Gords Polish will work for you!

[Ken J]

I will use only Aircraft approved polish - because I can be assured it does not contain any acids. Bowing has polished its aircraft hundreds of times with no removal of alclad.

No need to test others for me.

As far as price, yeah if the trailer is heavly oxidized it will cost a few bucks, but the once a year touch up takes less than a jar - less than $40.00 plus 1/2 jar of sealer $9.00 - not bad in my book.

Ken

[JohnG]

Originally Posted by Ken J

I will use only Aircraft approved polish - because I can be assured it does not contain any acids. Bowing has polished its aircraft hundreds of times with no removal of alclad.

No need to test others for me.

As far as price, yeah if the trailer is heavly oxidized it will cost a few bucks, but the once a year touch up takes less than a jar - less than $40.00 plus 1/2 jar of sealer $9.00 - not bad in my book.

Ken

I go along with that too. I did opt for the Rolite system since they have been around longer, they are more affordable, and their product says "Non-Abrasive"

The only product that I have tried that does work far above Blue Magic and Mothers is Never Dull, but you have to be prepared to do a lot of hand rubbing and hard work with Never Dull. It can't be used with a buffer or it might be a lot better than the rest.

Oh yea I tried just plan old Rubbing Compound from 3M on one of my LP Tanks and to tell the truth it shined out about as good with it as Blue Magic or Mothers did, but the Never Dull brought it out like it was chrome.

[GordsPolish]

Originally Posted by Rog0525

There is no easy way to shine your AS to a mirror finish. I tried a sample bottle of Gord's and it worked as well as Southern Shine IMHO.
Note that Gord declined my invitation to the Lansing rally.
Rluhr has volunteered to test a bottle. For those who are not familiar with rluhr, he is the head honcho of Airstream Life magazine, and I think we can trust his judgement. Let's be patient.

I just wanted to let you know my Mom was at the AS Lansing Rally handing out cards, and she handed out about 50 samples while working at the Red Cross. She lives close by in Michigan. Both of our reps in Michigan work full time jobs, and had barely gotten started at the time. One was out of town driving big truck, and the other was on vacation. We heard about the the heavy rains and people having problems with sinking in the mud. Mom said there were Airstreams everywhere trying to stay out of the mud.

We had a few limited responses at first, and have been receiving quite a few requests for info, but haven't had many testimonies come in on how it works yet. From what we understand, the older AS models have aircraft sealer on them, not clear coat, and removal takes a lot of effort. Maybe even as much as sanding. Pre 83 models have aircraft sealer on them. The 81 AS, we had posted pictures of, had most of the aircraft sealer sanded off. The owners had spent about 200 hours doing that. They used a low RPM buffer, 3 - 7 1/4"x 3" Wool velcro pads, about 8 - 16oz bottles of polish, and 20 hours to finish. This included a final polish and buff by hand, and two people working the whole time. The owner painted the top with a rubberized UV reflective coating, so only the lower part was polished. Like you said, there is no easy way to shine your AS to a mirror finish!

As for clear coat, we haven't had any AS responses, but we remove it from fuel tanks on Semi-trucks by hand all the time. We do them by hand because of the mess it makes. It takes less time to just do it by hand than it does to clean up the mess on the rest of the truck. On aluminum wheels with clear coat, it takes about 15 minutes by hand and less than 5 with a buffer. We remove the wheels either way to make sure all areas are polished and sealed.

Also, we had some problems using this forum too, and were locked out for a few months. So, wanted to make an appearance, and apologize for dropping off like we did. Our responses may still be limited as we seem to have less and less time in our day, but at least we are receiving some updates by email from the forum now.

Thanks for the invite, and we are looking forward to hearing from Rluhr, head honcho of Airstream Life magazine too!

Gordon Crissey

[GordsPolish]

Originally Posted by Ken J

Are there any acidic ingredients?

Ken

It contains Stearic acid, a common ingredient in shave creams, shampoos, and hand cleaners.

Gordon

[ALANSD]

I also look to try various polishes,etc. Thas how I came across that Liquid Glass stuff I have used as a sealer. It polishes well, but I found if I use Mothers, or the Blue Magic, or Wenol, then seal it with the LG it holds up well.
My lower un-plasticoated portion which used to be painted grey until I stripped it, now is quite shiny, though not mirror finished, with the use of the blue magic and LG.
I hand polished with a minimum of effort and it looks pretty darn nice.

