After 7 years I wanted to post an update on my experience polishing my aircraft. You might want to first read the original post copied and pasted below "Here is my original post from 2017". Then come back and read this update to understand the sequence of events.

Also, an update to my original post below. I did buy a cyclo polisher and it made a HUGE difference when using Nuvite S (compared to the 7" polisher). Every reference said it would make a difference but I was skeptical. They were right but I still have no idea why. It's just two pads instead of one but for some reason it literally makes all the difference it the world. 

First off, I'm still really happy with the polished airplane. However, mine has been hangared the whole time. If it had to be left outside I doubt I would feel the same. Here's some of the pros and cons.

Cons

1. Yes, every palm print shows.
2. Tool mark scratches can't be avoided
3. Foot mark scratches can't be avoided (from your toes when kneeling on the wing and leaning into the cockpit)
4. Dust on the plane is obvious, where you probably would have to look closely on a painted plane.
5. Water, rain, and sweat leave marks
6. You need to invest in a Cyclo Polisher if you want to keep it looking good, and they aren't cheap (+/- $300)

Pros

1. Saves weight
2. Looks cool
3. Never have to worry about paint fading, damage, or need to repaint.
4. Far easier to maintain than what the perception is. In fact, I can guarantee I can clean my polished plane faster than you can wash your painted plane (by a long shot)!
5. Works well with a partial vinyl wrap. Seven years in I have run my cyclo polisher, with finishing polish, over the edges of the vinyl wrap when quick-polishing, dozens of times. The polish and polisher do not mark the vinyl at all. And no, I do not understand why! 
6. Did I mention it looks cool?

Polish Maintenance

About every 6 months or so I do a quick polish with cotton pads with Nuvite S and my cyclo polisher. I can do the entire top surfaces of my 601 XLB in 30 to 45 minutes. It comes out looking like the day I finished the original polish. Once you have the technique down, it very simple and fast and done mostly one-handed.

I use a very (very!) little Nuvite S dabbed on the section I am working. Using just a little does not leave a section fully smeared with a coat of polish, It just puts a layer on the pads which is enough for the quick polish.  No heavy pushing or straining. Just let the polisher do its thing flat on the surface. Don't angle it down like you would do with course polishing.

I do not wipe down after polishing. Yes, it leaves a bit of a residue but you can't notice it. Also, anything you use will just leave a smear. (This is why I said I can clean my plane faster than you can wash yours - taking into account moving your plane to a safe wash area, taping off possible water entry points, hosing off the dust, going over everything with soap and brush, drying the plane with towels, and taxing back to hangar.) 

Forty-five minutes every 6 months is all it takes to keep my polished plane looking amazing. OK, add another 10 minutes to go over the vinyl wrap portions with Lemon Pledge.

To be fair, if after a quick polish you go over the plane with a clean, dry, cotton pads on the cyclo polisher it will remove the residue and look slightly better. I usually don't bother unless I'm trying to impress someone. 

Scratches and Tool Marks

The reason I am posting today because today was the first time I decided to try and deal with this. I knew the only way to deal with scratches and to marks was to start back with the course polish - in my case Nuvite F. The proceed to Nuvite C and then finally Nuvite S. My concern was that if tried to do just the scratched area, it would be very noticeable from the adjacent metal. 

Secondly, I have  bad back and the thought of using my heavy 7" polisher which I used originally for this was just not going to happen. While the cyclo polisher is almost as heavy it is much easier to maneuver and you can do it mostly with 1 hand. 

Today I decided to do a test on my pilot's side baggage door. It had screwdriver scratches from opening the cam locks and it had toe scratches/marks from leaning into the cockpit. I used the cyclo polisher and did two sets of passes with Nuvite F, two with Nuvite S, then changed the polisher pads and did two with Nuvite S. I did not push hard while I was doing this. However, with the F and C I did angle the polisher so the weight was on the leading edges. With the S I just ran the polisher flat on the metal.

Honestly, I was pretty stunned with the results! The tool scratches were almost completely gone. The toe/shoe marks were completely gone. Some spotting from I-don't-know-what was gone. And the finish was as close to a mirror as I have seen. 

I had no idea that going back over the metal, starting with the course polish would take the finish to the next level. I guess if your in the business this may sound obvious, but I was concerned I would just mess things up. I was wrong. 

A note about Nuvite. The polish I used today is the same polish I bought seven years ago. It had completely separated, but I just stirred it really good and and it worked as good as new. This really surprised me. I know there are other polishes out there but this will definitely get you the finish you want. It is also specifically made for aircraft.

Cleaning palm prints: I've tried everything and everything causes smearing. The only thing that doesn't is putting clean cotton pads on the cyclo polisher and going over it. I can do the all of these marks on the plane is less than 5 minutes.

The only bad part about today is that it has made me want to go back over the whole plane with the F,C, and S. This is going to take some time but once I saw how good the baggage door looked, I knew I had to do it.

Hope this info helps someone!

Here is my original post from 2017

After about 80 hours of polishing I'll throw i my two cents.

First off - I got really sick of spending hours and hours doing this. Ok, I feel better now that I got a chance to whine.

