Strip & Polish 89 Excella 32'

[cjack99]

Hi Y'all;

There is lot's of info here about polishing, so I was not going to add more, except I went off on a tangent, perhaps this will help someone in future.

We purchased our AS last year, pretty much 2nd owner, although it spent a few months with a 3rd party.

One of the biggest issues to me was the amount of clear coat deterioration, so I decided it had to be polished, as much as I dread that.

I began with 2 gals of remove all 220, and that was plenty for the trailer. I wish I had used a better brush to put it on with, or even an airless sprayer as the info on the container recommends. As you can see in the pics, either I did not get it on even enough, or thick enough, or I left it on too long, or I didn't leave it on long enough, or....... you pick. It seemed to come off pretty well, but later on I see either a residue, or perhaps the old stuff was so badly weathered it had affected the surface. I dunno. Anhoo, it makes the polishing harder. The instructions sound so typically Aussie, ".....leave on for 1 to 6 hours, or overnight...." That's pretty broad spectrum. It's great stuff though, just disappears. I took it off with a pressure sprayer, swept up the big chunks while wet, the smaller ones are now "one" with the lawn.

Based on info in another thread, I have decided to have a go with "Bad Dog" polish, and at this point I'm impressed. I started with 2 32 oz bottles each of "Green" and "Ultra", as of this post I have just about 1/4 of the trailer done with the "Green", have not gone over it with the "Ultra" yet, that is the second step. I think I have used a little over half of the first bottle of green, so my usage may require a little more. Instructions say "use sparingly", so I'm learning a bit as I go.

The pics attached show the original state, you can see it's got a lot of oxidation on the top, and spotty oxidation all over, although is some places the clear coat was pretty decent. There is a pic of the remove all in place, and then the result after the spraying of the remove all. Lastly, there is a pic of the polishing progress as of today, using the first step, which is the Bad Dog Green, I'm up to the rear axle on the left hand side.

I'll follow up as I go, and then we can compare Bad Dog to Nuvite maybe. I did not really plan on any really shiny results, I just wanted a fairly decent look, but it seems to be more shiny than I thought it would be.

So far, regarding the polishing effort, roughly speaking, I think I've spent about 12 or 13 hours of actual polishing, and I'm about 1/4 complete with the first stage. The second stage should go quicker, as the green stuff does the most work.

cheers

cactus

[tkasten]

You do have a very big job with a trailer that big. I did my 65 Safari with Remove All with very good results. Only two spots needed a second coat. I used Nuvite 7 with a Dewalt grinder to compound with great effort both in strength and time. After the compounding was complete then I used a Cyclo polisher and Nuvite 7 & C to get rid of the swirls. Then I used the Cyclo again with Nuvite S to get the mirror shine and seal the alum. I'm not sure there is any short cut to a mirror shine.

[cjack99]

All;

I have reached,,,, what,,, probably the 1/3 point? I'm at 21 hours labor, left side and a bit over half the roof is finished. I've gotten better with my "rag management", and the use of BadDog Green. Just opened my 2nd bottle today as I finished off the left side. May need another 16oz bottle, but I think I'm better at "use sparingly", so I may have enough.

Here's a left side pic, as of today.

So far I have to say, BadDog works.

I'm using nothing special. BadDog polish, and a $23 Walmart Turtle wax orbital polisher.

cheers
cactus

[cjack99]

For those that have been following this project; I am virtually complete on the first pass, that being using the BadDog Green for the initial polishing. I only have the small section under the front window, would have nailed that today except got mired in some rain, sigh.

So, at this point I am 53 hours into the project, I have gone through 3 different types of rags, and have used just under 2 bottles of the BadDog Green.

Tomorrow I'll finish the front section and then begin with the BadDog Ultra, which is the finish.

I can absolutely pass on the info that Bad Dog polish works just fine.

I will pass on at least one more update when I'm fully complete. From what I read, the "Ultra" pass should be quicker than the "Green", since the Green is what does most of the work.

cheers
cactus

[cjack99]

Hi All;

Final report on my polishing project. Completed the project today with the final section getting the "Bad Dog Ultra" polishing.

Project breaks down like this:

Labor;
Initial polishing, labor, 53 hours (Bad Dog Green)
Finish polishing, labor, 19 hours (Bad Dog Ultra)
Total polishing labor, 72 hours

Costing;
2 gal Remove All 220, $105 (includes shipping to Texas)(Sale price)
2 32oz Bad Dog Green, $48 plus shipping
1 32oz Bad Dog Ultra, $30 plus shipping (or,,, 2 32oz value packs,,, about $92 plus shipping, and you would have an extra bottle of Ultra left over)
3 24 pack 14"x17" terrycloth general purpose rags, $7.98 ea. pack at Home Depot (these are a best buy, imho, I tried t-shirts and micro fiber, the terry cloth were the best and most economical, Home Depot had the best price on them, look in the "cleaning" section, not the painting section!)
1 Turtle Wax 10" orbital polisher, $24 at WalMart, another "best buy"

Total cost, $254 (includes shipping to Texas)

Having a 1989 Airstream Excella 32' that is lovely to tow, and a beauty to gaze at...... priceless!!

