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Any polished Mooneys out there?

Wildhorsesracing
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xcrmckenna Veteran

xcrmckenna

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I gotta say I am enjoying keeping up on this thread and Dallas' xcountry flight the most lately. The both of them are showing lots of dividends after a lot of hard work.

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Evan Amaya
Evan Amaya

Here is another polished Mooney to add to the list.  Just finished a three month annual/avionics upgrade.  1968 M20F turbo normalized.

Wildhorsesracing
Wildhorsesracing

Took her flying surfaces over to get balanced today - it was a gorgeous day so I pulled her out in the sun...

Wildhorsesracing
Wildhorsesracing

Well it's been over a year and a half since I polished her and finally decided she was looking fairly dull.  You can see the difference in the one picture of before and after polishing. Time for

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aviatoreb Grand Master

aviatoreb

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I have been enchanted with possibly doing the strip job myself at some point, since I saw the seemingly amazing stripping product by accuchem.

 

http://www.tksfluid.com/product/aircraft-paint-stripper

 

One couldn't leave their airplane entirely bare if you have a fiberglass cowl cover as money of us do.

 

I tried 3 separate shops on the east coast to look for a scuff and spray job for the tops of my wings, and no one was willing.  I liked my paint scheme, but it is starting to fade and that is most apparent as usual on the tops of wings.  It adheres pretty well...

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bonal Grand Master

bonal

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Definitely an IMHO comment but as for polished vs painted it's like vintage vs modern. I don't think a polished modern would look right where as it would be very pleasing on an older airframe. Same as when custom car guys put modern wheel design on a vintage hot rod it just don't fit. As for your on going project I think it's going to look great but a couple of accent stripes would really set it off.

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DaV8or Grand Master

DaV8or

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To those that baulk at the high cost of a paint job, how much do think a professional strip and polish job would cost? My guess would be much, much higher than a paint job. Just as you can strip and polish your plane yourself, you can strip and paint your plane yourself too.

 

I just have to wonder, where did you guys get vintage planes with such straight sheet metal??!! Mine has lumps and bumps all over the place. Even a little Bondo here and there...

bonal Grand Master

bonal

Posted
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It's funny you can take the paint off and polish a 50 plus year old airplane and it looks beautiful as compared to my 50 plus year old airframe going out stripped. I would be arrested and rightly so

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MB65E Grand Master

MB65E

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I just used the accuchem product to strip an aileron. It was totally cleaned of all its heavy old imron in about 1hrs time. No aggressive pads or scrapers were needed. Kevin, a sales guy here posted on MS a while back. Great product, minimal time.

For comparison, the rudder I stripped took 7hrs for the best stuff from Home Depot and pep boys. Oh and I only used about a 1qt on the aileron of the accuchem, vs 2 gallons on the rudder!!!

Thanks Kevin!!!

-Matt

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aviatoreb Grand Master

aviatoreb

Posted
Posted

I just used the accuchem product to strip an aileron. It was totally cleaned of all its heavy old imron in about 1hrs time. No aggressive pads or scrapers were needed. Kevin, a sales guy here posted on MS a while back. Great product, minimal time.

For comparison, the rudder I stripped took 7hrs for the best stuff from Home Depot and pep boys. Oh and I only used about a 1qt on the aileron of the accuchem, vs 2 gallons on the rudder!!!

Thanks Kevin!!!

-Matt

 

Hi Matt - I asked questions on the other post you made - but I wanted to ask one more thing here - 1hr....is that 1hr of elbow grease, rubbing etc?  Or is that more like 1 hr of soaking?  Ailerons are much easier to work with than a whole plane - what do you think it would be like doing a whole plane?  How would you do the undersides?  And cleaning it all off of the chemical stripper after?

 

Finally, 1qt eh - having any guestimate how much to do a whole mooney?

MB65E Grand Master

MB65E

Posted
Posted

It was an hour and a half of soaking in light brushing of the aileron. Soaking time was about 15 minutes per side. I did a total of two thin coats. When I was finished we use the bucket of water to rinse the aileron a couple times. A pressure washer would be ideal but as long as you had good water pressure the hose application would be fine for the rinse.

I think two guys could strip the entire aircraft in a weekend.

I would call Kevin and order a 5 gallon container of the stripper I think that should be enough to do the whole airplane.

The part that I liked about the stripper was it was less corrosive than anything else on the market.

Good luck!

-Matt

Mcstealth Grand Master

Mcstealth

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I got a sun burn from a polished war bird a few years back. I was at an airshow, sat close to the polished bird better part of two hours, and got thoroughly burnt. figured out later it was because of the reflection from the plane.

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Wildhorsesracing Experienced

Wildhorsesracing

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I wish I had kept better track of the # of hours it has taken, but I think we are close to ~40 hrs to strip and 18 gallons of:

 

 
Now we have approximately 10 hrs wet sanding & polishing - and it looks like probably another 30 hrs to finish.  I wish I had found out about the accuchem stuff earlier - I would've used that instead.
Johnnybgoode Collaborator

Johnnybgoode

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Nice seeing your progress today. It's looking good so far.

I found that cutting through that first layer was hardest - in my case it was several years of dust and minor surface corrosion - it gets kind of addicting as you get into the finer grits and see the scratches disappear and the shine come to the top.

I'll have to swing by again in a few weeks!

Patrick

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Mooneymite Grand Master

Mooneymite

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I saw a polished Mooney in Midland TX a couple months back.... first and only I had ever seen.  Nice looking plane.

post-8429-0-11986500-1440097020_thumb.jp

 

Was it this one?

 

I was out visiting friends in MDD and my C was parked next to it.

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Mooneymite Grand Master

Mooneymite

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Interesting - haven't seen a picture of that one yet - anyone know who owns it or have any other photos?

Patrick

 

N# is visible in the photo.    http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=9243M

 

I talked to the owner.  He's not from MDD, but I forgot which airport he said he was from.  Nice fellow.

aviatoreb Grand Master

aviatoreb

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I wonder how many folks own/fly Mooney's that don't know or frequent Mooney Space

I bet this is the smallest tip of the iceberg - and those that post are even more rare.

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DXB Grand Master

DXB

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Looks like a Polished Mooney M20F has just hit the market... we're not alone.. :ph34r:

 

http://www.barnstormers.com/listing_images.php?id=1049210&ZOOM=650eda9776aef2a8e03fdf02677f1056

 

 

It's bare metal, but I'm not sure I'd call it polished.

For selling a plane, I certainly support employing a bikini'd female in stilettos for the photos.  In this case however, she may have gotten distracted from her assigned task of polishing the plane.  "Almost ready to paint" may be a more apt description of this bird.

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MyNameIsNobody Grand Master

MyNameIsNobody

Posted
Posted

 

 

For selling a plane, I certainly support employing a bikini'd female in stilettos for the photos.  In this case however, she may have gotten distracted from her assigned task of polishing the plane.  "Almost ready to paint" may be a more apt description of this bird.

Did you get hailed on?  "Naw, it was just my hot girlfriend in stiletto heels dancing on my wings" :)

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DXB Grand Master

DXB

Posted
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Did you get hailed on?  "Naw, it was just my hot girlfriend in stiletto heels dancing on my wings" :)

She'd have to be plutonium hot for me to put up with that :P!

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