The clearcoated areas up top still shine quite well after a couple of applications of LG over the past year. Even on the roof.

[rluhr]

I finally got a chance to try out Gord's on the Caravel.

First, I applied it by hand with a thin rag (as the instructions suggested) to an area of the trailer which was previously polished with Southern Shine, but which had since re-oxidized. With a fair amount of elbow grease I was able to restore the shine to the previous level of shine (which was somewhat milky). I couldn't really improve the polish beyond what I had before, which may be more of a reflection on the "quickie polish" I did in the first place more than the Gord's.

I also tried it on an area with clearcoat (or, as Gord calls it above, "aircraft sealer"). The Gord's polish was unable to penetrate the clearcoat even with vigorous rubbing and pressure.

For comparison, Southern Shine will remove clearcoat with a lot of effort -- possibly because it is more abrasive -- but I wouldn't want to try to remove a clearcoat this way. Stripping is probably still much easier.

Gord's is thinner than Southern Shine. It's more the consistency of watery paint. It tends to soak into the rag, so it may splatter less than SS.

I'll try it again with the buffer/grinder and 3M pads, and report further later.

-- RL

[GordsPolish]

Hi Gord here and for the last week we have been developing a process for removing Aclad (Aircraft Sealer). This process takes about 40 minutes per section and the chemicals do not have any effect on the bare aluminum at all. We start with a Stripper called Bix, first we pour Bix into a metal paint tray and apply Bix evenly to surfaces with a paint roller to desired areas for Aclad removal. Let Bix set about 10 minutes and apply a 2nd coat. Aclad will bubble up and have a wet toilet paper look to it. Let 2nd coat set for about another 10-15 minutes and use Power washer to remove all Aclad. Wash area with Dawn dish soap to remove all traces of Bix. Let trailer dry completely then Polish it out to a Mirror Shine. If you have any question fell free to call me.

Gord
361-643-3998

[InsideOut]

'Alclad aluminum' is a special layered aluminum product which has a pure aluminum overlay over a stronger alloy aluminum. It would not have "...a wet toilet paper look to it"...that's clearcoat. Bix will remove clearcoat, not Alclad...

Alclad is a heat-treated aluminum, copper, manganese, magnesium alloy that has the corrosion resistance of pure metal at the surface and the strength of the strong alloy underneath. Of particular importance is the thorough character of the union between the alloy and the pure aluminum.

Alclad

You would not want to remove Alclad...it's what lets you acheive that 'mirror finish' we all strive for, as it polishes up much better than stock aluminum ~

BTW...I have tried BIX and found that Klean Strip's Aircraft Remover works better at removing clearcoat.

Shari

[DustyDevil]

Originally Posted by JohnG

I go along with that too. I did opt for the Rolite system since they have been around longer, they are more affordable, and their product says "Non-Abrasive"

The only product that I have tried that does work far above Blue Magic and Mothers is Never Dull, but you have to be prepared to do a lot of hand rubbing and hard work with Never Dull. It can't be used with a buffer or it might be a lot better than the rest.

Oh yea I tried just plan old Rubbing Compound from 3M on one of my LP Tanks and to tell the truth it shined out about as good with it as Blue Magic or Mothers did, but the Never Dull brought it out like it was chrome.

along the Never Dull lines is another wadding polish, i believe it is made in France, it is called Ouater (pronounced water), I found it at a motorcycle supply shop many years ago. Was the best polish I had ever used, worked better than Never Dull did. I haven't seen it in years and would love to find it, or somthing comparable.

[AirHeadRik]

I have tried "Southern Shine". I have 4 bottles of the stuff. Two words=Not great. I'll try the SS again, but I wasn't knocked out by it.

"Heavy Metal" Polish works pretty darn good , but they are a weird company to deal with. I first tried their stuff from an auto show. They were stripping the paint off of Coke aluminum cans and polishing to a mirrror shine. The stuff does really work. All I have is the fine grade left. I tried it on the AS and it works, but slow because I should really be trying the med or heavy.

For now, I'm still a Nuvute guy.