax and foil paper holder.

The breadbox required more attention, I actually broke out our Black & Decker Car Polisher to buff out the finish. Unfortunately I'm horrible about taking "before" pictures.

Barkeepers Friend worked miracles on the legs to a metal kitchen cart we bought recently, and I remembered to take "before" and "after" pictures. Not to worry, we're definitely replacing the casters. 

The "before" picture.

There is a dramatic difference b/w the finished leg and the unfinished ones.