Over the winter my '66 Jaguar XKE chrome valve covers became discolored. I have tried to best chrome cleaner polish by hand but have not been successful in removing this discoloration.

What would you recommend to clean and polish chrome valve covers? Is there a small mechanical polisher that would work in this case? Any idea what caused this discoloration in the first place? It did not appear in years past at the same garage.

Should I remove and have them professional buffed?

 

Looks like maybe the chrome on these older valve covers has diminished and now what you are seeing is possibly the zinc or nickel undercoating. You mentioned that you have tried some chrome cleaner and polishes and no luck, sounds like you may need to re chrome these valve covers.

 

Thank you for the suggestion, I will pull the valve covers and take them in for either buffing or re-chroming. That will be a winter project. I'll let you know the outcome.