Polished RV-12?

Is anyone polishing their RV-12?

After reading the Kitplanes article last week on Vinyl Wrap, I've figured out its not for me - darn it.

Paint is really expensive, although I'm considering learning a new skill.

So that brings up the question of polish. I really like the polished metal look and fully understand it's a lot of work to do and maintain. I just wonder if any 12 builders are doing this or considering doing this?

Thanks,

Bob

Can't help you with the polishing question, but I'm curious to know what you read in Kitplanes that ruled out vinyl for you? (I'm not a Kitplanes subscriber...)

I read the Kitplanes article and it seems that professionally installed Vinyl costs just as much as paint. But Vinyl does not last as long as paint.
Joe Gores

bhassel said:

Is anyone polishing their RV-12?

After reading the Kitplanes article last week on Vinyl Wrap, I've figured out its not for me - darn it.

Paint is really expensive, although I'm considering learning a new skill.

So that brings up the question of polish. I really like the polished metal look and fully understand it's a lot of work to do and maintain. I just wonder if any 12 builders are doing this or considering doing this?

Thanks,

Bob

Click to expand...

The first polish on your project takes a lot of effort. My 9A took about a month of weekends and evenings to complete. A year later, a rebuff of top surfaces of both wings took 3 hours. I would guess if you can work hard and efficiently you can get away with doing the annual rebuff in a weekend. Polish is very addictive and I find it hard to stop once you get on a roll. Its also a good way to put a positive slant on a bad weather weekend.
Cam
C-FTLL RV9A

One downside of polishing is the reflection of the sun. It can be blinding.

Melting, Melting, all my beautiful canopy

AZLeeJay said:

One downside of polishing is the reflection of the sun. It can be blinding.

Click to expand...

I've been cautioned that a nicely polished set of wings + Texas summer sun = warm and squishy canopy plexiglass.

My fuselage is painted but the wings are polished. I believe it's the only RV-12 with this look. Happened almost by accident, my painter could not finish the job and eventually I found the combination quite attractive. Indeed polishing the wings is much easier than other surfaces, specially as they are easily removable. I thought that if I didn't like it I could still have them painted while the opposite is not possible. After one year, so far so good and no problem with the sun as mentioned by some in this thread (when flying I have more interesting things to do than looking at the wings ).

Read this thread. It does not have to cost near as much. But I have not seen it on pulled rivets. http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=114890

I've polished my 7A and don't regret it (I also had paint on the fiberglass blended into the aluminum) and find most of the warnings are nonsense.



yes, as was pointed out previously, the first polish takes a lot of time as you'll be removing scratches and compounding. And even when maintaining, you'll find scratches to work out.

But maintaining isn't hard at all. I use California Chrome (purple) with the aluminum deoxidyzer.

One thing I like about polishing is it's something to do. Sometimes I just want to putter in the hangar and polishing is a good way to do this. Much better than sitting around with old guys talking about the way things used to be better.

Squishy plexi. Maybe. It's happened once or twice. So, buy a good canopy cover and put it on if you're leaving the plane out in that sort of sunshine.

You put a nicely polished plane next to a nicely painted plane, and people will gravitate to the nicely polished plane every time.

Every. Time.

http://www.californiacustom.com/purple_metal_polish.html

This stuff really works great. They have a deoxidiser too.

I purchased a Cyclo dual head orbital polisher at Sun-N-Fun last year to polish my RV-12. Having no experience with this stuff, I was uncertain as to what to expect. To my absolute amazement, this thing works almost like magic, bringing up a mirror finish very quickly. I've read alot about people having to dig the polishing compound out of the pulled rivet heads. But with the Cyclo, there is no residual polish in the mandrel hole or around the head. I have no regerts whatsoever about the purchase and highly recommend the Cyclo to anyone who is considering polish.

Which polishing compound did you use for the RV-12 and which pad did you use on the Cycle Dual head?

Thanks,

KitPlanes magazine, June and August 2014, has a couple of great articles on how to polish your plane.