The Technique
Polish a TEST area - starting with the least aggressive method you think might work.
Even though most of the skin did not have the pewter patina it did have a lot of filaform corrosion (corrosion that starts in a break in the clear coat and makes little "worm trail" corrosion). We ended up (after many trials) compounding with C much of the trailer.
Pick a typical area and polish to completion a 4X4 area (don't pick the roof for this trial - you want to keep your feet on the ground for this first time. Perhaps toward the back road side would also be good for this trial)
DO NOT DO ANY MORE YET! - Let the sun move so it is shinning right on the area that you polished - how does it look. Look at the area when the sun is not on it also. If you are satisfied start using the technique you used on the rest of the trailer. If not - go back - maybe start with something more aggressive. By doing it on a 4X4 section instead of the whole trailer you can see how your technique is working before you spend a lot of time and waste a lot of polish.
Do a small area at a time
 | I found that for many areas I polish it several times with the same grade. What I found works best is polish a 2'X2' area. Then move to the next area and then go back to the first. When you polish the skin heats up. It is best to let it cool before hitting it again. Rotate between 2 or 4 adjacent areas. |
| Polish until 80-90% of the black is removed. If needed wipe off excess black with a terry cloth or sweatshirt material. (Nuvite wipes off very easily). If the blackened polish dries and won't come off easily, spray with just a little glass was and it will wipe right off. |
| Polish the area clean with a clean area of the cloth to remove the rest of the black residue (don't get too detailed at this time) |
| Polish the next area without changing the cloth. (You are using the same grade polish for the next area, the cloth is still quite clean so why change it?!) |
| Do at least a whole panel with one grade before changing to the next grade. |
The final polish - Grade S (This goes pretty quick if you have cleaned off the corrosion on the trailer with the previous grades):
| Always use new cloth for S |
| Detail the rivets and edges by hand to get them very clean - Glass Wax with a microfiber cloth worked very well for this. |
| Polish once or twice with grade S, detail again, polish again with S - (just thumbprints of polish) |
| Buff with just a clean new cloth over the cyclo to finish removing the polish. |
| Note: If you have been able to polish inside, you may find you want to do at least the last polish or two outside. Inside even with good light I find I just don't see the swirls. (If it is dark a bright light shinning right on the surface will indeed show the swirls). |
Minimal black residue to clean off by hand with this method! Any black residue you do need to clean off cleans of easily with Glass Wax.
A couple other hintsKeep Comfortable
 Click to enlarge |
 Click to enlarge |
| A nice wide stool/ladder is very nice to work from | Wearing a wrist brace has made polishing much easier for me. The cyclo is heavy! |
| The question I see being asked again and again on the Airstream chat is
how to get the black residue off. That was always a hassle when I used just
the cyclo wool bonnets and Rolite (both on the Airstream and our Luscombe Airplane).
Using Nuvite, I found
that as long as I polish when it is cool that the residue
polishes right off and I am not left with the horrid black stuff to get off!
I only have to remove it around the rivets. I tried S by hand
to remove it from around the rivets as suggested on the Video. That worked
OK but Glass Wax worked even better. If the polish does start to
dry and won't polish off easily just spray a little glass wax on the area
and the polish will pick right up! |
| If you soak your polishing cloths or bonnets in very hot water with TSP much of the black will be removed. |