Now you've stepped into my realm, as it was. Pops was a Private Pilot for over 40 years. His first plane he owned was a old Cessna 120 taildragger. It was a 1940's, but don't remember the year. The 120 was the economy trainer version of the 140. He had flown briefly(and jumped out of planes) in the Army with the 101st Airborne in a spotter plane, and was hooked. Once cut free from the Army, he got his license pretty fast. The 120, was my first experience with Never Dull cotton wadding polish and polishing aluminum. I was 6 at the time, but I still remember that, and all the hours he spent. The funny petroleum smell to Never Dull is something you don't forget,,Like,, Hoppes #9 Nitro Solvent for firearms. Tiny bits of cotton Never Dull, going in circles for hours till my bitty fingers ached, Dad plowing forward for hrs. When it was done,,it shown glistening silver in the sunlight,, to where you couldn't look at it in the direct light or risk circles in the eyes. A polished mirror aimed at the sun. Never Dull is still around, I used it on big truck Diesel fuel tanks, for the freeway shine.
I have used no telling how much mothers polishing semi truck aluminum tanks and wheels. It works pretty good. That is a big job doing a whole aircraft! Amazed how few dents appear in that old plane.
Pretty cool when your skill set is multifaceted. You'll never starve. I can relate. Once it's all buffed out look at some preservatives like sharkhide. My dad has a 140 too. Aluminum wing. Some had a fabric covered wood wing commonly referred as a "rag wing"
That is going to look nice! I like learning some of the details you encounter in your drag racing career. I learned real quick that your craftsmanship is what I need to be paying attention to.
Awesome project Rob! Can not wait to see the progress you make on it. Great pull T handle you made as well. Definitely awesome to learn about the plane and what you are doing with it. Drag car or not, it is awesome to see. Anything that involves a engine or learning is great in my book. Always something new to learn and how it works. 👍🏻
Put some foam plumbing insulation on the trailing edge of the wing. Some people not used to being around airplanes will walk into the back of the wing and get that interesting pattern tattooed into their forehead.
Friggin sweet man!!!!! Hey, at least you are staying consistent w/ engines w/ dual mags, lol :) Supet glad you'll be posting more projects!! I think most of miss your uploads!! You seem SUPER stoked about this and that is contagious..! I'll watch a video of yours and immediately end up going back to work on project's or get ideas, etc. for new projects, etc. and different ideas/solutions for adding to or solving others. Thanks Rob!! Happy Halloween to you and your family as well!
Get a MAKITA VARIABLE SPEED buffer. The one that has the D ring handle. It is made for doing auto body stuff. It is electric so you can really lean on it with the torque of the electric motor. Use the 3M SYSTEM of buffing/polishing compounds. I have used the Makita for over 20 years. You can slow it down g or very fine polising or speed it up to do heavy, serious, buffing of those scratches!!! It can be used to put a mirror finish on aluminum. I used it to do all the aluminum work on my altered prior to getting a Baldor bench buffer.
Try the Renegade Products Big Rig kit, works fantastic, I tried every polish out there and it’s the best by far. Plus it comes with a red scotch bright pad to get that epoxy off in your situation. It will make that job easy and best shine out there, it even will polish the rivets if they are aluminum
The rivets you point out - the little dimple indicates they are MS20470AD rivets probably the single most common rivet in aviation. They're solids and likely hand riveted when the airplane was manufactured, as opposed to squeezed. I just want to caution you, but it sounds like you are already aware. Do not sand or remove metal from the heads of the rivets. During a post-paint inspection of a Twin Commander we identified the paint shop had sanded the heads of the rivets, ultimately the airplane was scrapped as a result. The aircraft skin is likely 2024-T3 aluminum alclad, the surfaces are pure aluminum with a 2024 core. the cladding is only 2-5 thou thick so I doubt you'll have enough material to remove any scratches without exposing the 2024 core. The 2024 doesn't polish quite as nice as the cladding does as I'm sure you'll find out during this project. I've never seen one start painted and end-up polished so I'm very interested in this endeavor. Good Luck, enjoy yourself, and I can't wait to see how it goes!!
I dated a girl years ago, her dad had the V-Tail Bonanza (ya know the 'doctor killer' ..he was a doctor, was super humble and made that joke all the time, lol -- good sense of humor, too) he even said, the only quirk w/ this plane is the ass-end will yaw back and forth a bit, to keep my feet on the petsls to dampen it. That and having a good ear. H let me fly that thing quite a bit (I am not a pilot, but got to learn a LOT) and we had one of the mag systems go out once, he goes, ahh, well.. we gotta turn back and i asked, does the engine sound different or is it me..? He goes, you can hear that, too?? Haha, he was super calm about it and just REALLY knew the airplane and felt you could never really know too much about your own airplane.. so it made jt super safe... Anyway, not sure why i am telling this story, lol, but just got me thinking how much FUN it was and how much knowing wth you are doing and respecting the aircraft (like Larry Dixon has ALWAYS said about Top Fuel, not really worried about much, but ya just gotta respect the car and respect the power!) Which is why you are gonna friggin love working on this and flying this!! 👌🏼🤘🏻😊
I think there's a ton of similarities between that and a 70s dragster. They're both super cool simple machines that are built purely for function and serviceability. I leave out the new Dragsters cuz they've gone into the Space Age.