Hope this helps some of you 'fence sitters' decide. I think it was a very good project for me, I was previously unhappy with the way my 2nd hand AS looked, and now it makes me smile each time I look at it.

cheers
cactus

[Dwight]

Looks great!!!

[jbbaldwin]

Awesome looking job! Makes me want to break out the polish on my 1991 Excella 1000 34'...

[cjack99]

Go for it!!! I had about 1/4 bottle of green left over, and I didn't use a full bottle of Ultra, so I think you could do a 34' with the same amounts I used on my 32'.

cheers!

[BubbaHab]

What's your address I am sending you my 1979 Excella ole buddy.. Looks great.

Bubba

[Mr & Mrs S]

Wow great job! I plan to do our 29' Excella but Im going to wait till the weather cools down. NO Way am I going to attempt in the scorching summer heat.
Where did you order your Bad Dog products from?

[cjack99]

Hi! I'll think I'll stay quiet on the location???? I think I'm polished out. hahahah

I ordered from the Bad Dog web site, Steve is great to deal with, lots of assistance, and ships fast and the polish comes without mess.

Bad Dog Polish - industrial strength aluminum bus polish, bus polish, Polish for all motorcycles, Snowmobile tunnel Polish, exhaust polish, Harley Davidson Polish, Honda motorcycle Polish, Yamaha motorcycle polish, Suzuki motorcycle polish, BMW motor

[cjack99]

ps --- I concur on the timing, I was in a panic to finish before it got HOT! Finished Memorial Day and that was about the end of anything close to polishing weather in Texas! October sounds promising......

[Skatiero]

Wow! That is beautiful!!!

[memberg]

Wow! Love the results of your polishing project! I just bought an 89 Excella 1000 and will be doing the same thing! I have a couple questions:

1) Did you do all the polishing by hand or with buffers, detailers or orbital polishers?

2) how is the finish now that some time has passed and have you done additional maintenence to keep up the shine?

Mike

[cjack99]

Originally Posted by memberg

Wow! Love the results of your polishing project! I just bought an 89 Excella 1000 and will be doing the same thing! I have a couple questions:

1) Did you do all the polishing by hand or with buffers, detailers or orbital polishers?

2) how is the finish now that some time has passed and have you done additional maintenence to keep up the shine?

Mike

As I posted above, the only tools and materials are posted. The 10" orbital was good except on the places where there was not enough space to fit it, in those cases I just used handwork.

It's been just about a year now, finish still shines, probably needs a wash job to take off the dust and runoff from rain, but does not need any polishing yet.

cheers
c

[Gosman]

We're do one find that product ? I tried the link and still can not find the product . Also the stripper 220 can not find need help please .
Also what are the steps once the airstream is stripped. WITH THE SHINE PRODUCT
Thank You

[Gosman]

Say were can you purchase bad dog ??
Thanks
George

[Gosman]

Say would it be possible to contact you on the phone to get more I formation about your POLISHING procedure, I am very impressed with your results. I want to do my 25ft and really would like to get more in formation.
.
Thank You
George

[cjack99]

Hi George;

Truly no need for phone conversation. Here's the deal: I no longer have the Airstream, although I wish I did. Sold it to make spouse happy. then bought a Jayco,,,, Jayco was ok,,, but it's not an Airstream. Jayco got hammered in a hail storm in April 2020, USAA totaled it, we took the money and we now have solar panels on the house. Out of trailer business.

Now - about Bad Dog polish. If you Google that, you get a quick hit of 3 youtube videos, one of them on the baddog website, however, when you open the website you see it's not active, and the domain name is available for purchase. This tells me Bad Dog is out of business. Now from here you have to do your own detective work. If you Google "Aluminum Polish" you get a lot of hits, but it's probably not what you want. If you Google "Aluminum clear coat remover" you get several hits, and I bet one of them will do the job, but you have to figure that out on your own. Time for some research. You will also see some comments about paint remover. That might do it. You will see a hit on "polish aluminum the right way", but it goes right into sand paper,,,, I think I'd steer clear of that, I can visualize a trully effed up Airstream, and that would be sad. Going back to Bad Dog,,, it's worth looking at the site, because you can see pictures of what you used to be able to purchase. My idea would be to purchase something that looks like that. It was a 2 part deal, a really heavy cutter, and then a follow up polish to remove the sludge. After that, hit it again with your favorite auto polish. It appears this thread is pretty much dead, and it took me 25 minutes just to get logged back on. But I'm not going to delete this thread, because I guess it's still useful. I did truly love my Airstream. Here is a link to the youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuQmRLP7MAQ

and here is the link to the bad dog website: http://www.baddogpolish.com/

That's about all I can do for you buddy, you can still do it! cheers
cactus

[cjack99]

Oh yeah,,,, I bought an orbiter polisher and 100 of those polishing rags walmart has, or used to. Went through a bunch of them! You need that, trying to do by hand would kill you.
Cjack