Please help

[dc4god]

Greetings. My dad recently bought an older Airstream, and wants to polish it. He is looking into polishes and buying a cyclo buffer. Can anyone tell me where he might buy a cyclo buffer fairly cheaply? Also, I read the threads about Southern Shine - can anyone tell me how many bottles it would take to shine a trailer? Also, any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[davidz71]

dc4god,
Ebay has them from time to time. I did a yahoo.com search and purchased mine in a package deal from www.perfectpolish.com I also bought extra cycloWraps from them. Rather than Nuvite polish, I purchased a Rolite kit from www.topoftheline.com
Also check www.swiftparts.com, Classic at www.properautocare.com and www.rightlook.com which are mentioned either in the yahoo search or yahoo shopping search. I also found a good Makita polisher by doing the yahoo shopping search and beat the pants off any deal I had seen prior to that.

[startrekker2001]

It is important to know what year the trailer is, because most have Clear Coat on them that has to be removed before it can be polished.

Once the Clear Coat is removed, the shining can begin. He will need a good compounding buffer to compound the trailer first then polishing with the cyclo polisher and polish. I used Nuvite. You can see the results of my work on the airstreamphotos.com. Just click on the "photos" icon at the bottom of this response.

Once polished, it should be waxed to seal the aluminum. I used the Nuvite 'S' as the final polish and it looked great. I was told that it was a sealer as well. Don't believe it. I am using Mothers Carnuba Wax and it seems to work well. Water spots wipe off easily. Without the wax, they don't.

I live near the ocean, (8 miles) so the salt air raises havoc with the finish. I am hoping the wax will help.

Figure that the repolishing will have to be done every 6 months to a year.

The first stripping and polishing will take about 200 hours of work. The subsequent polishing jobs will take about 20 hours.

Maintenance of the finish is an ongoing job. With all the work it is well worth the time and effort. I would do it all over again and I will.

The cost for my 31' trailer was about $900 for the Nuvite, Polisher, cloths, Aircraft Stripper, and other incidentals.

Good luck and order up some new arms and shoulders while you're at it. LOL

Vic

[Safari Tim]

I would have him read this entire thread for just about anything you want to know about polishing

Finally got started...

I would also suggest as the others did to go to the Perfect Polish website and read that as well.

I would start with a half in drill and the wool bonnets and do the compounding before investing in a cyclo. You may find that after compounding your happy with the results.

If not you can always by a cyclo later. The cyclo is the finishing tool and is not used until the many many hours of compounding is complete.

Ebay can have some great deals on a cyclo when/if your ready.

Good luck and have fun. The end is result is worth it!

[startrekker2001]

The drill compounding will leave scratches in the finish. When the sun shines on it, it will be most noticable. The Cyclo makes a HUGE difference. It takes out scratches, using Nuvite 'S' and brings the shine to near mirror.

Cyclo... don't leave home without it.

Vic

[overlander63]

Is there any reason a random orbit buffer could not be used instead of the cyclo polisher?
I don't really have the polish problem, just curious.
Terry

[Navigator]

Thats a good question, I have a random orbital polisher, and was wondering if by using different pads (3M) and medium, is it possible to do both compounding and polishing with that 1 machine?
Dick

[Rog0525]

Also, I read the threads about Southern Shine - can anyone tell me how many bottles it would take to shine a trailer? Also, any other advice would be appreciated.

I've seen this question asked more than once but haven't seen an answer. Maybe it was posted but I missed it. I have two 8 oz bottles of SS and plan to polish my Caravel this coming spring. Will I need more? Thanks for any input.

Rog

[flyfshr]

OK, here's your answer, sort of. The amount of SS you will need is dependant on the amount of oxidation and the condition of your aluminum. As for me, I've gone through 6 bottles and haven't even done half of the trailer. Sometime under the ownership of a PO, the skin was either coated with a thin coat of clear coat or some other type of sealer. The SS didn't work on that very well. It took me a long time to realize that the SS wasn't working so well but it was in reality not stripping the clear coat. Once it burned through the coating, it worked great on the aluminum. Without clearcoat, I could have shined my 24' trailer with four, possibly five bottles.

Now, I'll bet you're thoroughly confused

FF

[startrekker2001]

According to 'Perfectpolish.com':

"The standard tool for polishing is the Cyclo Polisher. The two orbital heads move in a random overlapping pattern that simulates hand polishing and prevents swirls. The Cyclo Polisher's light weight, excellent balance and small pads let the operator work over complex curves and get into tight spaces.

The Cyclo Polisher is the best tool for the beginner or casual polisher. There are other types of polishers available but they generally need an expert hand to prevent swirls. The vast majority of the owners of polished aircraft use this tool."

I tend to agree. It does a super job using the sweatshirt material polishing cloths.

BTW, Flyfshr, I have never heard of anyone successfully 'burning' through the clearcoat until now. That must have been agony. Aircraft Stripper by Kleen Strip, while toxic, takes the clearcoat off very easily. It must be used with caution and common sense. Wear rubber gloves and eye protection. If inside use a breathing mask. Don't get it on plastic, including the blue band on the trailer. It raises heck with the vinylclad. I kept a hose handy to wash off any that got on my skin. The results were great.