What's a good one step for a plane?

Jngrbrdman

Jngrbrdman

New member
I was thinking of using XMT 360 since I've got quite a bit of it, but that is spendy if you are doing too many of them. I'm going to have my hands full with a couple of planes now and need to start exploring a different product line. These are just basic white planes and I am looking for something to keep them looking shiny without having to go over them twenty times. I've been maintaining this family's cars for years, but this is the first time they've had me work on the planes. This is the one I'm working on next week:

supra_hanger.jpg


It is in pretty good shape. Nothing a good clay bar (or two or three) can't fix. The tail is where most of the oxidation and problems lay. I will be maintaining it going forward, so I'm looking for something to clean off the oxidation and put down a layer of protection which will help me get the bugs off easier. I haven't done a lot of work on planes in the past, so I haven't ever really looked into dedicated products for them. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
You might want to get in touch with Greg Nichols. He's in Layton, and has done a few airplanes lately. I haven't done one in 20 years, so the products I used are probably no longer available.

Have you ever washed and/or polished an aircraft before? If not, there's a few things you need to know about 'em prior to taking a hose to them.

But to answer the one-step product question, I'd go with D151. It has darn near the cutting action of 105, good chemical cleaning action, and a fairly nice LSP (it's a hybrid wax/sealant).

Most planes are painted with Imron paint, and it's *very* hard. Expect it to be the hardest paint you've ever worked on.

For a one step, I'd go D151 with a purple foam wool pad on a rotary. While you would (rightfully) worry about buffer trails and holos on a car's finish with that combo, on that hard, hard, *hard* Imron paint it shouldn't be a problem.
 
I've done a few of them in my day. :) In the past I've just been burning up the supplies I've had. I used to buy 4 Star products by the gallon and they had an awesome one step similar to KAIO. I bought five gallons of it from a guy closing his online store a few years ago. I actually bought out all his 4 Star stuff and am just now starting to run out of it. I'm totally out of the one step at this point, so it is time to start shopping for a replacement. I use it on aircraft and boats and it doesn't take too many of those to burn through five gallons of anything. lol

I actually know Greg pretty well. He is actually about an hour or so north of Layton in Logan. If it wasn't going to be an all day job in the middle of the week then I'd probably have him come out and help.
 
Doh, I typed Layton and meant Logan. :) Yeah, Greg's a good guy.

I edited my above post with a product you might want to consider for an aircraft one-step.
 
Anthony,

That plane flies at such high altitudes I suggest a sealant, even then it will come off in a hurry. I bet you have some Collinite laying around, use that. I have some other sealants I use on planes but doubt you have them around.

Cheers,
GREG
 
Megs 151 is cheap and works really well. Optimum Poli-seal also works really well and is a breeze to use which may be helpful on all of that realestate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top