Hobo Polish
Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 3:38 pmI like shiney airplanes. A LOT. I knew that plans built #116 would some day be sporting some shine. I turned web page after web page of pics featuring Globe Swifts and polished warbirds as I drooled on my computer screen. Then I flew a friend's polished 180 hp RV6. One bank into the setting sun . . . And I KNEW my Sonex would now have combined paint and polish! Being blinded on final is no fun. I am now pretty sure that #116 will have white wings on top, some blue trim, and lots of shiney everywhere else.
As a scratch builder, I kinda obsess over details. I also become aggrieved at the cost of "stuff." Now I do not mean to infer that prices on Sonex's web site are expensive. I belive, after more than a decade of cutting parts and banging rivets on #116, that Sonex has NAILED the value part of the equation. While I have saved considerable sums of money buy building everything myself, I have expended vast amounts of time. But I LOVE building, and always have had an airplane or two or three to fly so I didn't feel any compulsion to hurry.
As I began to assemble the gear to polish, I did the usual double take on pricing Nuvite. Whoa! Holy Schnike! Just about then, an 80' long vision in white, chrome, and polished aluminum came rumbling up to my hangar. My brother swung by to finagle me into hiding a 3000 watt generator somewhere on his truck where no one would see it and steal it. He is a long haul owner operator, and his brand new big rig was covered in ACRES of polished aluminum. I had test polished a few bits of aluminum in there, comparing some leftover nuvite from a friend's build with some locally available polishes from the car world. The nuvite was the clear winner over ANYTHING available locally. My brother saw me covered in blackened goo (I hadn't yet learned that too much polish is bad yet) laughed at me, then ran to his truck and came back with a bottle of "Hobo Polish." He explained that the aluminum tanks, deck, bumpers, steps, boxes and dang near everything not frame or fiberglass was delivered in mill run, unpolished aluminum. He further explained that a culture of homeless folks in the South and Southwest have developed a business model that involves camping near huge truck stops, brewing a semi-liquid polish, using it to HAND POLISH wheels, tanks, and bumpers, and then drinking up the proceeds of the day at their nightly campfires. They also sell 24-32 ounce bottles of their polish for a near universal $20. The truckers have their favorite hobo brews and hobo polishers. I tried his polish, and it easily worked as well as the Nuvite. No joke. I went online and researched it, and a lot of these guys live dangerously. They melt rouge with paint thinner or lighter fluid over an OPEN CAMPFIRE to melt the wax binders in the bar rouge and mix with things like Fruit Fresh or Koolaid (powdered citric acid) Car polish, Rainex, ammonia, and a host of other stuff that will kill you if consumed or breathed!
I was intrigued enough to experiment. Every truck stop in the nation has one pound bars of rouge in white, blue, red/brown, and pale green. They cost $8-$10 bucks each. You will need one of the brown and two of the green. You will need one gallon of paint thinner from wally's world or the home depot aircraft supply. Buy a small bottle of original formula Rainex, and a can of your favorite paste style auto wax. $30 bucks for the rouge, $10 bucks, for the thinner, $5 for the Rainex, and $8 for the wax makes all of the polish you will need for the Sonex, and leave you plenty of finish polish for the next few years.
I made three grades thusly: first, pound the block of red rouge into powder on a clean sheet of material (I used a 3'X3' bit if steel sheet) using a 3 lb. sledge and sweep up the resulting crumbles. Place in an empty 1/2 gallon container, add 1/3 of the paint thinner, and let sit over night. Since I have niether the testicular fortitude nor the lack of fear that an alcohol hazed mind provides the Hobo, I elected to avoid heat altogether--campfire or hot plates--as some internet sites reference! Instead, I snuck in the wife's back up aiplane tool supply, and copped her old, no longer used immersion blender. I used that the next day to puree the few chunks that remained. The resulting brew is my coarse grade polish. I repeat with the green for the medium passes. Then I repeat once more with the second green bar, adding the Rainex and paste wax. I then decant into empty water bottles and label with a sharpie. The product separates into layers and has to be shaken befor use.
Three passes with the coarse red provides a slightly disappointing shine. The first pass with the green gives a pretty impressive reflection. The second pass with the green will have you looking at the details in the reflection, like the blackened splattered on your clothes and eyelids! The next two passes with the final polish-green with additives-- gives a real depth to the polish. I chose NOT to add the acids, ammonias, and trick ingredients. They cut elbow grease, but . . .
