POLISHING ALUMINUM AND PLEXIGLASS

[michaelharadon]

Greetings, all. A few questions:

How does one polish aircraft skins? Start with fine grain sandpaper? Go from thick to thin steel wool? Jeweler's rouge? If so what colors, and where can you buy the stuff? What kind of hand held machinery/wheels, etc. are required to do the job (hopefully stuff purchasable in a big box or, better, Harbor Freight.

How do you take the scratches out of plexiglass and make it look good?

Thanks in advance! I'm entering a new realm that I think I'm going to enjoy very much...

[EW439]

http://www.perfectpolish.com/

Has all the information you need to polish an airplane.
I am sure there are other systems of polish that work
just as good. Nuvite is my preference and has worked
for me on polished airplanes for some time now.
Be cautions about who does the work and the advice you take.
There has been millions of dollars of damage done to airplanes
by unknowing painters/polishers going to town on aircraft skins
sanding away. It takes moments for a DA to knock the top off
rivets to the point they need to be replaced.

[dirtysidedown430]

Don't know if you know but the EAA painted Aluminum Overcast with something that looks just as good. Ask them why they did that and they said could not the people to do it anymore. Could call them ask what they used.
Plexi glass there kits out there check your pilot shop. Both are a real pain to do

[Jim MacDonald]

Check out Scott's post. Not only is he a magician when it comes to sheet metal work, but he's a polishing maniac. There's polishing tips & product info mixed in with the sheet metal magic.

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52024

HTH,

Mac

[michaelharadon]

Thanks, guys; I'll be following up on the links this week end. The deal is that I have some panels and skin, none larger than 3'x3' that I want to shine up, man cave or hangar, stuff. I really want to get good at it.

Any thoughts about returning plexiglass to its former glory?

[warbirdfinder]

You might want to check with the Smithsonian Air Museum. A number of years ago I was there when the Arado 234 was first on displayed, the plexiglass nose looked like new. Originally the restoration team was going to scrap the plexiglass nose as it was badly scratched and cloudy. One of their team thought he could polish it and the result was an almost new looking nose.

[bdk]

https://zephyrpro40.com/

These guys have a video available showing how to polish deep scratches out of aluminum as well as general polish to undamaged aluminum.

It is important to use the correct speeds when polishing. Most motors turn too fast.

They have a kit on sale here: https://zephyrpro40.com/products/151-su ... g-kit.html