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You may recall that last year we had the honor of sponsoring a project to help buff out the only B24J Bomber still airworthy (out of some 18,000+ produced) as part of a project headed up by Joe Fernandez of Superior Shine. Well, this year we did it again, and it was every bit as great an experience the second time around.
This was our project for the day and, thankfully, she was in far better shape this year than last year. That's because last year was the first time she had been polished in many years so the paint was extremely oxidized and faded. After our program last year and all the exposure this aircraft has had, some of the oxidation was back but it was more of a fading of the paint than the extreme yellowing we had to deal with last year.
This year we managed the correction with M20 Polymer Sealant and D156 Synthetic Xpress Spray Wax. We've talked about the cleaning ability of M20 here on MOL before, but this project should give you an idea just how effective that cleaning ability is. We did all this with G110v2/Porter Cable 7424 buffers and W8006 foam polishing pads.
We felt no real pressure at all, even when polishing in the shadow of a pair of 50 caliber machine guns!
This side of the fuselage is covered in decals with the names of past and present crew, supporters of the Collings Foundation (owners of the aircraft) and veterans associated with the program. As you can clearly see, these decals were too closely spaced for us to machine polish around and since they were so delicate and very important, we decided to once again hand polish this area.
Numerous scaffolding setups were utilized to reach the higher areas and get us up on the wings.
No, we did not polish the exhausts for the four engines!
With the wing almost done, you can see the difference between were Joe has and has not polished.
This is a good indication of the improvement we made in the finish. Remember, this aircraft is painted olive drab so it's not going to be a high gloss finish. But that nasty chalkiness is gone and the plane is once again showing her true colors.
We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who came out and donated their time to work on this amazing project, and especially Joe Fernandez for putting the whole project together once again.
This was our project for the day and, thankfully, she was in far better shape this year than last year. That's because last year was the first time she had been polished in many years so the paint was extremely oxidized and faded. After our program last year and all the exposure this aircraft has had, some of the oxidation was back but it was more of a fading of the paint than the extreme yellowing we had to deal with last year.
This year we managed the correction with M20 Polymer Sealant and D156 Synthetic Xpress Spray Wax. We've talked about the cleaning ability of M20 here on MOL before, but this project should give you an idea just how effective that cleaning ability is. We did all this with G110v2/Porter Cable 7424 buffers and W8006 foam polishing pads.
We felt no real pressure at all, even when polishing in the shadow of a pair of 50 caliber machine guns!
This side of the fuselage is covered in decals with the names of past and present crew, supporters of the Collings Foundation (owners of the aircraft) and veterans associated with the program. As you can clearly see, these decals were too closely spaced for us to machine polish around and since they were so delicate and very important, we decided to once again hand polish this area.
Numerous scaffolding setups were utilized to reach the higher areas and get us up on the wings.
No, we did not polish the exhausts for the four engines!
With the wing almost done, you can see the difference between were Joe has and has not polished.
This is a good indication of the improvement we made in the finish. Remember, this aircraft is painted olive drab so it's not going to be a high gloss finish. But that nasty chalkiness is gone and the plane is once again showing her true colors.
We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who came out and donated their time to work on this amazing project, and especially Joe Fernandez for putting the whole project together once again.
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