Polishing can be quite frustrating for a number of reasons. The biggest frustration is that there never seems to be ONE technique, or method, that works consistently. On the same piece of metal, six inches apart, you can get completely different results using identical technique, polish quantity and pressure. This is not something you can do on auto-pilot. You constantly have to watch your results and adjust or re-polish areas as needed.

I used Nuvite F9, C and S as recommended by Radara at Nuvite. He was great at answering my questions and providing polishing recommendations for the 6061 T6 aluminum. radaram@universalphotonics.com

First off, I think the word "passes" when describing polishing can be confusing because I think it means different things to different people. For the purpose of my discussion a "pass" is covering a complete area of the skin with one complete grade of polish. 

One complete area of the skin, per polish grade, consisted of the following:

Using a rough area of 20" x 20" (or area defined by a square of rivets) I would make "three cycles" with the polisher. After putting "thumbprints" of polish I would start at the corner of the square and move in the direction of the grain - back and forth, back and forth along the same line. Then I would over-lap 50%  and repeat the same four movements. When complete I would repeat the process going across the grain. Lastly, I would go back again with the grain following the same method. This is what I would call "one pass". For one pass I will have gone over each section of the skin 12 times (4 with the grain, 4 against the grain and again 4 with the grain). This would be one "pass".

I did three general passes with F9, meaning each section of skin was gone over at least 36 times. Many areas needed some additional passes with the F9 as well. 

I then did two passes with C grade polish using the same technique (24 more cycles of the polisher). This is the number of passes recommended by Radara at Nuvite. When I was done with the two passes I tried moving on the the S polish but saw no improvement.

So I went back and did one more pass with the Grade C which DID improve the finish considerably.

So, if you're doing the math you will have noticed I have gone over each section of skin 72 times to date (6 passes x 12 cycles).     

I have tried using the Grade S with my 7" polisher but it doesn't seem to accomplish anything. I am going to buy a Cyclo polisher when I can afford it and finish the process. 

Some other notes from my experience:

- I used a Harbor Freight polisher and the, $20 per pad, 3m wool pads. Cleaning them is fairly easy - wash in the sink with hot water and dish soap to get the thick stuff off, then soak in a bucket of water that is 1/4 full and add 3/4 cup of trisodium phosphate (the granular stuff, not the liquid "safety" equivalent). Leave in the bucket over-night and they are magically white the next morning. I dried mine with an old towel and then put inside one of those cloth grocery store bags and put in the dryer on high for two hours.  Do NOT make the mistake I did by thinking the pad was completely clean and just throwing it directly into the dryer. When I opened the dryer the inside was grey and I had a panicked 20 minutes trying to clean the damn thing before the wife saw it and started screaming!    

- If I had to do it again I would buy the Makita polisher as others have recommended. I think it might have made the job a little easier.

- The polisher WILL rip metal off of your plane! Watch the Sonex video on how to polish - it's on both the Sonex website and the EAA website. It talks about how to use the polisher as you approach any edge of metal. There is one way, and one way only, to do this. FYI - I ripped the rudder cable fairing almost completely off my plane. I also damaged another corner of the plane.

- Nuvite has printed instructions on how to use their product. Start with their recommendations and then adjust your process as necessary.

- If something isn't working, slow down. Nuvite recommends moving the polisher at one foot per 3 to 4 seconds. My experience suggests this is just about right. Trying to go faster just meant I was going to have to make another cycle, adding more work. Go slow.

- If something isn't working try using more polish. Or try using less polish. Try increasing the polisher speed. Try using more pressure. Try using less pressure. The metal isn't consistent and you will need to adjust your technique based on the results you are seeing.

- Cleaning the polish off - ARGGHHH!! Your arms are falling off from hours of polishing - but there is a ton of polish stuck on the rivets, seams and on the skin itself. Now you need to clean this off before it hardens and becomes even a bigger job. This is a giant PITA and the end of a long day. I tried different stuff including isopropyl alcohol but I found that lacquer thinner worked best. The alcohol leaves streaks that needs to be wiped off whereas the lacquer thinner seemed to dissolve the hard stuff much easier and did not leave the streaks. Although it works, 409 is apparently a no-no for our type of metal.   

- Pressure: I found with the initial passes of F9 I had to use a LOT of pressure on the polisher.  When I got to the last pass of C Grade, I was just letting the weight of the polisher itself do the work. In between it's a matter of seeing the results and adjusting pressure as needed. 

- I experimented with some different waxes when I finished my last C pass but came back to Nuvite's recommendation. They say anything you put on the polished plane will just make it cloudy and harder to polish later. I tried Maquires, Mothers, lemon pledge - and came to their conclusion. They all made the finish look cloudy.  

- Time: FYI it took my 5 hours to do one pass of each wing (top only). Since I did at least 6 passes, I spent over 30 hours polishing the top of EACH wing. I'm not sure how long the fuse took but it was at least the equivalent. This is a marathon job and not one that will be completed in a couple of weekends. If you are in the middle of your build start polishing as soon as you have an assembly complete. If you are waiting on parts or answers, use the time to polish, instead of doing nothing. This can minimize the effort required at the end of the build.

I love the results but certainly not the process - which also describes my feeling on building the 601 XL!