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I don't know the answer to that one... But something I never did know was that polishing aluminum often is bad for the aluminum.... I never really thought about it I guess until dad and I got into a discussion about polishing a B-17 up... I guess there is two trains of thought...
a.) Polish it up bright and shiny so you go blind when the sun is out...
b.) Leave it in a somewhat 'dirty' state....

I guess it makes sense...all that polishing would not only wear on the metal, but the rivets too.... I guess once in a while wouldn't hurt, but I suppose polishing often, does more harm than good....

-witt
 
Witt....some that I have known, after it is polished, clean it with flower, Pillsbury brand only. Inside out of the wind I am sure. That must have been a real mess, don't think that is true. Props and struts maybe. My cousin did it on the prop of his Fleet 16B. I had to put on white gloves to prop it. Warner 125hp.
 
witt.......you and your dad talked about how to finish a B-17........
It is a bad sin not to let us all know what you have been doing!!!!
:faint:
 
Wittpilot said:
I don't know the answer to that one... But something I never did know was that polishing aluminum often is bad for the aluminum.... I never really thought about it I guess until dad and I got into a discussion about polishing a B-17 up... I guess there is two trains of thought...
a.) Polish it up bright and shiny so you go blind when the sun is out...
b.) Leave it in a somewhat 'dirty' state....

I guess it makes sense...all that polishing would not only wear on the metal, but the rivets too.... I guess once in a while wouldn't hurt, but I suppose polishing often, does more harm than good....
-witt
Click to expand...
I work for a restoration company at North Texas Regional (Grayson County Airport) and we worked on the P-51 from Cavenaugh Flight Museum. The entire fuselage was reskinned, polished and then given a final application of Dupont Clearcoat. Looks great, very durable.
 
falcon409 said:
I work for a restoration company at North Texas Regional (Grayson County Airport) and we worked on the P-51 from Cavenaugh Flight Museum. The entire fuselage was reskinned, polished and then given a final application of Dupont Clearcoat. Looks great, very durable.
Click to expand...

I saw a 51 at Oshkosh this last year that looked a lot like it had a clear coat on it and asked the guys that were with the plane (at least they acted like it) if it was a coating and they told me it was just polish. I think they were full of it! I've seen a lot of polished 51's there over the years and never one that looked like that.
Which one was the one you worked on?
Maybe it was the same one.

Tom
 
Tom,
Long story, but basically the day Jim Cavenaugh was supposed to take possession of the aircraft (and head to the Gathering) he decided to have us completely redo the aircraft to the current polished version (after we had already spent 3 months completely stripping it and rebuilding it from scratch). So he probably wasn't at that function.
 
Mustang, If I hadn't mentioned it already... Check the "B-17 Restoration Thread" in the Newshawks... I try and update once a week..


I would have never thought about putting a clear coat like that on airplanes... I work at a Honda plant in the Paint shop... Actually I work in the booth where the cars go into the Clear Coat... I sand out dirt in the Primer basically... for 8 hours a day...... Anyway, it's amazing what that clear coat does, you can sand it, scuff it...etc.. and it just polishes out!


-witt
 
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