Clearing customs in Bellingham WA, ran into this gorgeous gal. Was pretty awestruck by her in polished aluminum.

looks like a 140A

She’s 170B N8335A

Love the looks of a clasic polished bird...

...no way in hell would I want to have one, I'm lucky to wax my truck twice a year, the amount of polishing to keep the mirror look is too much work for me. [emoji16]

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Been debating polishing my 185, I probably shouldn’t, but man… I love aluminum that can be seen.

I'd love to polish mine, I think you could lose nearly 30 lbs in paint. (Random number from a guy I met on a ramp in Idaho).

WAY TOO LAZY though. I stripped one aileron once and swore to never do it again.

I stripped the upper part of my cowl to paint it. It took entirely too long and that's tiny compared to a wing.

You could always polish a bird and then put clear coat w/UV inhibitor over the shiny metal. That would reduce the need to keep polishing it...

Flyhound wrote:You could always polish a bird and then put clear coat w/UV inhibitor over the shiny metal. That would reduce the need to keep polishing it...

I've often wondered this. Will a clear coat stick to a mirror polished finish on aluminium?

A1Skinner wrote:

Flyhound wrote:You could always polish a bird and then put clear coat w/UV inhibitor over the shiny metal. That would reduce the need to keep polishing it...

I've often wondered this. Will a clear coat stick to a mirror polished finish on aluminium?

I know a guy who tried that. Wound up a year or so later trying to remove the clear coat, which turned milky.

This is why they make high school kids, frankly.....polishing, a little at a time. Don't burn them out.

MTV

I'm a friend of the owner - He's a great guy and great stick.

That airplane is really light too - I want to say something like low 1200's. (My bone-stock '48 170 is 1330, and his is significantly lighter.)

--Tony

TonyG wrote:I'm a friend of the owner - He's a great guy and great stick.

That airplane is really light too - I want to say something like low 1200's. (My bone-stock '48 170 is 1330, and his is significantly lighter.)

--Tony

That’s hard to do

daedaluscan wrote:That’s hard to do

Sure is. It's impressive.

I really don't understand all the comments about polishing a plane being so much work. After I stripped my 172 it only took about 150 hours with 2 different buffers to put the first polish on it, and it only takes about 25 hours each spring to keep it polished. As for the comment about clear coating a polished plane, I've seen it done twice. It looked really nice for about a year, then it looked like crap.