H

hughfi

Well Known Member
If so, how does one do it and am I more likely to do damage and good. A detailed mail would be very much appreciated on the process and products required.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Thx.

Hugh
 
Easy...if it's a deep scratch start with 800 /1000/1500 grit wet and dry paper with a little soapy water still scratch is gone. Then use metal polish (should smell like ammonia...not organic solvent) Use a rotary buffer or pad in an orbital sander.. Or even by hand.. Polish tillits like new which will take few minutes at most.

3 years later my scratches are a distant memory

Frank
 
A bit slower...

...and doing it by hand....:)
It's a bit slow, but is not hard work and does the job well - just keep the area well washed between grits.

The Micro Mesh products work well, and are available from the usual supply houses.

More general details on their web site, but this $31 kit does work well....

http://micro-surface.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=273_188_189&products_id=111

Detailed instruction for this specific kit here --

http://micro-surface.com/images/products/inst_0KR70booklet.pdf

I think it's the $22 kit here from Spruce --

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/micromeshscratch.php
 
I bought a Flitz polish kit at Oshkosh this summer and it works great. It removes small scratches and swirl marks quickly and easily. I have a couple deeper scratches I'll need to wet sand first, but this creamy paste makes the finish polish easy. I also tried a little of it on my nickle leading edges of my Whirlwind prop with a cloth and it made it shine like a mirror in about 30 seconds. Think I'll try it on my firewall (I'm bored) and create the mirror effect there...

Scott
 
I used the MicroMesh system but wasn't completely satisfied. The repaired area appeared "cloudy" even after 2 sessions.
Then I tried the Meguires polishing clay. No joy. I think it was actually more coarse than the final 12000 grit (one two thousand) MicroMesh pad.
I then tried the Scratch-Off product. I used only bottle #4 (the final step) on the previously repaired area mentioned above. I hand worked the area with a flannel rag, not the electric drill/buffer pad they recommend. Cutting to the chase, the stuff works great. I'm going to try the stuff on those tiny marks left by the sliding the Koger sunshade back and forth.
 
Scratches

I've had to sand out gouges from a canopy that was blown over and slid on asphalt and also cleaned up polycarbonate canopies on L-39s. Have had good results using all of the suggested products. But it's always a matter of degree of damage. No liquid will ever fix bad damage, one must use stronger abrasives. But we had a couple lightly scratched poly canopies and the finish guy at our paint shop went after them with just 3M paint polishes and a large buffer - they turned out looking brand new. If it's cloudy, you aren't done and need to keep polishing with ever finer products. Naturally you'll want to use to the least abrasive that gets the damage out then work your way out of the process gradually.
Never do both sides at the same time and always change direction of motion when working by hand so you can see when the last step has been superseded.

My problem is daily cleaning. I wash the canopy with clear water and very clean cloths but am still using Plexus and it seems to leave a film that is very difficult to polish off. By the time I burned through several sheets of Sonata and gotten all the 'smudges' of Plexus off there is so much static built up that every piece of lint in the hangar is attached.....! Any suggestions?
 
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