Polishing regrets?

[drmox]

The wife and I are considering eventually putting the hard work going for the mirror finish. I was wondering if there are some folks out there who think maybe it wasn't worth the effort, blood, sweat, tears and of course, the money.

Some questions:
-Does anyone overly stress-out with worry over keeping their AS clean after a complete shine job? Do you spray off bugs and road grime after pulling into each campground?
-Does anyone yell at their kids for getting fingerprints on the exterior of their AS? I caught myself yelling at my daughter for getting fingerprints on our kitchen refrigerator door, and immediately felt stupid for doing so.

[Silverflames]

We did the first cut on ours about 1.5 years ago. An amazing difference! I have not had the time to do the second cut yet, but it still looks much better.

Some people really put in a lot of effort to keep it perfect, others don’t. The real question is, how do you like things. If your ok with thing not perfect, you will be fine. But if you want to keep a perfect mirror finish it will take Work.

And the kids will touch it, leave face prints in it, etc. Could you live with that?

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by drmox

The wife and I are considering eventually putting the hard work going for the mirror finish. I was wondering if there are some folks out there who think maybe it wasn't worth the effort, blood, sweat, tears and of course, the money.

.

You forgot time. Money is not that much a factor unless you pay someone. The last time I heard was $50 per foot. Probably more now.

[Cochese]

I repolish my 26 footer every spring to keep mirror finish! Takes about 20 hours, which pales in comparison to the 150 hours it took to do the first polish!(that is probably why I do it annually!)

[dbj216]

I figure stripping and polishing is a whole lot cheaper than reapplying the clear coat. Polishing is a lot of messy work for sure. The trailer will look good when done.

Every episode of morning dew, rain storm, bird splat, leaf fall, bug splat, etc, will leave a spot or stain on your newly polished Airstream. Your finely polished trailer will have all kinds of flaws soon after you are done unless you leave it in the museum.

A 20 hour once around light polish with the cyclo every year or two does remove the stains. The more you polish, the more you "close the pores" in the aluminum making it harder to stain. But it will spot and stain anyways.

So you must resign yourself that your Airstream looks pooly with "male pattern baldness" as the old clearcoat wears and fades off. It will look better polished, but it won't be perfect.

David