Polishing the Bullet - Day 1

This is 'Maxine', our 1963 Safari Airstream Trailer. We've owned her since July 4th, 2006. During the past 4 years we have been working on restoring her, both inside and out. She's a great trailer, and we've made some great family memories thus far, and are planning a 11-day road trip this summer to Calif. - Disneyland. Along the way, we will be camping at various Nat'l. Parks: Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Zion, and Arches.

With spring in full bloom here in CO, we are getting Maxine ready for the trip. One of the things on our "to-do" list is to get her polished up. Chances are that the trailer has never been polished. Even if it has, it definitely has not been touched in over 20 years.


This weekend we finally had all the parts necessary to polish our Airstream:
- Random Orbital Polisher
- Truck Polish
- Cloth Pads
- Mineral Spirits
- Time + Elbow Grease!

Our first task was simple: figure out how to do it! This was our test patch, on the rear panel. To keep the tasks managable, we are limiting the area of polish to 24"x24" square sections.


May.2.2010
It was actually a bit cloudy when we were doing this on Sunday afternoon. But clouds are welcomed! With a mirror-like shine, the sun can be a bit too much to handle for polishing. In this image, you can see the finished panel to the left, and the black box near the door is a section that has been buffed, and is awaiting for Kathy to remove the polish (by hand, with a cloth).

This is a picture I took, standing in front of the unpolished door. Notice my vague reflection in the oxidized aluminum.















This is the panel just left of the door. Notice the difference? It took us 5 to 6 passes to get the skin this polished.

Tonight we will polish the door...can't wait to post an updated picture!














Here is an image of the trailer after 2 hours of polishing. She's looking GREAT! Still have quite a bit left, but closer than we were last week! ;-)