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01-31-2008, 09:20 AM
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#1
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New Member
1985 29' Sovereign
bastrop
, Texas
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1
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My folks gave me their 85 Airstream
All-
My folks just gave me their 85 Airstream 29" Sovereign and it is in fairly good shape. I want to get it cleaned up and in ship shape this year.
I'm married with a daughter and we have graduated from tent camping to the big leagues real fast. We have lots of camping experience, but relatively little airstream experience.
I want to get my trailer a/c fixed, heater working and get the aluminum skin cleaned up and polished.
I have a repair guy for the a/c and heater where I live, but I want to possibly do the polishing of the shin myself(I think). I can't spend $3000 to make the skin shiny.
Does anyone have some recommendations to go about making the aluminum bright and shiny again?
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01-31-2008, 09:26 AM
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#2
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Rivet Master
Commercial Member
1954 22' Safari
Deerfield
, Illinois
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 1,419
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Welcome, Dan.
You certainly won't have to spend $3K to get shiny, but you will have to take a couple weeks this spring (and spend a couple hundred hours) to do it yourself. Everybody here will also remind you that this is a lifelong commitment (keeping it shiny) so you'll need to do a touch-up every year between waxing.
There are lots of great threads detailing the process and many people will send you to Home as well for materials and step by step guides. Good luck, we're thinking of polishing this summer as well.
__________________
Brad
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01-31-2008, 09:35 AM
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#3
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Rivet Master
1973 23' Safari
1977 23' Safari
2018 25' Flying Cloud
Palmer Lake
, Colorado
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,092
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Dan, there are a bazillion threads about polishing and you will make yourself crazy reading them. Here's the short of it:
1. You can make it like a mirror, but it will consume you.
2. If you want to polish, you need to get all the clearcoat off--use something like Bix and go to a car wash with pressure sprayers to wash the resulting crud off the shell.
3. If you're a purist, you'll want to get all the corrosion spots and filiform snakes off. This requires a circular polisher, lots of grades of polish (NuVite), and the remainder of your free time this year. Then you'll need to get a cyclo aircraft polisher to take the swirls out.
4. If you just want to look 90% good, get a cyclo polisher, some sweatshirt material, and NuVite grade "C" and spend about a week getting a very nice but not mirror shine. Stand 30 feet away and admire your work. If you see another Airstreamer getting close and peering at the remaining filiform tracks, hit him/her with a spitwad or hand them some polish...
I did the #4 above to my Overlander 5 years ago and it improved its appearance tremendously and has lasted all this time. I've done part of #3 above to my Caravel, it's taken two years, I haven't finished, so it looks patchy. The only problem with step #4 is that you need a cyclo, which isn't cheap. And once you have a cyclo, you get the itch to get that mirror shine...
It is Dante's seventh level, for sure.
Zep
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01-31-2008, 10:36 AM
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#4
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Retired.
Currently Looking...
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, At Large
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 21,276
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeppelinium
4. If you just want to look 90% good, get a cyclo polisher, some sweatshirt material, and NuVite grade "C" and spend about a week getting a very nice but not mirror shine. Stand 30 feet away and admire your work. If you see another Airstreamer getting close and peering at the remaining filiform tracks, hit him/her with a spitwad or hand them some polish...
I did the #4 above to my Overlander 5 years ago and it improved its appearance tremendously and has lasted all this time. I've done part of #3 above to my Caravel, it's taken two years, I haven't finished, so it looks patchy. The only problem with step #4 is that you need a cyclo, which isn't cheap. And once you have a cyclo, you get the itch to get that mirror shine...
Zep
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So how many people did you get to paint that picket fence, Tom Sawyer?
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Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup.
Terry
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01-31-2008, 10:38 AM
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#5
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Rivet Master
1973 23' Safari
1977 23' Safari
2018 25' Flying Cloud
Palmer Lake
, Colorado
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,092
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Quote:
Originally Posted by overlander63
So how many people did you get to paint that picket fence, Tom Sawyer?
