Polish your airplane instead of painting it.

By Bob Fritz

When the editor first set me this assignment of investigating techniques for polishing aluminum I thought, "Oh great! Here’s where I’m going to get arms akin to the first day of boot camp: ‘Gimme 20, Fritz!’" I was not entirely enthusiastic about it, but my wife has wanted to have a polished spinner on her Cessna 172, so I thought it would be two birds with one stone. (Besides, what Li wants, Li gets.)

Step one was the research. Checking with aviation museums and the Airstream trailer crowd seemed a good first stop. After all, what groups are more obsessed with polishing aluminum than these two? I found two buffing compounds recommended, but mutual agreement on the buffing technique. So as not to imply "camps," I should point out that the division of opinion had nothing to do with the products being polished. That is, Airstreamers were split, as were the…

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