New way to polish up blades and parts

[GyroRon]

My blades were looking a little dull and had some stains on them from sitting on the bubble wrap in the blade box I used to go to Mentone and back this past week. I decided to polish them and decided to try a new way of doing it I have seen on commercials on TV.

I went to Autozone and picked up a thing called a " Mothers Powerball " which is basically a foam ball that goes on a cordless drill and you use it to rub the polish on with and get the metal to shine.

Anyway, nothing special to report other than it worked great and I was very pleased with the results. It worked A LOT better than I have ever been able to do by hand and it was alot faster too. It was money well spent.

[Ga6riel]

wait a sec
did he say ummm...
stains ?

[Master Roda]

GyroRon,

Have you tried Eagle One NanoWax? It's good stuff.

Jon

[Timchick]

Ron,
I saw an ad for those in a magazine and wondered if they worked as well as they advertised. I may try that also.

[GyroRon]

Yes... stains. Or what else do you call them? The blades seem to get markings on them from whatever they sit on in the blade box. This box has bubble wrap in it and because I drove through rain going to mentone and coming home from mentone it made the " staining " even worse than usual.

Then there was stains from dead bugs..... Also stains from where people grabbed my blades all week..... and so on and so forth

Master Roda, No I haven't tried it yet. Is it metal polish or wax or ??? I used both Mothers polish made to use with the powerball and then also tried some of the polish I have been using in the past which is Blue Coral liquid polish for metals - which to me seemed to work slightly better than the mothers.

Tim, I also have one of those nice buffers - the one where the disk just goes round and round... not a orbital one like you see for sale real cheap - All I have been able to find for that buffer is wool pads to use to buff off wax and or polish. I would have liked to have found a foam pad for it to use for rub in the polish. This would have most likely done a better job than the powerball, but I don't know where to get one of those foam pads for polishing with my rotary buffer.

The Powerball worked good. I think as long as your blades aren't completely pitted and corrosion city, the powerball will make them shine. It seems to help maintain a shine, where a buffer with a foam pad would be needed to restore a shine if your blades are in bad shape.

[david holmes]

I wasn't satisfied with just a "shine" on my newest blades a year ago. I wanted a MIRROR finish. That took some work on NEW blades from south Florida. I used grades s and grade 7 Neuvite (sp) polish and FINALLY got a mirror finish.
After that I put Naugahide sleeves over them whenever they are on the ground and only touch them when I have on a pair of cotton gloves. Many months later they still look like mirrors -- except for the bugs.
The sleeves were $80 and the gloves were $1 but money well spent.

p.s. the blades that I bent in February had the same treatment. They have been lying OUTSIDE since then and STILL have a mirror finish. Neuvite is good.

[gyropilot]

Neuvite is good.I'll echo that David!

I use Nuvite to polish and maintain my Dragon Wing blades at a mirror finish. They're so shiny that in flight I can see a moving image of the ground below on the underside of the blades!

For those interested, here are some good links for more info on buying and using Nuvite polish...

http://www.nuvitechemical.com/

http://www.vintagetrailersupply.com/

http://www.perfectpolish.com/

http://www.russellw.com/planes/ryan/polishing.htm

John L.

[KenSandyEggo]

I used Flitz when I had a polished Ercoupe and it gave that mirror shine. Had one guy ask me how much I paid to have it chromed.

[Timchick]

David,
Where did you find the Naugahide sleeves?

[KenSandyEggo]

He shot a nauga in Uganda and cut off the legs.

[StanFoster]

Ken: That was a good one....:D


Stan

[aerodynamicdon]

I have a set of extruded blades, sitting in a box and getting dull. I read that a good initial step before polishing was to Scotch Brite them. I have no personal experience recommendation, so I'm going to use the ones in this thread. Thankew.

[scottessex]

Ron go to an automotive paint/body supply store and get the foam buffing pads, they are superior to the wool, get a yellow one for the buffing and a black one for the polish.