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excuse the hijack here, but younger villians than Tom Sawyer know what a spitwad is... I hope.
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01-31-2008, 11:06 AM
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#6
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3 Rivet Member
2017 27' Flying Cloud
Columbus
, Indiana
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 159
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IMHO
Forget the polish until the child(ren) are out of the house or when she is a teenager and says, "Hey Dad! Wouldn't the Airsteam look great with a polish? Can we do it together?"
Don't waste precious time polishing when she is little, take the family camping instead!
Just a mom's opinion. Take it or leave it.
ps:to you nay-sayers about teenagers doing this kind of thing... as a teenager I loved to camp and do projects with my Dad! He was awesome!
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Mrs_RedSHED
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01-31-2008, 11:14 AM
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#7
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WBCCI 11067 WDCU
1986 25' Sovereign
Atlanta
, Georgia
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 198
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What a gift. I have a 1986 25 airstream. IMHO that is the best era out.
I started polishing mine last year. It is a time consuming project for a family guy. Good luck
__________________
Chris Keysor
WBCCI 11067
1986 Sovereign 25' CB
2007 Chevy Silverado 1500
2007 Toyota Land Cruiser
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01-31-2008, 11:35 AM
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#8
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Rivet Master
1991 34' Excella
1963 26' Overlander
1961 26' Overlander
Central
, Mississippi
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 5,919
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welcome
2nd try at posting...
First of all, Welcome!
I agree with Mrs RedShed, get to camping! In the event you can't stand the way your Airstream looks, you might try just stripping the clear coat. I got fed up with the badlooks of my front endcap so off came the clearcoat and WOW what a difference. I can dedicate enought time to wax twice a year, but polishing is out of the question. The below photo shows the difference. The upper panel is stripped and waxed, the lower still has clearcoat.
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01-31-2008, 12:50 PM
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#9
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Rivet Master
1969 23' Safari
New Orleans
, Louisiana
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 699
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wows 1 & 2
WOW! #1- GAVE you their Airstream? dude, you have been blessed with wonderful parents and a wonderful trailer..
WOW #2- what a difference stripping the clearcoat makes! while I've never fancied the labor-intensity of polishing, you may have convinced me to just get the clearcoat off for starters..
Is it reasonable to assume that nice lustre will remain that way, or does it require re-application of a clearcoat to stay lustrous?
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01-31-2008, 01:01 PM
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#10
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Desert Fox
1985 31' Sovereign
Tucson
, Arizona
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 250
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Hi,
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01-31-2008, 01:06 PM
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#11
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Desert Fox
1985 31' Sovereign
Tucson
, Arizona
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 250
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Hi All,
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01-31-2008, 03:20 PM
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#12
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Rivet Master
Elgin
, Texas
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 800
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fotochop
Is it reasonable to assume that nice lustre will remain that way, or does it require re-application of a clearcoat to stay lustrous?
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Once you've made the decision to strip the clearcoat, you're into a bare aluminum situation. It will start to oxidize almost immediately, though the speed at which this happens will vary from climate to climate. So, in the vast majority of cases, 4 scenarios; re-spray the clearcoat, paint, polish, or au naturale. Each has their upsides and downsides - just depends on what works best for you.
__________________
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01-31-2008, 04:25 PM
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#13
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Rivet Master
1973 23' Safari
1977 23' Safari
2018 25' Flying Cloud
Palmer Lake
, Colorado
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,092
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The worst environment for corrosion is the NE--little spots of acid rain. I think it's even worse than being around the salty coasts, but that's also pretty bad.
Zep
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01-31-2008, 07:00 PM
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#14
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Rivet Master
1978 31' Excella 500
Genoa
, Nevada
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,554
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And oxidized Aluminum is what, class? Al2 O3. Which is also which mineral? Right, Corundum. And the hardness of Corundum is what? Right, 9. So the hardness of your sweet oxidized Airstream is 9, not quite a 10 which is the hard compressed carbon thingys. That's why you gotta clean between the successive grades of polish, all the oxidized stuff is real hard little scratchies.
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