cjensen

cjensen

Well Known Member
Is it still possible for me to go unpainted/polished even though my rivet lines are roughed up a bit?

9-8-07-001w.jpg
 
Chad: I have been polishing my RV-8 as I go....and I can tell you from my efforts that the Nuvite polish really cleans up the surface much more than I thought possible. It wouldn't take much $ and effort to try a small "square" where those blemishes are to test it out. The polished look is really incredible, and a real "eye-catcher".
 
Chad,
The latest Kitplanes has a good article about "the more polished approach." ;)

I too am rethinking paint and seriously considering having some portion polished. It was looking at all those partial paint/partial polished, gorgeous P-51's at The Gathering that got to me. Especially polished with black ... wow, does that look sharp.

Terry
 
The originals had painted wings....

Rupester said:
Chad,
......
It was looking at all those partial paint/partial polished, gorgeous P-51's at The Gathering that got to me. Especially polished with black ... wow, does that look sharp.

Terry
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Except that the "real" (i.e. original) P-51s apparently has silver painted wings....:D

Several references by the plastic model folks (arguably the best aircraft historians...:)...) state that the wings were filled and then painted to preserve the laminar flow airfoil which was quite unique at the time...

In order to take maximum advantage of the low drag laminar flow airfoil, North American Aviation puttied, sanded, primed and painted the wings of the P-51.

...and a paint shop article....

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200304/ai_n9230353

gil A
 
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Rupester said:
Chad,
The latest Kitplanes has a good article about "the more polished approach." ;)

I too am rethinking paint and seriously considering having some portion polished. It was looking at all those partial paint/partial polished, gorgeous P-51's at The Gathering that got to me. Especially polished with black ... wow, does that look sharp.

Terry
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Hey Terry! That article is EXACTLY what moved me! The Swift pictured in that aticle is just marvelous!!

The polished with black Mustang you are referring to...more than likely 'Quick Silver'...is my new favorite 51. I fell in love at Oshkosh with it!

See ya Thursday???

LifeofReiley said:
Chad,

That's one good looking fuselage you've got going there!! :)
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Thanks Darrell! That pic is actually about two months old...top skins are ready to nail on, and the roll bar is in place too!
 
Chad
If you would like a lesson in polishing come on down to Clinton and I can give a lesson or two, heck I'll even let you practice on my plane (with supervision of course)
John
 
I too am rethinking paint and seriously considering having some portion polished. It was looking at all those partial paint/partial polished, gorgeous P-51's at The Gathering that got to me. Especially polished with black ... wow, does that look sharp.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have any pictures?
 
Polished planes are hot planes. Although rare I know of a plane that had the canopy melt and deform itself when the sun reflected off of the wings and onto the canopy. A polished plane is much hotter than a plane with paint on it and if you were to walk up to one on display in the sun you could feel the heat coming off of it. This happened at LOE two weeks back when I walked up to admire somebody's RV and it reminded me of something that happened at St. Johns, Arizona on a fuel stop. When I flew my plane from CA to Texas to get it painted while refueling on at St. Johns another RV'er who was enroute to Sun N Fun put his hand on my wing and pulled it away quicklyt because it was hot. We both felt the upper wing skin on my wing and then on his red wing and his was cool to the touch. Polished is beautiful but is also a lot of work and yes, HOT.

Best,
 
N375JS said:
Chad
If you would like a lesson in polishing come on down to Clinton and I can give a lesson or two, heck I'll even let you practice on my plane (with supervision of course)
John
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That'd be great John! I'd love to get some hands on pointers! You gonna be at the meeting Thursday?
 
Chad,
Glad you are joining the polishing group. I think you will like the outcome. I am polishing as I go so here are the steps I am using.

6 passes with F7
1 pass with C
cyclo with C
cyclo with S

Thats it. You will love it and it will look like Quick Silver.
If you have some bad spots I would use G6 first and then maybe 5 passes with F7.
Look at my web page and you can see the results.
I am going to help a RV-8 driver get his plane up in the next two weeks and he had some bad spots so we will use the G6 and I HOPE it takes the deep scratches out. Deep is if you drag on your fingernail.
Love the product though.:D
OK-----Everyone asks about time. 17.5 Hours 1 wing---above steps (9)
 
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Another Downside

Another downside to polishing is that no one will want to fly formation on your wing. (Bad Glare)
OTOH, that just means you don't have to lead!!:rolleyes:
 
I just started polishing tonight using the nuvite system.
I started with grade C on the first pass. Not too bad. It will require some work to attain the lustre as I've seen on some of those P-51s.
 
This is exactly why leaving the blue plastic on is a pointless exercise and a complete waste of time. Most people justify it by saying "what if I polish it". Well, polishing it with two different levels of oxidation all over the plane is going to be more difficult than polishing out a few scratches.
 
I only have two small pieces on my plane to polish.

About 1 square foot total. Buying the NUVITE products look very expensive for this small amount. Any other products that would be recommended in my case?

Kent
 
My plan (for now) is to polish the fuselage and maybe 18" or so of the wing root--the kitplane article pushed me off the fence too. I know it's been mentioned here but I can't find it--is there a paint product that can be used on the fiberglass parts that looks like polished aluminum? Anyone have experience with it?

Mike
 
mandm1516 said:
My plan (for now) is to polish the fuselage and maybe 18" or so of the wing root--the kitplane article pushed me off the fence too. I know it's been mentioned here but I can't find it--is there a paint product that can be used on the fiberglass parts that looks like polished aluminum? Anyone have experience with it?

Mike
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You could have all of your fiberglass parts plated with aluminum, then polish them like the rest of the plane: http://www.metal-morphous.com/ I thought it would be fun to do this process to an entire Lancair;)
 
Chad

Sorry I did not see the message about the meeting, I don't get on this site every day,,Sorry, now that HS football season is over I may have some time to work on the airplane, but having season tickets to the Illini sure burns up the Saturdays too. I will probably start to do maintenance polishing in Novemberish so give me a call. I keep forgetting about the third Thursday meetings and the time too.
 
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