I had a screw come loose on my Lycoming 360 spinner and take out one of my blades. It left two chunks of aluminum missing and would'nt pass the test at the prop shop in Minneapolis. The prop is a real pretty Scimitar from a Lancair. I was thinking about getting it cut and stripping the paint off and Polishing. I dont really have the time or patience to polish it myself, but has anyone else ever heard of this being done? Thinking it would look cool on my desk as a reminder to do a better preflight... I see polished airplanes and think "that must be alot of work"

This stuff is a good metal polish. I've never used it on an aluminized plane or a prop, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. Use the buffing ball on an electric drill and it takes a lot of work out of it.

http://www.flitz-polish.com/index.php?p ... rnalId=615

I knew a guy with a 185 that got tired of the prop paint getting nicked up from the normal wear and tear. He just took wet dry sand paper and went to town. Started at 220 or somewhere close to that and just kept getting finer and finer. He ended up getting a beautiful shiny prop. He did it right on the airplane and I don't remember it taking him all that long

I've got a few hours under my belt sanding and polishing aluminum airplanes although smaller versions (see pictures), so I don't blame you for not wanting to spend the time to get it really shiny. You can get pretty nice results though without going all the way down to a mirror finish. I start with 180 grit, the good stuff for airboard sanders (available at a good autoparts place) move to 400 next and then hit it Scotch-Brite. The trick is to sand the long way on the prop at each and keep all the scratches going in the same direction. You can work down to finer grit with regular wet/dry using plenty of water and don't be afraid to change out the paper quite a bit.

I use this product on our semi trucks.


About the best stuff I've found over the years. Easy on, easy off. Comes out really nice. You can find it in just about any truck stop or semi truck dealer parts room (Kenworth, Peterbuilt, etc). Or order online.

Here's their website: https://www.zephyrpro40.com/s2/Scripts/default.asp