Caustic soda, bought from your local hardware store as granules (£1.99 for enough to last several years of chrome stripping), and handled very carefully. Wear rubber gloves, and work in a well ventilated area. Fill a good sized jam jar 2/3 with cold water, and stir in 2-3 tablespoons of powder a bit at a time, stirring with a gash wooden stick (Starbucks coffee stirrers are good...). It'll warm up and pong for a bit, but as long as you don't stick your nose over it, you'll be fine. Dump your parts in, and the "chrome" (actually aluminium) will fizz and disappear in seconds, literally. Leave them there for 5-10 minutes and you'll take off the varnish underneath as well (if there is any). That's the brownish stuff, if you can see it (I can't remember what colour the plastic under the chromed parts on the Bentley is. When they are cleaned, fill a washing up bowl with cold water, lift the parts out with steel tweezers or wooden sticks and drop them into the bowl of cold water. Flush the Caustic Soda mix down the sink, running lots of cold water as you pour it into the plughole (it'll clean out and degrease your pipes, which is what it's intended for, as a bonus!). Scrub the parts well with a toothbrush to get any last bits of half-detached varnish off, and let them dry. It's quicker to do than it is to describe, and I've been using caustic soda for several years with no mishaps. The solution doesn't affect plastic, so there's no issue with leaving the parts in the mix for longer than necessary. Just don't leave your jar full of solution around for more than 24 hours or so -- you start to get crystals forming around the top of jar, which need redissolving, which is a right pain.
Just do it carefully, and treat the stuff with some respect...
bestest,
M.
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) & this will shift the chrome plating. There will be a 'skin' residue left behind which can be peeled or sanded away.
