Heating an aqueous mixture of a fluoroacid such as H.sub.2 TiF.sub.6 and an oxide, hydroxide, and/or carbonate such as silica produces a clear mixture with long term stability against settling of any solid phase, even when the oxide, hydroxide, or carbonate phase before heating was a dispersed solid with sufficiently large particles to scatter light and make the mixture before heating cloudy. The clear mixture produced by heating can be mixed with soluble hexavalent and/or trivalent chromium, and preferably also nitrate and chloride ions to produce a composition that provides a conversion coating with good protection against corrosion while requiring substantially less chromium than previous coatings of equal corrosion protective quality.