Re: Got me a Starchief
Ok, now that I've got the camera sorted out and working, I'm having issues posting pictures. Any guidance would be appreciated.
My paint stripping routine was brush on Zip-strip, scrape it off with a carbide scraper. It took 2 applications for most areas, 3 for the toughest. I used a brass bristle tire cleaning brush on the rivets. On the sides, I then did the wet sanding routine and polish as desribed below. On the bottom I skipped the wet sanding and used a brass colored wire wheel on a drill to clean up after stripping, then right to polishing.
For my polishing routine, I started by wetsanding with 320 paper, then used "Blue Magic" metal polish with my Porter -Cable 7346SP sander/polisher on speed setting 5 (6 is fastest). The polish left a black residue that I wiped/buffed off by hand with old bath towels. Then I used the polish a second time, and wiped/buffed off the residue by hand again. Then as a final buffing I used a fake lambswool polishing bonnet at high speed on the polisher. Then I wiped everything down with laquer thinner, and applied the Sharkhide. Looking at other threads, mine did not come out as shiney as BigHoss's, or Dozer's boats. But it came out shiney enough for me. I also should have washed it down before wiping it with laquer thinner. As clean as I thought I got it with the thinner, the Sharkhide pulled up some black residue that I had missed. Of course after I was done, a guy who restores motorcycles told me that wet sanding with 1000 grit paper using wd40 instead of water makes aluminum look like chrome. I haven't tried that yet.
For the trim, I'm going a satin route, I've sanded it with 150 paper and that's it. I'll sharkhide the trim after I paint.
I hope at least some of this info is helpful.