Might not work for you, but it did for me

[Thunderbolt]

Went to Big Lots and bought a $1.00 box of steel wool soap pads.  Kinda like brillo pads, you know like fine steel wool.  Used them to shine up the crash bars on a friends bike that I have here.  Wet them then rub briskly.  It was bad enough that they were going to replace them.  Probably won't now.

[gordonv]

That is all we had 40+ years ago. We used to clean our chromed bicycle rims when they would get all rusty. Now we use the green (and other colors) pads.

It's been so long now, I forget what you call them?

S.O.S. ! That was it.. steel wool and soap.

[fordmano]

Been using S.O.S. pads that way for almost 30years now it works great if the chrome is even half decent.
An old Hot Rodder told me about that trick when I got my first car he said the soap acts as a lubricant  in turn makes that extra fine steel wool even finer and also acts as an polish on the chrome.

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

I've done it as well ....Be sure to keep the parts you did that on well waxed and polished if not it does'nt take long before they are worse than you started with. Works pretty good on aluminum wheels also .

[Sodbuster]

Reminds me of when I was in high school .... one of my teachers said she washed her car with one of those S.O.S. brillo pads and couldn't figure out why her car had a dull finish to it when it was dry 

[GOOSE]

i did the same thing that smokin-joe does now......almost 3-million miles worth banging around in big trucks.  i uses then as now....0000-steel wool (that's extra-extra fine for finishing lacquer finishes).  it won't scratch your chrome at all.  i just spray some homda polish on the 0000, and it's done quick.  just an old trucker ranting on.

[Spirited-6]

I used SOS pads on my white side walls many years ago, worked great. But not on the ones I painted on my 36 Ford.