70 hours. Done! I’m finally done with the polishing for at least a year. And boy am I glad. You may be asking done at 70 hours, I heard it takes at least 150 – 200 hours. I’m not saying its the best polish job in the world. I’m just saying its done :-).
New tail light lenses and nameplate reproductions add a nice touch.
So, how did I do it in 70 hours. First off you have decide if your polishing for speed or perfection. You have to pick one or the other. If you choose speed read on.
This is the second trailer that I polished. The first one I tried to polish it perfectly and took 150 hours doing so. Then the first time my daughter grabbed the wire brush to help daddy clean the trailer….. There was also one of the camping trips when the oldest son used the trailer to stop his bicycle… I learned quickly that a perfectly polished trailer does not go with a young family actually using the trailer for everyday camping.
So keeping it perfect is a problem. Lesson one. The next lesson was that each year when you do the touch up. The polish gets better. So I know that each time I touch it up, it will look better.
On this trailer I took a speed approach. I needed to get it done because polishing was just one of the many things I need to finish in hopes to use it this year. And secondly the summer heat is here. The last few days I could only polish from 7am – 10 am. Then it was too hot.
Like I said, my trailer is not perfect. There are still some intense swirls from the compounding. Lots of badly corrioded panels that would have to be replaced to get right. Hey its been outside in the sun for 47 years. Get over it! How would you look after being outside for 47 years?
Realizing that, here is my speed polishing list.
1. Use a more aggressive polish. I used G6.
2. Set a limit over the number of passes over the same spot. I choose three. Use agressive enough polish to get the desired corrosion.
3. Go over as large an area as you can reach
4. Live with panel/corrosion imperfections
5. Cyclo with F7 then S then stop. Realize it will get better with each year’s touch up.
6. Remember, there is always a shinier trailer than yours….
Now I did try something different on the street side. I did one pass with Nuvite F9. The most aggressive grade. The followed up with two passes of G6. Unfortunately this left swirls to deep for the cyclo. So next year, I’ll have to compound with C or something finer during my touch up. But it won’t be near the work it took to get it here.
Like I said, I won’t be entering any contests. But it looks great from the next campsite over….
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