@@robwendland excellent! Fly often and don't give it up, it can be tough but it's the coolest thing ever when you complete your ticket. I have a couple videos of the 172 on my channel
I’ve owned my 140 for 14 years. I’ve thought about stripping and polishing it a number of times but decided against it for a couple of reasons. First, I like to fly, not spend hours on end polishing it. Second, the aluminum skin is alclad which has an anti-corrosive layer bonded to the surface. Polishing removes the protective layer…and you certainly cannot sand it at all. So if you have scratches, you are stuck. Polished 140’s look sweet. But so do nicely painted ones. It’s just not worth the effort and damage done to the aluminum surfaces. Side bar - my plane with fabric wings has a useful load of 499 lbs. I find it hard to believe you have 550 lbs of useful load with aluminum covered wings. Probably more like 450 lbs or even less. If you haven’t already, you should check this. An extra 100 lbs of load can be a real issue on a short grass field on a hot summer day. 😉 Nice video, good luck!
Rob, make contact with Juan Browne on the channel " blancolirio " He does lots of tail dragger flying. One thing that I've leaned from his vids, you MUST get the tail to fly ( RE airplane level and off the tail wheel ) before any aerodynamic directional control is possible.
@RobWendland , watched this one a couple of days ago. Looking at some stuff from SEMA, I saw this INSANE all aluminum, welds sanded down and turned into a mirror little truck. Find out who this belongs to (ninja search skills) and see what they used. This is the answer to that buffing on the tail dragger. 4:10 mark - ruclips.net/video/4WdD0LMWoKU/видео.html cheers!
Now you've stepped into my realm, as it was. Pops was a Private Pilot for over 40 years. His first plane he owned was a old Cessna 120 taildragger. It was a 1940's, but don't remember the year. The 120 was the economy trainer version of the 140. He had flown briefly(and jumped out of planes) in the Army with the 101st Airborne in a spotter plane, and was hooked. Once cut free from the Army, he got his license pretty fast. The 120, was my first experience with Never Dull cotton wadding polish and polishing aluminum. I was 6 at the time, but I still remember that, and all the hours he spent. The funny petroleum smell to Never Dull is something you don't forget,,Like,, Hoppes #9 Nitro Solvent for firearms. Tiny bits of cotton Never Dull, going in circles for hours till my bitty fingers ached, Dad plowing forward for hrs. When it was done,,it shown glistening silver in the sunlight,, to where you couldn't look at it in the direct light or risk circles in the eyes. A polished mirror aimed at the sun. Never Dull is still around, I used it on big truck Diesel fuel tanks, for the freeway shine.
I have used no telling how much mothers polishing semi truck aluminum tanks and wheels. It works pretty good. That is a big job doing a whole aircraft! Amazed how few dents appear in that old plane.
Good luck with your training and the polishing. She is a classy lady. Your first solo will live with you forever.
That plane is going to be a challenge but look killer when done. That one buffer looks like a piece of gym equipment, damn!
Right?!!! I’ll probably have the old angle grinder out with a buffing pad and polishing wheel on it real soon!!!
Pretty cool when your skill set is multifaceted. You'll never starve. I can relate. Once it's all buffed out look at some preservatives like sharkhide.
My dad has a 140 too. Aluminum wing. Some had a fabric covered wood wing commonly referred as a "rag wing"
Right on! This is going to be cool!!
That is going to look nice!
I like learning some of the details you encounter in your drag racing career. I learned real quick that your craftsmanship is what I need to be paying attention to.
Thanks for the kind words !!
Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome project Rob! Can not wait to see the progress you make on it. Great pull T handle you made as well. Definitely awesome to learn about the plane and what you are doing with it. Drag car or not, it is awesome to see. Anything that involves a engine or learning is great in my book. Always something new to learn and how it works. 👍🏻
Sure appreciate the kind words thanks man!
@@robwendland you have a Facebook or away to contact you? I have a question about the waterman fuel pump
Love this!
Oh man…….you are going to create a full time job for someone by polishing that 140 lol !
Didn’t know you flew. That’s a sweet ride you’ve got there.
Flitz is the shit for bare aluminum by the way.
love the 140s.
Good luck!
Thank you!!
Put some foam plumbing insulation on the trailing edge of the wing. Some people not used to being around airplanes will walk into the back of the wing and get that interesting pattern tattooed into their forehead.
Nice
Thanks for watching!
Friggin sweet man!!!!! Hey, at least you are staying consistent w/ engines w/ dual mags, lol :)
Supet glad you'll be posting more projects!! I think most of miss your uploads!!
You seem SUPER stoked about this and that is contagious..! I'll watch a video of yours and immediately end up going back to work on project's or get ideas, etc. for new projects, etc. and different ideas/solutions for adding to or solving others.
Thanks Rob!! Happy Halloween to you and your family as well!
