Inspiration Pictures
 

Would you fine builders be willing to post a few pictures of your polished airplanes? We're miles away from making a paint vs polish decision, but I like to dream of the future when we're not pounding rivets. Keeps me motivated! :)

In particular, I'm considering a partially polished and painted surface. I'd like to paint the fiberglass and leading edges, but the rest be polished. I've also done some engine turning on custom door and instrument panels for a customer vehicle. Looks like the nose of the Spirit of St. Louis. Anyway....

Love to see what y'all have done!

Painted vs polished
 

My RV3 is painted and glad it is. My neighbour has a mostly polished RV7a, the fiberglass parts are painted.
I've watched my neighbours spend 4 full days polishing their plane using a very deluxe two head polishing machine. Sadly, they once washed the plane with tap water and discovered that the minerals in the water left spots all over the unpainted aluminum. Another week of hand polishing returned the airplane to an almost mirror finish again.
Their future plans are they will buy distilled water if they again feel the need to wash the plane. The wife half the of the RV7a team is the head polisher and gets a little grumpy if someone even entertains the idea of touching any of the shiny aluminum. Leaving a polished airplane outside for a few days on an extended trip may risk it being rained on and maybe require having to polish water spots out again?
It sure looks nice, but happy that I'm not having to polish even a small aircraft like the RV3. My two cents...

They look nice, but..
 

Id love to have a polished plane..it would be the Hughes Racer, and I would have a team that keeps it polished up, it would seldom come out of the hangar, but it would be nice when it did. Then I woke up and remembered maintaining the Eastern and USair airliners back when it was a "weight savings"..ugh. If you plan it, make sure your workmanship is top-notch, and you enjoy polishing often. Others will likely have similar experience and suggest paint, but do what YOU want..it can always be painted! I'll end with my friends experience and my suggestion.." How do I keep it polished he said?" 2 years later he took my advise "turn 15-20K into a paint job", and he did.

Just a teaser pic.

Maybe I should change my thread title...
 

.... to “Please talk me out of polishing my airplane”

Just kidding. :)

Yeah, I know it’s a hard job to maintain the polished parts. My plan would be to paint those parts which are hard to reach or awkward to access. Polished areas would be an accent. Anyway... Maybe someone will chime in with some photos.

Whoa, baby! That is really sharp! We’re building a nose wheel kit. When I realized the tail of the 14 was 8 ft tall, I decided I better add the vertical stab and rudder to the painted part list.

Drop the “A” model and just go straight RV-14! You will have a lighter, faster plane and can reach the tail for polishing! Easy!

That's true. The tail draggers are beautiful. Especially the tandem 8! :cool:

Here is an early shot. Still needed to paint the tail fairing.

Beautiful Airplane!
 

Bruce,
What method do you use to get such a brilliant shine?
Ron