I'm curious from others out there have polished to a mirrorish shine, do you wax (your trailer, the rest I don't wanna know) or did you put some type of clearcoat on again. No progress today, overcast and cold.
No clearcoat here. We use the Nuvite 'S' as the final pass each spring. It leaves a wax-like coating that repels water that lasts through the season here in our dry climate. We only wash with clear water, no deterent or soap. Some use Nu-Finish, but we haven't tried it yet - no need.
Shari
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After Nuvite-S I've been finishng with a hand-applied coat of Liquid Glass and cyclo-ing it off with microfiber cloth. It's a bit of extra protection but not impressively lasting if you have to store your trailer out in the elements.
Hang in there mate, you'll get there, just remember, it could always be worse, you could be polishing a Sovereign! I'm finding polishing builds character, muscles and patience. It's all good really.
Don't want to hijack but this may be of help to all of us who are about to tackle the polishing job.
I have found a deal on a quantity of "microfiber" material that some of the experienced polishers refer to as being really good for the final pass. My question is: Would the color of the microfiber material make any difference? (With regular wax, the bottles always recommend using a white cloth.)
The store that has it is closing and only has black microfiber left in stock.
Well made progress on Saturday, getting the entire front end cap down to the rub rail polished with F7 and C, and did S around the lights and emblems so I could that all back on as forcasted it rained today. Bannana wrap will be coming off for dent removal before polishing. Think I'm going to tackle the rear end cap next then do the sides. Its not nearly as perfect as some I see on here, but the end cap has about 30 hours of work without the wrap. Only ordered the smallest jar of Nuvite, and pretty much ran myself out of the F7, so reordering for next weekend.
Here's a frew pictures... At least from these angles it looks like its done.. if only!!
Petethefeet, trailer looks awesome, how many hours you figure you have into the polish job? Are you polishing the bannana wrap or painting those?
Dave, love your 72! can't wait to have the whole beast shinning like that. Did you paint the inset of the bottom rub rail the blue or is it some type of decal?
Ooooo, now there's a scary question, I have been keeping my hours for the restoration as a whole, and indeed the polishing, putting off doing a tally up for fear of knowing how much time I had actually been ploughing into the trailer, but I'd like to know myself, so I will get back to you on that one. This is my first polish job also, and I feel ( and many "pro's would tell you also, I think ), that largely the hours you put into it is pretty relative to what sort of person you are, the condition of the trailer, of course the size of the trailer and even the location. I live in a coastal environment which must be the worst possible for trying to keep an Airstream polished, hence the temporary cover, which according to some people is a no-no because of scratching. I don't disagree, but I am putting off the final polish untill the interior is finished so any marks can be addressed at that point, and it has made a huge difference to the time for the oxidation to return, compared to it being uncovered. I learnt the hard way. The end caps are quite deceiving, in that they look like the easy part in a way, in reality, I think they cover the most actual area of all, as a section to polish, on my trailer at least. Also I had stripped all the eyelids over the windows,vents, and the windows themselves to polish also so that will be included in my total may not apply to you. I really started enjoying the polishing when I found that I had " gotten over myself " to a point and let go of thinking how long it was going to take and how much polish I was going to use. It was easier to work on the basis of it taking as long as it was and realising that hopefully it would be a better job because of it. This whole Airstream thing has been a very steep learning curve for me but it has been made a whole lot more manageable due to the excellent and friendly support you can find on these forums, the people on here are amazing and so giving with their time and knowledge. Sorry this has turned into a long answer to a short question. It looks like you are making really good progress, ( better than me, when I was at your stage ), and the good thing about polishing, is the more you do initially, the easier it gets on a whole ( thankfully), the less time you have to spend on it and it makes you fit, so polishers are professional athletes in a sick kind of way! Yes the banana wrap will be polished, it is off because the trailer has undergone a body off, gound up rebuild, and there is a little more work to go on the underbelly which slides underneath the front panel so it will be a milestone when that goes back on. Again, I'll get back to you with the hours. You are doing great.
Pete
Dave, love your 72! can't wait to have the whole beast shinning like that. Did you paint the inset of the bottom rub rail the blue or is it some type of decal?
All of the blue on my exterior is hand painted.
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I'm curious from others out there have polished to a mirrorish shine, do you wax (your trailer, the rest I don't wanna know) or did you put some type of clearcoat on again.
Holy smoke! Mate, I just did a tally up, and you won't even want to know how many hours and pounds of polish have gone into my trailer so far. Might be best to let you know after you are a bit further down the track on yours before you get that one laid on you.
lol I think I can handle it, I have a pretty good idea that at the rate I'm going I'll have a good (not spotless) polish job for around 175-200 hours, as the front end cap and now a small part of the road side in the first two grades took me about 35 hours and I still have below the rub rail too.
I have encountered on the roadside little lines, parrallel to the ground, about 1/4 inch apart, amost like rollers on skin down the side that seem to polish out but are a different texture from the rest, almost like wood grain? Too consistant to be branches etc rubbing the side, all very straight, couple inches a section. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow to hopefully better describe what I mean.
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