"Special Project"

[Nica]

Special project

Well what can I say I love a challenge, a good friend and co-worker of mine asked me if I would be interested on detailing his airplane. I was thrilled at the opportunity/challenge that I was being offered to me and of course said yes. The airplane was completely covered in oxidization and required lots of TLC. With such an opportunity/challenge I though it would be a good idea to have a partner and share the experience. Well sneek was up for the task and was kind enough to help me out with such an opportunity. We were both so excited to detail a plane that we could not wait for Saturday to arrive. Well Saturday came and went and here is the process. By the way a huge thank you to my friend sneek for the wicked assistance on material research and well everything, thank you sneek, couldn’t have done it with out. Another thank you for our camera guy Steve, a good friend of mine was willing to come along and help out any way he cold so he was in charge of taking pictures plus other duties such as taping certain areas and most importantly team spirit.

Here is some info on the airplane (info provided by owner):

The airplane is a 1980 Cessna 172XP (R172K - model), the airplane has currently 1,175 hours of airtime since new (very low time).

Engine – Continental IO – 360KB 6 cyl. 195 HP; (210 HP with ISHAM conversion)
Radio's:
Nav / Com 1 Make: King; KX155
Nav / Com 2 Make: Cessna; RT385
Intercom 4 Place Make: Nat; Intervox
ADF / NDB Make: Cessna; 300
DME Make: King: KN64;
Audio Panel King KA134
Loran C Apollo 618
Transponder / Mode C Make: Cessna RT359A

Interior Process:

No interior done, just exterior.

Exterior Process

Engine bay:
Engine was not done either.

Wash:
The wash was done by the owner but sneek and I decided we should use the Optimum No Rinse to wipe down certain areas that required it (the entire plane).

Clay:
We were so exited that we actually for got to pack our clay bars, it would have helped but we just forgot it, shame because the clay would have helped tremendously. The surface of the plain was so oxidized and so rough the clay would have come in handy.

Polish
This is where things get very interesting, prior to Saturday sneek and I both re-searched on what to use on an airplane and sneek got great info from really good sources and it was suggested to use an all in one step. Something that would have great protection and some correction as well. So we tried out a few products and the best product/combo we could come out with was

Sneek with my Makita rotary – wool pads (Edge wool pads plus other wool pads and lots of them) – Meguiars #20 (lots of it too) – 1500rpm

Nica with the Metabo rotary – white foam pad (Lake country) – Meguiars #20 – 1500rpm

This was a tag team effort, the plain was split in half and off we went. Worked our way from the back to the front. The wings we tagged teamed them and man those wings are massive 30ft long if I’m not mistaken. Now the challenge with the plain (in general) is that when you think your done one surface you still have to do the other side like a 3d object, which made it for a long polish. In addition, the shape that the plain was in did not help. But sneek and I were both impressed with the results of #20 and we detailed the entire plain with #20, very good product.


Observations/comments:

Sneek and I had a blast detailing this airplane. The one thing sneek and I noticed is that the airplane would go through wool pads like crazy. It would chew the wool pads like bubble gum and spit the wool pads all worn down. Mind you the surface of the airplane was in rough shape and we removed lots of oxidation. The foam pad that I used had to be tossed to the garbage because it was torn, ripped saturated beyond cleaning. The other observation I made was that wool pads would sometimes leave certain things on the surface of the plain. I came in with the foam pads and it would remove what ever the wool pad would leave behind. Not sure if it was the extra heat the foam pads generate but it was very interesting to see the results. The final observation that I made was that the rivets on the airplane are actually not that bad, even though there are lots of them they actually don’t get in the way. Overall a very satisfying experience and a worthy challenge.

Now for pictures:

The plane it’s self and the area we worked in


Before:

Sorry about the lighting, it was inside and lighting was not ideal

After:


Before:


After:


Before:


After:



50/50 done by sneek




Tag team the wings




Hope you enjoy, it was quite the experiance. We had lots of fun and I personally enjoyed every second of it.

sneek, please feel free to jump in and point out anything I may have missed here.

