My first polish test

[Andy Walker]

I decided to polish to save weight, but before making a final decision, I wanted to do a test to see how hard it would be on an elevator that I am not using on my airplane. It was not too hard, it took me about 1.5 to 2 hours to get a shine that I'd consider not embarrassing to take to a fly in. This took three passes with grade F9 and a single pass with grade C, no finishing grade S was used.

First, the other (non-polished) side:



Here's the polished side:



And a head-on more detailed view:



In that last shot you can clearly see some swirls and such. Again, this is a "good enough but not great" polish. On the actual airplane I'd probably use another F9 pass, another C pass, and a S final pass.

Any comments?

[Sonex1517]

Other than WOW? No - no comments....looks awesome Andy!

[MichaelFarley56]

I agree Andy...that polished panel looks amazing! I'm really starting to consider a part paint/part polish job on my plane, especially after seeing how nice your pictures look. Keep it up and keep posting any pictures and/or hints you are willing to share!

[Andy Walker]

Well, you can see from the closer view that there is still a lot of haze and swirl to it, but from offset angles like the first pic it looks great. But I think it would make a good "twenty foot" polish job. I guess the good part is I've determined polishing isn't nearly as bad a job as I feared.

[MichaelFarley56]

Hi Andy, I was wondering if I can pick your brain a little on Nuvite polishing. I've been doing some reading and it looks like there's info that you can start the polish job with either G6, F7 or F9 grades of polish. Did you talk to anyone before deciding on F9? Where did you get your polish and supplies, including the rotary buffer? Finally, how much polish do you think you'll need for the whole plane?

Thanks!

[Andy Walker]

Hi Andy, I was wondering if I can pick your brain a little on Nuvite polishing. I've been doing some reading and it looks like there's info that you can start the polish job with either G6, F7 or F9 grades of polish. Did you talk to anyone before deciding on F9? Where did you get your polish and supplies, including the rotary buffer? Finally, how much polish do you think you'll need for the whole plane?

Thanks!

I'm very much a polishing newbie myself, but here's what I did. I got the "Nuvite starter kit" from Sonex, which has a container each of F9, C, and S grades. You can get it here: http://www.sonexaircraft.com/eshop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16438&substring=nuvite

I started with F9 because that's what Sonex recommends. I don't really need a show-quality polish, but knowing me once I start I will keep going until it looks really good. I really only need a "twenty footer" polish job. I have to say that three good passes with the F9 and you really start to see a nice shine. just be careful not to use too much polish; on my first two F9 passes it took a long time for the polish to get used up, and the shine didn't come out as well as the last pass where I used half as much polish or less.

For a polisher, since this was a test, I grabbed a super cheap Harbor Freight random orbital polisher. This one: http://www.harborfreight.com/10-inch-random-orbit-waxer-polisher-43424.html

Surprisingly, this cheap polisher and some wool (or wool-like substance) bonnets for $3.50 each did a credible job. I'm tempted to spring for a Cyclo polisher to do the airplane with, but and $20 for the HF cheapy that gets the job done it's hard to justify the Cyclo...

Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll answer them if I can!

[MichaelFarley56]

Andy,

I wanted to post a quick note to see how the polishing process is going. Are you still polishing pieces of the project? If so, I was wondering if you have any more hints to give.

I've started polishing my tail sections with a HF rotary buffer, wool pads, and Nuvite F9 polish and thus far I've discovered it's a very sloooow process to get good results. Unfortunately, after as many as 4-5 passes with the F9, I still see grain marks and find spots that are "hazed" over and not very clear. Afterwards I'll hit the section with 3 passes of C grade and even though that eliminates a lot of the swirls, I still have a lot of holograms from the buffer. Have you tried any S yet? I wouldn't be too worried if S grade really cleans up the polish but I'm not sure how much correction it can really do.

I'd show you some pics but I don't have any good ones. How has your experience been?

[fastj22]

I played with my Nuvite starter kit on the crush plate I salvaged off my used Jabiru. I was amazed at the way it came out with just the F9. I too have a HF buffer with wool bonnet. I clamped it (the buffer) in my vice and held the crush plate with my hands. Besides getting F9 all over me, it came out great.
I think the key is not apply any force on it. let the buffer spin up and float on the panel.

[Sonex1517]

I've got the same setup (HF buffer) and we did a test polish on the rudder during my Christmas vacation. These are not the best photos, but you get the idea. Used all three grades and didn't try to really do it perfectly. The results made me realize you could turn this into an obsession. I have no intention of doing so. :)

[fastj22]

That's not the buffer I used. Those are good for waxing cars but not powerful enough to polish.

This is mine. I got the buffing pads at an auto body supply shop.
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-inch-var ... 92623.html
It makes short work of polishing the aluminum.