Instrument cluster illumination

Another weak point of the Porsche 944 late models is the illumination of the instrument cluster. The idea was to guide the light from the bulbs on the carrier through these prisms to the front side of the cluster for indirect illumination of the bezels.
The light prisms which are chrome plated loose their shine and the chrome corrodes and starts bubbling up.
This effects the amount of light which actually reaches the cluster in a dramatic way.
This is the cluster and the 3 light prisms:

 You can clearly see the bad surface of the prisms. They are made of PC and hot-caulked to the bezel:

These plastic domes need to be carefully removed, then you can pull the prisms off:

 

This is how bad they look:

Removing the chrome surface and "re-chroming" is necessary. Of course, I can't chrome plate plastic parts by myself, but I have a plan...

wet sanding with 1200 to start with:

followed by 3000 wet sand paper:

and a polish with UNIPOL for the finish:

Now this one is almost translucent again!

A before / after comparison:

and all 3 in polished state:

(I didn't remove the perfect chrome finish in the areas which were stuck inside the cluster. This might be a good way to compare the before / after surface shine...)

Coming from the RC hobby, I have used an -almost- chrome like paint for some RC car bodies, so I try to give it a shot with this paint... 

The RCC color code of the paint is RCC 940 Chrome. It comes in a tiny 150 ml spray can.

After a lot of very light coats of this paint, the prisms have a good amount of shine again, but it doesn't really look like new again:

maybe not perfect - you can see the "original" chromed areas are more shiny -  but good enough for a reflection of the camera:

and the finished article:

For comparison: This is what I started with:

Afterwards I exchanged all the light bulbs in the cluster to bring it back to former glory...

Tommorow the cluster will find its way back into the car - so I can check if this job was a success...