D.E.

Get your mind out of the gutter I am talking about a toy airplane!

I have had a couple of guys ask me some questions about color sanding and buffing an airplane and since I have to do one ,,, Here goes.

I am going to polish this airplane it is the one John Busse won in the raffle. It is also the first one with a Jett Q40 motor in it. I am also going to be doing the radio install for him but first I need to buff it.

D.E.

Well the first step is to color sand the airplane, I use 3M 1000 ang 1500 grit paper one sheet of each is plenty.

D.E.

Here are some before pics as you can see it has some small dust particles in it as well as being dry with not much clear. When I used to do paint work on high dollar street rods I would never let the customer see it before it was color sanded and polished because they always looked like crap but on pourpose. Urethane paint if you put it on thick and shiney once you polish it it gets a mottled look to it that if you look down the side of the car you can see. If you put the paint on dry and then sand out the texture and polish it, it is flat as a piece of glass.

On cars you should be able to put a dime on the ground next to the car and tell if it is heads or tails in the reflection. On airplanes simply smooth and shiney is enough. Mine dont last long enough to worry about much more than that.

D.E.

Here are some after sanding pics, As you can see there is still a slight lip around the stripes but there is so little clear on these that if you sand it all out it will go through the clear and not look very good when polished. On a street rod at this point you would put it back in the booth and put another couple coats of clear on so you could sand that edge completely smooth. That would kill the weight of one of these models.

D.E.

The sanding process is to go over the airplane lightly with 1000 grit as seen in this photo you just want to get the bigger imperfections knocked down then go completely over it with 1500 grit to remove all of the imperfections and be ready for polish.

Dave E.
Who is out to polish!

D.E.

Now it is time to polish.

This is the compound, glaze and wax I use

I invested in a little Dynabrade buffer that Jim Allen showed me, It was expensive but very well worth it.

D.E.

Next is to start with the rubbing compound to bring the shine up a little.

It only takes a couple of spots.

Then spread it out a little with the polishing pad.

Then work that area until it shines.

D.E.

A little about using a buffer.

Never buff with the pad spinning into an edge always have pad angled to spin off of the edge this minimizes the chance of polishing through thepaint or worse yet hooking your rudder and tearing it off. ( Dont Ask )

In the pics are a couple of examples. The wing fillet with the buffer spinningclockwise going off the edge, the elevator doing the same and the rudder also.

Use the buffer tipped slightly on edge so you have good control of where you are working.

It only takes slight pressure todo it. The weight of the machine is plenty.

D.E.

After you do the whole model with compound I switch to a soft foam pad to do the glaze. The glaze is to remove the slight haze left by the cutting agent in the compound.

It takes even less of the glaze, use the same process as the compound only work small areas at one time.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Can you post a link to that buffer please?

D.E.

After Glaze apply a coat of hand wax and you are finished!

Here are a couple of before and after shots, I think I see a difference?

D.E.

This one is pretty nice, I wish it was mine!!! Aaaa I would just ruin it!

The wing and fuse on scale. Will definately need to add weight!

Enjoy
Dave E.
Who is going to get radio in today also

D.E.

Here is the link to the buffer.http://www.joetoolcompany.com/dyb10390.html

Dave wouldnt this thing look good with a dark green and light green stripe instead?

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Sure would, let me know how much

thanks for the link.

ptxman

My Feedback: (2)

Awesome article DE. The pictures really do the talking, nice shine! Jeez, now I dont feel so bad about my clear coat, maybe there hope after all to achieve a final finish like that. Your polishing results are waaay better than mine. Couple questions:

- what specific kind of clear is that on the model?

- shot in X applications of wet coats? or seperate with intersanding, or?

- can you elaborate on the buffing pads themselves. Right now Im using 3" foam pads intended for polishing (car detailing they say), velcro backed, came with the polisher. But there seem to be a multitude of pads, color coded based on density or hardness I guess? I cant really see much difference which makes me suspicious of either my clear or teh compound. But what I dont have is the fluffy looking one like you show. What goes with what?

