Polishing Your Airplane? Tell Us of All Your Procedures, Tricks, Tips and Photos

A few Zenith builders have chosen to polish their aircraft rather than paint (including me). Many have posted some photos along with some tips. These are very valuable to those that trying to decide whether to polish or not and to those that have just began to polish their airplane. It is difficult to find all the posts that include these procedures. Let's make this discussion thread all things polishing. If you find this thread and have already posted something relevant to polishing an aircraft else where, please copy your comments and photos and post them in this thread. If everyone brings their experiences here, it will be more valuable to those that follow later on. Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Hoyt on April 12, 2018 at 10:29am

Here's what mine looked like after 2+ years without polishing.  I was suprised how well it held up.

Under the Dirt

Top Rear Skin

Tail

I used Nuvite F9, and then Nuvite C just on the areas I wanted to stand out.  Last time I polished it was when I lived in MN, and I've been living in TX for 2 years now...

- Pat

Permalink Reply by Gary Welch on April 12, 2018 at 3:50pm

I have been using the Nuvite system with the final polishing done with a cyclo polisher. 

Last weekend was the first time I had to leave my plane out in the rain. It hated the thought because it had a beautiful shine on it and I imagined the rain would water-spot the heck out of it. It ended up raining for two days. 

When I got out to the airport to look at the plane I was shocked. There wasn't a spot on it! No water marks or streaks at all. It looked exactly the same as before the rain, though it probably had a light coating of dust.

This really surprised me because I have heard a number of comments about rain causing water spotting on polished planes.

  

Permalink Reply by Peter Eiberger on March 3, 2022 at 12:52pm

I am using Zephyr Airway buffing wheels to "cut in" the rivet lines, longerons and any tight areas near an edge, then going back through with the Nuvite and a wool compounding pad for the open areas. 

The Zephyr Airway wheels polish on the edge of the wheel, and they polish the rivet areas better than the wool pads that get torn up by the rivets. On the Cruzer, the thin strip between the door and the rear window with two lines of rivets is a pretty tough piece to do with a wool pad and Nuvite. The Zephyr is also really good in tight corners or along an edge (like the window openings).

The Nuvite does a better job of the open areas of skin between rivet lines (no stiffeners underneath) as it works a larger area with less pressure. 

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