The International Cessna 170 Association

Hey Guys,

As I continue my search for my next Cessna 170 one of the questions that has sprung up in my mind is regarding polished aluminum. Short of one or two days a year where you'll need to polish the bird, how much upkeep is really involved with maintaining a polished 170? Also how would rain (in flight and on the ground) affect the polished finish? What would you consider the pros and cons?

My"polished" 170-B was last polished in 1997. Sitting by itself it looks good. Only next to a recently polished/repolished does it look like it has a " patina". Cessna never made a polished airplane. They provided natural aluminum airplanes.
I never put soap on it. I wash it with WD40 & water only. Water beads up on it.
An occasional wash job is all it gets other than compliments.
My 2 cents.

Thanks for the insight! I just made an offer on one 5 hours from me but I was possibly beat to the punch... Will find out tonight. Crossing my fingers it works out. Worst case scenario back to the grind of the hunt...

The one on barnstormers right now, seems right from a distance

That's the one I'm looking at in person tomorrow. Hopefully she's as pretty in person up close. If so, I'll be putting a deposit down. Now I need to find an A&P that can help me with a prebuy...

One or two days to polish a 170 I’d pretty optimistic. Folks that I’ve talked to who have actually done it say bout 40 hours.

Things to consider about polishing. 1 it takes quite a bit of time. 2 You will always feel you could have done a better job. 3 if you have metal wings its probably a good idea to just paint the underside as polishing them would be brutal. 4 It lasts longer and gets a little easier each time you do it. I stripped the paint on mine almost 20 years ago and I still polish because I love the look. Bill K












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To speed your divorce proceedings be certain to just throw your clothes that you’ve worn while polishing into your wife’s washing machine and close the lid. (Makes little difference if you wash them or not... the residue will still be in the tub for the benefit of your wife’s favorite things to pick up.... this is one of many reasons I like natural aluminum and do not polish airplanes.)

After having spent literally days and days polishing the top 1/2 of a DC-3 several times while straddling it, I can assure you polishing a C170 is no big deal. Others who were afraid of heights, sliding off the fuselage, or were not physically able to climb polished the lower parts of the plane. I was lazy and preferred to sit down while I polished We started with a dull natural aluminum skin that had sat outside for years with no attention and brought it to a high polish using several grades of Nuvite. It never looked like the Swifts at Oshkosh but it did look good at airshows and especially in the air.
There is nothing that looks better than a polished airplane. It will take a lot of work but will be worth it. Just be careful around trim paint, rubber trim, and the windows. Clean the black aluminum oxide polishing residue around the rivet heads with red bottle Wash Wax All degreaser and a micro-fiber towel and it will really improve the look. Rain will always leave spots and a sprinkle over a dusty plane looks awful. There will be lots of detail work with a rag wrapped around one finger and you'll always cringe when people just have to touch it with their sticky caramel apple covered fingers.

Or, for a about 10-15 AMUs you can let someone else have all the grief of preparation and have it painted with an outstanding paint scheme whether custom, original, or a combination of both. Then all you'll have to do is keep it clean. That is what I did with mine, I hate polishing!

After more than 20 years of polishing, I finally threw in the towel and had my 170 painted to achieve the look of an aluminum plane with paint. What pushed me over the edge was an explosion of corrosion. The plane had been fine here for years but two years ago, I got stuck in the Puget Sound area and had to leave it outside for four months at Gig Harbor where the salt water is only half a mile away. The corrosion just took off while it was down there unhangared.

It’s not the same as posted aluminum but it will last longer now.

Looks very good Pete.

The problem with polishing is you are slowing removing the surface alclad layer of pure aluminum from your aluminum surfaces which is there to prevent corrosion of the aluminum alloy core material. As nice as it looks I think painting or using George's technique is the way to go.

lowNslow wrote:The problem with polishing is you are slowing removing the surface alclad layer of pure aluminum from your aluminum surfaces which is there to prevent corrosion of the aluminum alloy core material. As nice as it looks I think painting or using George's technique is the way to go.

I went to the Nuvite forum this year at Oshkosh and the presenter talked about this, she said it would take over something like 150 heavy cut polishing passes to get through the alclad layer...

They do make a clear ceramic coating that can be used after polishing to preserve the finish. It is supposed to last for years. I haven't used it though as my plane is painted. Anyone here using it? It is called johns360.

Here's a sales video of them polishing N8152A, a '52 C-170B. I'd be interested in seeing what it looks like after a summer in the sun.

(If anyone is familiar with the plane's owner you might advise them to discard the compression springs they're using on the tailwheel steering).