- I had a pneumatic buffer (well actually it was a choked back right angle mini random sander pushed into service as a polisher) but when I started looking at the CFM spcs of palm polishers like yours, I figured my compressor might be running full time to keep up. What compressor do you have on the business end supplying air on yours?

I ended up buying one of these (as they will ship to Canada).
http://www.autogeek.net/griots-orbital-polisher.html
Im sure its a knockoff of something but because its electric vs pneumatic & light compared to others out there, seemed like a logical choice for the money. Ive only done 1 racer with it, but Im using Farecla G3 & foam pads... After sanding (1200 I confess) the finish is dimensionally nice & flat & 'semi-shiny', but just not that high luster. Now Im having 'gloss envy'. Spill your guts. And dont tell me 'wax-on', 'wax-off'

D.E.

Ptxman,

The clear is a urethane product called slick and quick, A quart of it with hardener cost 22 dollars and I can usually get at least four racers out of a quart.

I usually put on a quick tack coat and then one medium coat and hang it outside to dry.

The foam pads are usually used with the firmer ones for cutting with compound and the softer ones for applying glaze. I use a hairy type wool pad for the compound and foam for glaze.

I looked at your polisher and it appears to be a dual orbit type which doesnt work that well for really color sanding and buffing. They are made more for wax applications as they dont build the heat needed for polishing. I think this may be your problem with not getting a true shine. Also your clear needs to be a true 2 part ( catalyzied ) clear to achieve the proper hardnes to polish.

My compressor is just a 110 volt single stage garage compressor, It runs alot but keeps up fairly well.

Hope this helps
Dave E.

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

[link=http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/sanders/6-inch-self-vacuuming-air-palm-sander-98895.html]Plam sander[/link]

This what I use and cost alot less. $39.99

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

Sorry for tell you need to change the pad to put on the buffing pad they sell too

ptxman

My Feedback: (2)

What do you think of this one for an electric jobber?
http://www.autogeek.net/porter-cable-7424xp.html

Im using a 2K clear too, this one was 5-Star, reletively inexpensive. But that stuff has since gone the way of non-compliant VOC here (Alberta, Canada) so I'm about to try some RM shortly which is the new stuff. Actually the clear itself seemed to come out ok (fuse untouched). Its when I started the sanding & polishing (the wing) that it took on the wonderful matt finish. But Ive also come to realize I was pretty skinny on clearing the wing worried about weight buildup. Turns out wasnt much of anything. On my next one I gained some experience, used a light source & hose-piped it on a bit heavier (knowing I would polish). A bit better but still not like yours. Someone suggested 5-star was kind of a softer material clear but Im thinking the issue is this smaller dia polisher & rpm like you say. And maybe the Farecla (water based polishing compound). Im kind of motivated to try your recipie now. Couldnt be the operator or technique ... no way...

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

Hi PTXMAN
What plane is that I like it?

D.E.

Hello Kevin,

That is also a dual action sander which has a random orbit pattern and I have just not had any luck really producing quality results with those ( I have several diferent ones from my 20 years as a show car painter ) Maybe you have a different technique you could share.

ptxman,

That looks nice !

D.E.

ptxman

My Feedback: (2)

Sweet Vee

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

I'm a retierd Body From Jeep and Did all the show cars. And I used it for over 30- years. I liked it for not leaving swirls.

ptxman

My Feedback: (2)

Dumb question but why is that? I would visualize the foam as more of a 'flattening operation' kind of like what a backing rubber is to sandpaper abrasive. And the fluffy looking wool more for final shine, kind of like waxing you car with a soft towel. (Its probably obvious by now why my results suck! )

So Im clear, is that dynabride you use purely circular motion? or random motion like my sander?

Kevin Matney

My Feedback: (1)

dynabride is a 2,400 RPM geared, rotary motor, were the 1 I like is a random motion at 9,000 RPM.
Less like to spin the part off the bench.