[klumzypinoy]

Man, that sounded like a fun project! When you said airplane, I imagined something a little bigger. Good thing it wasn't any bigger than that .

[Bigfoot]

Compadre. if I were closer to you, I would been there helping you, I love planes as ayou have no idea! Great detail and nice job!

[DanielSwe]

Cool piece of work, Nica.

[Al-53]

Very cool Nica...the plane looks real nice...lots of work doing a plane...I did a helicopter a few years back and was back breaking....doing under the wings really tests your arms out and doing the belly I bet..but I see you had a floor creeper to lay on....

There is actually good money doing planes..

Nice job..looks like you guys had a fun day....thats what counts....


AL

[pirex]

Sweeeeeeeeet I would love to detail a plane!! It had to be a blast You lucky guys! And it came out great! The blue was shiny, the pilot need to use sunglasses now I can understand that the plane likes to eat wool pads Sweet Nica, really sweet

[joe.p]

what else can i say except i'm impressed..how cool is it that you and sneek stepped up your game to detail an airplane..looks like you guys had a good time..Congrats

[Nica]

Klumzypinoy - Oh man I never realized how big one of those things were till we polished it, the wings were hard work. When sneek and I were doing the top side of the wing and completed it it looked good then we realized we had to do the underneath it's like doing a vehicle but in 3D hahahaha . Thank you for the compliment.

Bigfoot - Gracias compadre, you should have seen the other plans that where there wow very nice plains. There was one that a the owner built him self, how cool would that be to build your own little plain wicked and the color you should have seen the color it looked so wet. I didn't touch it to feel how smooth it was but the owner really took care of it. Thank you for the compliment and it would be fun to have a bunch of detailers and do a plain/car/boat anything hahahaha.

DanielSwe - Thank you my friend, glad you enjoyed it.

Al-53 - Oh I was kissing the creeper, the owner was the one that brought it and I used it. Yes you are correct Al, the doing the wings (underpart) was a test in the arms for sure, good thing I work out every day becuase otherwise I would have been hurting the next day . A helicopter, nice that would be fun. I enjoyed the experiance, it's the first airplane I had ever done and if I ever do another I'll be better prepared. I honestly didn't know what to expect but now that I have done one it's like doing a vehicle, oh you should see the wool pads hahahaha all chewed up and beat up hahaha but they sure came in handy. Good thing I picked up two sets of the Edge wool pads. Thank you for the compliment Al.

Pirex - Thank you bro, plane turned really nice. You should have seen how rough it was, when sneek and I finished it it was nice and smooth. The owner was going around the plane feeling it out. I was glad sneek came along to share the experiance, we had a blast.

joe.p - Thank you bro, yea I was glad sneek came along played a big role in this detail. Glad we impressed you bro and thank you for the compliment, means alot to me.

sneek - come on bro, don't be shy jump right in I can't take all the credit you did some wicked work too. Share your thoughts.

[sparkie]

Carlos that was awesome, doing a plane. She looks great now, I bet she will fly at faster notts now... How did you used the Megs #20. Done the whole thing then wipe off or WOWO? Great job Buddy!!!

[sneek]

Weird! My first post didn't work.

My back and arms still hurt from doing this!

Nica: You too the harder part of the project. For those who weren't there Carlos did the underside of the wings!

The really supprising thing is we only went through less than 20oz of M20. I brought a 1/2 gallon + a 16oz bottle so for the record M20 is an awesome product for the job! It spread super thin, but it has the oils and the cut to restore a finish. I am gladddddd that we decided not to use #49 Oxidation remover as we would have had to do the whole thing twice!!! In my oppinion #20 is definitly an underrated product! Even though it is a 20 year old polymer sealant, it has been reformulated a couple of times and it is a work horse.