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Christopher's Web Site
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Date: 11-28-2015
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Number of Hours: 8.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Sanding and Polishing Skids
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I never thought that I would be looking for something to do on this build, but now that the painter has all of the panels to paint, there is little for me to work on. I went back and looked at my “to-do” list and decided to take on the polishing of the skids. I’ve never taken raw aluminum and polished it before, so I needed to do a little research. I went online and found a number of automotive blogs and Youtube videos that talked about polishing and provided recommendations as to how to get the best results. I basically took the most common practice and decided how to proceed.
One of the pieces of equipment that I needed was a polishing wheel which looks like a grinder without shields, and in place of the stone wheels there are a couple of different types of buffing wheels. I found what I needed at Harbor Freight, and I also picked up two different grades of polishing clay and hand polishing compound as well. Then it was off to Home Depot to buy a platform for the polishing wheel and a ton of sandpaper.
Before I talk about my procedure, I have to comment on the condition of the skids. They weren’t simply a brushed and raw aluminum stock, but they were actually damaged to the point where I almost decided to send them back to Safari to have them replaced. I know that they weren’t previously used because there are no holes drilled for the landing gear, but I would swear that these were both on a demo helicopter that was performing run-on landings on a poorly paved abandoned runway at about 70kts. Okay, maybe not that bad, but pretty damn close. I never thought that I would get them presentable, especially because I didn’t want to take off too much material. I’m shocked how great they actually came out!
The polishing process is as follows:
1. Sand damaged areas and any deep scratches with 120 grit sandpaper.
2. Sand entire skid with 220 grit sandpaper.
3. Sand entire skid with 320 grit sandpaper.
4. Sand entire skid with 400 grit sandpaper.
5. Sand entire skid with 800 grit sandpaper
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Badly damaged skid. B&A
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Before and after
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New Buffing Wheel and Table
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