About 8 years ago I bought some cheap and cheerful chromed 7" headlights just to get through the SVA, with the aim of replacing them with something better a little later on. They proved to be very effective, so they're still on the car!

However, they're starting to show surface rust in places, leaving me with 2 options:

* Buy new units - which seem to be well over £100 for a pair of decent ones.
* Strip the plating of the current ones and get them plastic coated.

I can probably get the plastic coating done for £20 - £30 (to be confirmed) so I can save money if I can get the shells & fittings de-chromed and de-rusted.

Anyone know a reasonably easy way to remove chrome plating (and whatever's plated underneath, like nickel) that doesn't involve nasty and hard-to-get chemicals? If the process also got rid of the rust then that would be a bonus!

If the chrome is getting rusty, it will be thin so can be remove reasonable easily with a 240g on a DA

i think pure acetone is used to remove chrome plating you leave it to soak in the liquid for a day or so,, not sure if it would take off the rust though.

Have you tried sand or grit blasting. I did some bumpers a few years back and sprayed with satin black. Top job.

Take or send them to a chrome platers, the removal is the easy cheap bit, it is the polishing an preparing for new chrome that costs, so you'd be suprised how cheap they can do it for.

I paid a fiver for a pair of motorcycle mudguards stripping so I could repair them before re plating.

I'm not sure if there are any chrome platers near Ipswich - not sure about shot blasters either! Have to look in Yell.com..

Ipswich is an industrial desert there days, unfortunately...