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Old 04-12-2016, 08:55 AM   #1
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trekerboy's Avatar
 
1979 31' Excella 500
Charlevoix , Michigan
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 350
Polishing '79 AS Excella - Pictures!

We're in the final stages of renovating our '79 Excella and one of the last things on our list to do was the polishing. At first I was incredibly disheartened to learn that it's really expensive to have an AS polished... for our 31' AS quotes ranged from $30,000.00 (AS Dealer) to $10,000.00 (private company). Ouch. I knew it was going to be expensive (hence waiting 'til last to do it) but both of those price were more than I was willing to pay. I was going to have to get creative.

I called around to a few boat and car detailing places in town and most of them told me they don't do AS's, however one, Automotive Vision, said they'd be willing to take a look and had experience polishing aluminum. By this point, I had already removed the old clearcoat and washed it myself. Without even looking at it they quoted $900 to polish the whole thing. "Uh... OK!" I thought, though clearly they had no idea what a big job this was going to be. "Why don't you come and take a look at it and then give me a quote" I said. They came out the next day and revised their quote to about $2,000 + supplies = about $2,300.00. Deal!

A week later they had completed Nuvite Grade F9 and then Nuvite Grade C over the whole trailer! And they came in right at the budget! It took 2 guys about 60 hours each.

I opted not to do the final Nuvite Grade S polish this time around (save time and money), which means not a true mirror finish, but it's soooo much better than it was I can hardly complain. Maybe next year we'll do the last step.

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trekerboy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2016, 09:24 PM   #2
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1975 31' Sovereign
Prudenville , Michigan
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 49
Images: 5
It looks amazing. We have a 75 Soverign and it needs a total cleaning. You give me hope lol.
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Old 04-27-2016, 07:20 PM   #3
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1996 28' Excella
aguanga , California
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 15
Looks great

I assume you left the awning on during the whole process. Do you recommend leaving the awning in place during the striping and polishing process?
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Old 04-27-2016, 07:23 PM   #4
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1996 28' Excella
aguanga , California
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 15
Well I just looked a little closer at the pictures and I can see that you removed the awnings, well there's my answer.
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Old 04-28-2016, 06:24 AM   #5
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1979 31' Excella 500
Charlevoix , Michigan
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 350
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcantillon View Post
Well I just looked a little closer at the pictures and I can see that you removed the awnings, well there's my answer.
Actually, I didn't take off the awning during the stripping process and I wish I had! At the time I didn't know how to take off the awning, but it turns out it's really simple and would have made things a lot easier. Definitely recommend taking them off for the stripping and polishing process.
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