Detail Werkz : 1950's Cessna 170 Aluminum Polish Job

BHARE

New member
Detail Werkz is quickly growing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as Aluminum Plane Correction Experts. This is our 3rd plane to do Aluminum Correction and one of the worst we have encountered to date.



The owner told me that he just did not have the time like he use to to upkeep the aluminum and had let it go for almost 9 month or more. Seeing one of our other planes that we did he took notice of our correction ability's and called and scheduled a day to correct and bring life back to his Cessna 170.



There is really no prep-work for planes. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit pretty much. As far as aluminum planes go you don't start washing them etc, as you will just make maters worse.



Our plan of attack was that Jose & Sesar would tackle the wings. Chris would tackle the passenger side, and I would tackle the driver side.



Here are a few shots of the plane as we arrived and started to set up equipment and get ready for a long days correction.



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We have had great luck using the Cyclo Polishes for our aluminum correction machines. This job was no different Chris and I started out using the Cyclo Polishers and the GI 4 inch Cyclo Green/Yellow Edge pad system. We started using the Yellow side of the pads and product of choice was White Diamond Aluminum polish. In my honest opinion this is some of the best aluminum polish on the market that I have come across.



Here are a few 50/50 shots of correction and non-correction.



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Here is a shot of the fuselage before.



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And here is the same area after correction has been obtained.



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Here are some more 50/50 shots. You can see just how oxidized this plane had become.



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The owner had just completed some paint work on the plane to make upkeep a tad bit easier. Under the wings were painted, but the painter had sprayed some type of chemical on the wing tips and had really stained them something good. We had to break out the Nuvite and manually by hand attack these areas. This was by far the most time consuming of the project as each fin was damaged and needed to be hand polished out. Also you have to be really careful with these and not apply much pressure or you can deform the aluminum and make bends/creases and can decrease performance of the aircraft.



Here is Jose, Sesar working on the wing tips.



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Once the hand polishing was achieved, we had to go back over the areas with the Cyclo to remove the deeper scratches the Nuvite put into the soft aluminum. Again we grabbed the White Diamond, GI Yellow 4 inch pad and the Cyclo Polisher to completed this process.



Here is Chris working on the tips of the wings with the Cyclo Polisher.



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Here are more shots of Chris working the fuselage with the Cyclo polisher.



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Here are some shots of the rear wing after I just completed the correction.



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More shots of the before and after.



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This project took 7.5 hours with 4 guys working non-stop for completion of this aluminum correction.



We clayed the painted areas using the GI Green Clay and applied some GI Gloss Finish to help give protection from the elements and to help reduce drag and static electricity.
 
Enjoy the finished shots of this Cessna 170 that the Detail Werkz Crew had the opportunity to work their magic on.



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It was quite late in the afternoon once we completed the job, and was just hovering about 101 degrees, so we did not get any shots of the plane out side. The owner told me that he would pull it out in the grass by the runway and take a bunch of photos. Once I get those I will update this thread for all to admire.
 
Hey, that came out very nicely. If you are going to try to market to airplane guys, you should brush up on your terminology. The movable surfaces at the rear of the wing are not "tips"; the tips are the outboard ends of the wings furthest away from where the people sit. What you referred to as the "tips" of the wings were movable control surfaces, the outboard ones being ailerons, the inboard being flaps. Also the "rear wing" is called the horizontal stabilizer, and the movable surfaces on there are called the elevator. That portion of the plane is also called the empennage or tail, and it also includes the vertical stabilizer and rudder.



Also, the rear parts of the wing and tail are called the "trailing edge" while the (usually) more rounded part at the front end is the "leading edge".
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Hey, that came out very nicely. If you are going to try to market to airplane guys, you should brush up on your terminology. The movable surfaces at the rear of the wing are not "tips"; the tips are the outboard ends of the wings furthest away from where the people sit. What you referred to as the "tips" of the wings were movable control surfaces, the outboard ones being ailerons, the inboard being flaps. Also the "rear wing" is called the horizontal stabilizer, and the movable surfaces on there are called the elevator. That portion of the plane is also called the empennage or tail, and it also includes the vertical stabilizer and rudder.



Also, the rear parts of the wing and tail are called the "trailing edge" while the (usually) more rounded part at the front end is the "leading edge".



thanks for the input and hopefully the folks get the gist of what can be accomplished by seeing the photos. Its the photos not the terminology that will gain new clients, put point taken. Thanks for the input. Again this is our 3rd plane, so terminology is not quite there yet...but in dew time and your help we will be plane terminology pros! :wavey
 
Conan777 said:
Very Cool! Nice to see something different. You guys did a great job! What a difference. Did you polish the painted areas too or just seal it?



We used the GI Gloss Finish Polish for our LSP on the painted surfaces to give some protection and a bit of shine. The paint was only a few weeks old and in great condition, no swirls, etc so no correction was needed.
 
Nice to see an airplane detail once in a while. Make sure you cover/protect all the pitot/static ports while detailing!
 
AcuraYYZ said:
Nice to see an airplane detail once in a while. Make sure you cover/protect all the pitot/static ports while detailing!



Oh you mean the Prandtl tube, yea we cover that up when we are close. the 50' planes Prandtl tube is not as high-tech as current planes.
 
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