Polishing Blues.

[airstreamcaravel]

Good point about the zero cut for Rolite AP300 in your eariler post...

Now that the dirtiest work is done ... I will try the AP300 again
and see what it does for final finish!

Thank you,

Respectfully,

DMC

[Rob]

Mind if I jump in with a question? You both sound like you know what your talking about so here goes.

My trailer has clearcoat on the sides, the roof clearcoat is gone and some not so heavy oxidation in its place. The clearcoat that is still there has cracks in it with oxidation in the cracks.

Ok I'll get to the point. I was planning on removing a section of clearcoat at a time and polish as I go. Should I srip it with aircraft stripper? Will the stripper destroy all my waterproofing measures, vulkum? Maybe I could be really carefull not to let the stripper run. Wipe it of as best I can then hose it down with water.

What do you think? Rob

[airstreamcaravel]

On the question of strippers, I used Aircraft Stripper from
AutoZone. I used both the cans of toxic gue and the spray on cans.

I found that the spray on was particularily good to use on the top curved panels and the roof. (hard to reach areas) Those surfaces I washed down the hose.

On the vertical surfaces I was more inclined (ha ha) to use the
toxic gue. I poured it into an old small can and swabbed it on with a 4" paint brush. (Smaller brushes in tight spots).

After waiting for appropriate bubbling to occur (varies by temp, age, and condition of clear coat) I would brush downward with another large brush and then follow up with numerous terry cloth towels, ... at times this had to be repeated till all signs of clear coat were gone. Again rinsed it all.

My "original" Waterproofing included window glazing, silicone,
other unknown yucky stuff, and 35 year old vulkem.
Anything that the stripper didn't remove, I have had to remove
and re-vulkem anyway.

DMC

[airstreamcaravel]

Strip the whole darn thing first. Once you get polishing,

You won't want to stop.


DMC

[Ken J]

I agree - I don't have a better stripper than your stripper (hee hee)

Anyway, folks seem to have have good luck with Bix - probably what you got at autozone.

[Ken J]

While on the subject, I mentioned that I was going to do my annual update on the Traveler this weekend. No can due because temp is to low. It should be 65 or above. As I understand it - if the skin is cool and the polisher heats it up, you will get uneven polishing. At least thats what the airplane experts says who has been doing this polishing thing for a long long time.

I may have put this off too long this year, hopefully we will get some 70 degree days here. Would hate to have to do two trailers in the spring - my plan is to do the Tradewind in the spring and Traveler in the fall.