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What am I doing wrong.

Rallylancer122

Well Known Member
I inherited my Dad's rv8. He had it nicely polished at one point but it's been about 10 years since it's been touched. After spending a couple years addressing mechanical issues and learning the plane I finally decided to start cleaning it up.

I've never polished before so I picked up an orbital polisher, some Nuvite C, and a Rupes wool pad and read Nuvites manual. It seems to be working except that no matter how much I run the polisher the black smudge doesn't go away. On the videos it polishes away after about a minute, but mine is still there after 10. Eventually I give up and wipe it away with a rag.

Am I missing something?
 
Polishing

I inherited my Dad's rv8. He had it nicely polished at one point but it's been about 10 years since it's been touched. After spending a couple years addressing mechanical issues and learning the plane I finally decided to start cleaning it up.

I've never polished before so I picked up an orbital polisher, some Nuvite C, and a Rupes wool pad and read Nuvites manual. It seems to be working except that no matter how much I run the polisher the black smudge doesn't go away. On the videos it polishes away after about a minute, but mine is still there after 10. Eventually I give up and wipe it away with a rag.

Am I missing something?

Wipe the black off with a washcloth and mineral spirits. A toothbrush helps along the seams
 
Ok. I guess I was under the impression that it shouldn't be necessary to wipe the black off. According to the instructions that's supposed to vanish during the polishing process.
 
Use less polish.
It doesn’t take much.

Cornstarch will help take off residue after.

Also use buffer not cyclo with C.
Use cyclo with S only and flannel material.

Boomer
 
The longer time between polishing the more black/oxides will be present and need to be removed. depending on how aggressive the initial polish job was your probably looking at 6 or more applications with the Nuvite C before your ready for S. If the black isn't going away on it's own your probably using to much polish.

Small dabs of polish 4" apart polishing up-down left-right 2X should leave a clear stripe behind the polisher. I've found any more polishing over the same area is a waste of time as the Nuvite breaks down really fast. Just wipe the area off and repeat several times. I tried to do 2'x'2 sections

I also had better luck using an orbital with a wool pad because each pad would only last 2 hrs max before they needed to be cleaned.

Keep at it. It's alot of work but it's worth it.
 

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