Can you use turpentine to soak chrome molding in before you polish it?

There's no need, if parts are truly chrome (like bumpers) they are just re chromed, not polished. Usually the trim around Windows, etc. on older cars is stainless or aluminum and oft times has a clear coat to maintain the shine which must come off before it will polish, which has a chrome appearance but is not really chrome. You can soak it, but it won't help much-it's not strong enough to remove the clear which it may or may not have-depends on car and any other dirt will polish off of it.