All in all, a home builder's answer to an expensive product. Oh year, the compounding is done with a heavy old Soux polisher, and the final DA polish is done with a harbor freight tool.
And, I'm not spending nearly as long as some of you guys . . . Seven hours for all stages for the fuse. I think putting too much polish on = spending too much time removing it!
Andy
As a scratch builder, I kinda obsess over details. I also become aggrieved at the cost of "stuff." Now I do not mean to infer that prices on Sonex's web site are expensive. I belive, after more than a decade of cutting parts and banging rivets on #116, that Sonex has NAILED the value part of the equation. While I have saved considerable sums of money buy building everything myself, I have expended vast amounts of time. But I LOVE building, and always have had an airplane or two or three to fly so I didn't feel any compulsion to hurry.
As I began to assemble the gear to polish, I did the usual double take on pricing Nuvite. Whoa! Holy Schnike! Just about then, an 80' long vision in white, chrome, and polished aluminum came rumbling up to my hangar. My brother swung by to finagle me into hiding a 3000 watt generator somewhere on his truck where no one would see it and steal it. He is a long haul owner operator, and his brand new big rig was covered in ACRES of polished aluminum. I had test polished a few bits of aluminum in there, comparing some leftover nuvite from a friend's build with some locally available polishes from the car world. The nuvite was the clear winner over ANYTHING available locally. My brother saw me covered in blackened goo (I hadn't yet learned that too much polish is bad yet) laughed at me, then ran to his truck and came back with a bottle of "Hobo Polish." He explained that the aluminum tanks, deck, bumpers, steps, boxes and dang near everything not frame or fiberglass was delivered in mill run, unpolished aluminum. He further explained that a culture of homeless folks in the South and Southwest have developed a business model that involves camping near huge truck stops, brewing a semi-liquid polish, using it to HAND POLISH wheels, tanks, and bumpers, and then drinking up the proceeds of the day at their nightly campfires. They also sell 24-32 ounce bottles of their polish for a near universal $20. The truckers have their favorite hobo brews and hobo polishers. I tried his polish, and it easily worked as well as the Nuvite. No joke. I went online and researched it, and a lot of these guys live dangerously. They melt rouge with paint thinner or lighter fluid over an OPEN CAMPFIRE to melt the wax binders in the bar rouge and mix with things like Fruit Fresh or Koolaid (powdered citric acid) Car polish, Rainex, ammonia, and a host of other stuff that will kill you if consumed or breathed!
I was intrigued enough to experiment. Every truck stop in the nation has one pound bars of rouge in white, blue, red/brown, and pale green. They cost $8-$10 bucks each. You will need one of the brown and two of the green. You will need one gallon of paint thinner from wally's world or the home depot aircraft supply. Buy a small bottle of original formula Rainex, and a can of your favorite paste style auto wax. $30 bucks for the rouge, $10 bucks, for the thinner, $5 for the Rainex, and $8 for the wax makes all of the polish you will need for the Sonex, and leave you plenty of finish polish for the next few years.
I made three grades thusly: first, pound the block of red rouge into powder on a clean sheet of material (I used a 3'X3' bit if steel sheet) using a 3 lb. sledge and sweep up the resulting crumbles. Place in an empty 1/2 gallon container, add 1/3 of the paint thinner, and let sit over night. Since I have niether the testicular fortitude nor the lack of fear that an alcohol hazed mind provides the Hobo, I elected to avoid heat altogether--campfire or hot plates--as some internet sites reference! Instead, I snuck in the wife's back up aiplane tool supply, and copped her old, no longer used immersion blender. I used that the next day to puree the few chunks that remained. The resulting brew is my coarse grade polish. I repeat with the green for the medium passes. Then I repeat once more with the second green bar, adding the Rainex and paste wax. I then decant into empty water bottles and label with a sharpie. The product separates into layers and has to be shaken befor use.
Three passes with the coarse red provides a slightly disappointing shine. The first pass with the green gives a pretty impressive reflection. The second pass with the green will have you looking at the details in the reflection, like the blackened splattered on your clothes and eyelids! The next two passes with the final polish-green with additives-- gives a real depth to the polish. I chose NOT to add the acids, ammonias, and trick ingredients. They cut elbow grease, but . . .
All in all, a home builder's answer to an expensive product. Oh year, the compounding is done with a heavy old Soux polisher, and the final DA polish is done with a harbor freight tool.
And, I'm not spending nearly as long as some of you guys . . . Seven hours for all stages for the fuse. I think putting too much polish on = spending too much time removing it!
Andy
