Buffing a Wet Wing

[Huckster79]

Looking for any wet wing experts out there.

I own a Mooney M20F, for the last year or so. She had sad looking paint. It looks like I'm going to be able to get it to respectable with a lot of Clay Bar work and then a Meguires #7 Soak, where you let the #7 set on the surface for about a day so the paint can soak up the oils that have dried out of it. It's a method I'm learning from an old school car paint guru. But now that the paint is looking far better, I'd still like to buff it out to get a deeper shine before I do a DIY Ceramic on it.

Here is my concern. I just had the wings stripped and resealed and a couple other hack jobs in the tanks redone to the tune of 15 AMUs. My major fuel leak that precipitated the reseal came after I worked on buffing a wing last fall. Now the sealant was 50+ years old so could simply be coincidental, but part of me feels hesitant to send that direct vibration right into the freshly resealed wing. I've had a couple folks think I may be onto something that it could be problematic, and others that say "Well the engine sends out vibrations through the airframe as well". It just seems like a more direct and "high pitched" vibration than an engine vibration coming to the wings.

My buffer is a dual action one from good ol harbor freight. I'd love to get more shine out of the paint and believe I can, but I don't want to do that to the detriment of my tanks... Has anyone else buffed a wet wing to good or bad results?

 

[Gary Ward]

What you have is a polisher not a buffer. A buffer just goes round and no orbital action. You need a real buffer which IMO put less vibration on the surface and gives you better results.
A oribital polisher is used to remove swirl marks from the buffer.

I have been buffing paint for years. Just spent 2 weeks doing my 22 year old RV for Oshkosh.
That is our RV in the background of our atv.

 

[Huckster79]

What you have is a polisher not a buffer. A buffer just goes round and no orbital action. You need a real buffer which IMO put less vibration on the surface and gives you better results.
A oribital polisher is to remove swirl marks from the buffer.

I have buffing paint for years. Just spent 2 weeks doing my 22 year old RV for Oshkosh.
That is my RV in the background of our atv.View attachment 131684

Wow! Nice work!

Yea mine is dual action not just the random orbital- so w your experience correct me if wrong just on my understanding of equipment:

Random orbital- basically worthless besides maybe spreading wax.

Dual action- some corrective ability, less than standard circular motion only but has some more training wheels effect to not burn paint.

True circular motion buffer- best results but if used wrong can burn through paint.

How much corrective action do ya give up from a straight buffer?

So your suggestion would be grow a pair n get a true circular buffer?


With that would I just need to plan on hand buffing areas w lots of rivet heads?

 

[Gary Ward]

Thanks,
Sorry I dont have any experience with a dual action so I dont know.
I use heavy wool pads to do heavy duty stuff like aluminum wheels and paint with lots of damage.
The safest way is to use foam pads on a buffer, there are different grades of foam pads. You can not do much damage with foam pads.

Then the polisher if there are swirl marks.
I did use mostly a orbital polisher to do 90% of my RV and just used glaze, same stuff as I use on the airplane. Spray the glaze on and use the polisher to apply it. Then towels to remove it. Easier than wax. Glaze will last 6 months.It removes light scratches in the paint from tree branches down the side.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Ok…now that it looks like you’ve gotten reasonable answers, I just gotta say it…you’re worried about buffet when you buff it?

 

[masloki]

Looking for any wet wing experts out there.

I own a Mooney M20F, for the last year or so. She had sad looking paint. It looks like I'm going to be able to get it to respectable with a lot of Clay Bar work and then a Meguires #7 Soak, where you let the #7 set on the surface for about a day so the paint can soak up the oils that have dried out of it. It's a method I'm learning from an old school car paint guru. But now that the paint is looking far better, I'd still like to buff it out to get a deeper shine before I do a DIY Ceramic on it.

Here is my concern. I just had the wings stripped and resealed and a couple other hack jobs in the tanks redone to the tune of 15 AMUs. My major fuel leak that precipitated the reseal came after I worked on buffing a wing last fall. Now the sealant was 50+ years old so could simply be coincidental, but part of me feels hesitant to send that direct vibration right into the freshly resealed wing. I've had a couple folks think I may be onto something that it could be problematic, and others that say "Well the engine sends out vibrations through the airframe as well". It just seems like a more direct and "high pitched" vibration than an engine vibration coming to the wings.

My buffer is a dual action one from good ol harbor freight. I'd love to get more shine out of the paint and believe I can, but I don't want to do that to the detriment of my tanks... Has anyone else buffed a wet wing to good or bad results?

If you just resealed, you are at the most pliable time for doing this kind of work. I would fill the tanks almost completely to keep the sealant wet while you work (and also a good practice in general).

I’m a complete noob to polishing so following this thread with interest. Pads seem easy enough to buy, but I’m guessing polishing compounds vary across the companies. Based on the strength of brand, I’d guess the Chemical Guys are the same as Turtle Wax but cost 3x. But I’m hoping to learn if that is true or not.

 

[Huckster79]

If you just resealed, you are at the most pliable time for doing this kind of work. I would fill the tanks almost completely to keep the sealant wet while you work (and also a good practice in general).

I’m a complete noob to polishing so following this thread with interest. Pads seem easy enough to buy, but I’m guessing polishing compounds vary across the companies. Based on the strength of brand, I’d guess the Chemical Guys are the same as Turtle Wax but cost 3x. But I’m hoping to learn if that is true or not.

I’m new to it to. I’ve been using maguires stuff thus far. Check out auto geek, they have a single stage paint guru that shares on their forum a lot! He’s the one that teaches the meguires 7 soak and it seems to work well. It’s designed to save old single stage paint that looks rough or shot, harsh buffing won’t always work on the old cars he does and same is true of our birds- that sometimes that paint is too thin to get real aggressive. The soak really seems to be working- I only had a small amount of maguires 7 on hand- so I just did a section.

#7 is 100 year old formula specifically for single stage paint (though can be used on a clear) it has “trade secret” oils. The idea of the soak is that when single stage is flat or chalky feeling is its overly dry and brittle and buffing will work but less aggressive buffing will be necessary if it’s soaked. So instead of wipe on wipe off ya layer it on thick and let it set overnight so the paint can soak up the oils, thus can be repeated 1-3 times.

I’ve decided I’m going to try a sample area 3 times and see if I can avoid machine buffing… if not I’ll buff it a bit.