Sure appreciate it brother! Should be a cool project!
Oshkosh here we come !
OOL ROB..GOOD LUCK
Get a MAKITA VARIABLE SPEED buffer. The one that has the D ring handle. It is made for doing auto body stuff. It is electric so you can really lean on it with the torque of the electric motor. Use the 3M SYSTEM of buffing/polishing compounds.
I have used the Makita for over 20 years.
You can slow it down g or very fine polising or speed it up to do heavy, serious, buffing of those scratches!!!
It can be used to put a mirror finish on aluminum.
I used it to do all the aluminum work on my altered prior to getting a Baldor bench buffer.
That is a lot of work
Try the Renegade Products Big Rig kit, works fantastic, I tried every polish out there and it’s the best by far. Plus it comes with a red scotch bright pad to get that epoxy off in your situation. It will make that job easy and best shine out there, it even will polish the rivets if they are aluminum
The rivets you point out - the little dimple indicates they are MS20470AD rivets probably the single most common rivet in aviation. They're solids and likely hand riveted when the airplane was manufactured, as opposed to squeezed. I just want to caution you, but it sounds like you are already aware. Do not sand or remove metal from the heads of the rivets. During a post-paint inspection of a Twin Commander we identified the paint shop had sanded the heads of the rivets, ultimately the airplane was scrapped as a result.
The aircraft skin is likely 2024-T3 aluminum alclad, the surfaces are pure aluminum with a 2024 core. the cladding is only 2-5 thou thick so I doubt you'll have enough material to remove any scratches without exposing the 2024 core. The 2024 doesn't polish quite as nice as the cladding does as I'm sure you'll find out during this project. I've never seen one start painted and end-up polished so I'm very interested in this endeavor. Good Luck, enjoy yourself, and I can't wait to see how it goes!!
I dated a girl years ago, her dad had the V-Tail Bonanza (ya know the 'doctor killer' ..he was a doctor, was super humble and made that joke all the time, lol -- good sense of humor, too) he even said, the only quirk w/ this plane is the ass-end will yaw back and forth a bit, to keep my feet on the petsls to dampen it. That and having a good ear. H let me fly that thing quite a bit (I am not a pilot, but got to learn a LOT) and we had one of the mag systems go out once, he goes, ahh, well.. we gotta turn back and i asked, does the engine sound different or is it me..? He goes, you can hear that, too?? Haha, he was super calm about it and just REALLY knew the airplane and felt you could never really know too much about your own airplane.. so it made jt super safe...
Anyway, not sure why i am telling this story, lol, but just got me thinking how much FUN it was and how much knowing wth you are doing and respecting the aircraft (like Larry Dixon has ALWAYS said about Top Fuel, not really worried about much, but ya just gotta respect the car and respect the power!) Which is why you are gonna friggin love working on this and flying this!!
👌🏼🤘🏻😊
Love the story brother! Awesome! Thanks for watching!
I think there's a ton of similarities between that and a 70s dragster. They're both super cool simple machines that are built purely for function and serviceability. I leave out the new Dragsters cuz they've gone into the Space Age.
Your right! Lots of similarities! Thanks for watching!
Do you fly Rob? My dad and I own a '57 172, kind of the bigger brother to the 140. Love the content, keep up the good work
I’m currently getting my private right now! Thanks for watching!!
@@robwendland excellent! Fly often and don't give it up, it can be tough but it's the coolest thing ever when you complete your ticket. I have a couple videos of the 172 on my channel
I’ve owned my 140 for 14 years. I’ve thought about stripping and polishing it a number of times but decided against it for a couple of reasons. First, I like to fly, not spend hours on end polishing it. Second, the aluminum skin is alclad which has an anti-corrosive layer bonded to the surface. Polishing removes the protective layer…and you certainly cannot sand it at all. So if you have scratches, you are stuck.
Polished 140’s look sweet. But so do nicely painted ones. It’s just not worth the effort and damage done to the aluminum surfaces.
Side bar - my plane with fabric wings has a useful load of 499 lbs. I find it hard to believe you have 550 lbs of useful load with aluminum covered wings. Probably more like 450 lbs or even less. If you haven’t already, you should check this. An extra 100 lbs of load can be a real issue on a short grass field on a hot summer day. 😉
Nice video, good luck!
Rob, make contact with Juan Browne on the channel " blancolirio " He does lots of tail dragger flying. One thing that I've leaned from his vids, you MUST get the tail to fly ( RE airplane level and off the tail wheel ) before any aerodynamic directional control is possible.
Cool project! The guys who polish old Airstream Trailers might be of help.
Are the air streams are they stainless steel or the aluminum??
@RobWendland , watched this one a couple of days ago. Looking at some stuff from SEMA, I saw this INSANE all aluminum, welds sanded down and turned into a mirror little truck. Find out who this belongs to (ninja search skills) and see what they used. This is the answer to that buffing on the tail dragger. 4:10 mark - ruclips.net/video/4WdD0LMWoKU/видео.html cheers!
I’m working on my private pilot license
Did you ever finish the polish job?