Seriously, its amazing. I was using a buffer with a yellow airway pad and the Contour SCT is much faster. I am going to do some videos on polishing and show a 5 minute comparison. Thanks man!
After owning both two 1976 Sovereigns and a 1963 Globetrotter this Eastwood buffer would be great. The Sovereigns one was bought new by my parents which I inherited, and one old one I bought and restored. The Globetrotter was bought new by my parents, and passed to me and fully restored to original. I can remember mom HAND polishing with a creamy thick polishing liquid sold by the dealers it would take her about a day with using us young teens help, but this was maintenance and waxing from new not restoration. Of course, she was just touching up. The Globetrotter is ALCLAD 2024 with a .005" thick outer surface of 1100 pure aluminum, came bare and you polished with a metal polish. The Sovereigns both are clear lacquer over mill finish 6000 series aluminum. Two different animals keeping up the lacquer is like keeping up a car, and keeping up the ALCLAD is like keeping up an airplane. The Sovereign mom used to do by herself over the new lacquer, using car polish and wax in 2 - 3 maybe 6 hour days. In either case, I think the cotton buffer wheel would be great. BUT don't ever mix materials with a cotton buff... use the same polish grit or type with one buff, and another grit or polish with another, separate, for wax buffing one a separate pad for wax and one for removal. One buff assigned for each finishing material. You will not ever be able to full clean the old polish out and ruin you finish if you try to use a cotton buff use it with something else. Also, the cotton buff will need to be cleaned between uses, but still remains assigned to one type of buffing compound, wax or plain for final polish. If using a polish like rouge or something you have to "card" the caked on polish off the surface of the pad once in awhile to not be cutting properly, burning, or scratching the surface. You might be doing this every 10 -30 minutes for example. Restoration... My technique... Now restoration usually involves removing pitting. The Globetrotters ALCAD only has .005" to work with before you ruin it. The Sovereigns are same material all the way through. ONLY the ALCAD can you get an absolute mirror finish. The Sovereigns are probably best left with an about 320 grit or finer directional finish applied to match the length of each panel then lacquered then waxed. Buffing an ALCAD to mirror may have to be done leaving deeper pits, but you can carefully use like a 320/scotch bright maroon fine grit finish wet with WD40 then use the Scotch Bright extra fine gray by hand (or machine) Scotch Bite only wet again, then use the Ultra fine gray Scotch Bite by hand or machine only wet.... then wipe down and polish using a cream type aluminum polish to mirror... that is the quickest way. You cannot lacquer over the polished ALCLAD and expect it to hold up... must polish, wax and buff only... or use a polish with a protective silicone additive. Some of the polishes leave a protective finish so you don't have to wax. Practice one one of the lower rocker panels to perfect technique. You can buff to a satin polish the Sovereigns 6000 series aluminum using the same technique, too but you will not get the absolute mirror the ALCLAD gives, and you would have trouble keeping it up long term if not lacquered. Generally, do not use the 320 dry... or any of the Scotch Brite dry only wet that is what I found works best for removing scratches and pits. Doing the Scotch Brite by hand is pretty easy and quick, you will find. But if they have a finer pad with Scotch bright in the gray color extra fine or ultra fine as an intermediate stages for this machine that would really speed things up with the buffing as you have less deep scratches to buff away. Importantly, the real labor saving with the machine would be initial cleanup sanding / Scotch Brite maroon fine... but the extra fine and ultra fine steps go real fast by even hand. But the real labor saving is the buffing step that is where this machine would shine above all the others on the market with the cotton buff drum. Way I have done is to: a) first remove any lacquer; b) Scotch Brite with maroon fine to remove pits and irregularities, going length wise on each the panels, you can skip if no pits or scratches; c) Scotch Brite extra fine gray at + 30 degrees to the length of each panel; d) Scotch Bright ultra fine gray at -30 degrees to the length of each panel; e) finish with cotton buffer with cream aluminum polish making sure last buffing is along the length of each panel. I would not use conventional rouge or grease type polishes... take too long. A final note on polishing the really effective cream at the dealer was white thick liquid and you could take a 320 grit finish to final bright polish using it in one step... if you had something like this machine, I would think... I used to polish extruded aluminum tubes by using maroon fine scotch bite then that stuff... like a mirror using a small lathe. I think that polish was called Wallenbrize or something like... would not surprise me if it was Bon Ami with mineral spirts. Note if patching panels use only exact match types of aluminum ALCLAD trailer use the aircraft ALCAD 2024 material, and the 6000 series aluminum trailers use a 6061 or a 6063 material.
Thanks for the great info! You clearly know Airstreams! One of the great things about the SCT is it has a 320 scotch bright drum and I have tested it wet in some spots and it works great. The polish I am using, Monster Polish has a protective finish so it works great. I have been using scotch bright and Bar Keepers friend on the window sashes as I rebuild them, then polish them apart so I can get them to a mirror without risking damage to glass or gaskets once put together. I appreciate the input and will keep that in mind when I really get going on the exterior polish!
@@MillerGarage Bon Ami may very well work better than Bar Keeper's Friend... though I use Bar Keeper's Friend every day on the pots and pans! Bon Ami breaks down and get finer as it is used. I am not sure Bar Keeper's Friend does. In Junior High wood shop we made some plexiglass projects and used sandpaper progressively finer and then as last step Bon Ami with water to achieve high glass like polish on the plastic. As a side not people who rebuild engines often use a tiny bit of Bon Ami blown into the intake are or as a paste mixed with oil to seat piston rings and valve seats.... works great and diesel / natural / propane gas engine makers often recommend or use it themselves for this break in process... with surprisingly no ill effect to the engine. But you give me an idea... I just wonder how well the Bar Keepers Friend would work on the buffer drum for creating a satin polish... sounds like you know as you have used on window frames.... note usually with satin polish the final pass should be directional on fwd aft line of the panel or trailer. Love finding that these cheap solutions are often better than purchase stuff. Try some of the cream polishes rather than the Monster stick polish... also you might want to mix some bon ami with some mineral spirits or vaseline if you want thicker for final polish... be interested to find out.
Hello trying to get your advice,I bought the vevor Stainless steel polisher handheld sander polisher wheel and started using it on my airstream. I used the wheel that came with it. but now when I go to do the next pass with a joker wheel by Zephyr I get a big black spot. And it just spreads no matter how much I pass over it. No sure where to go from here. Would appreciate any advice. Thank you.
I used a normal polishing rake but just was careful with it to not tear it up. I have the Sewn drum but have not gotten to use it yet. I will be in the next few weeks. There will be a video about it.
@@MillerGarage Thanks. I have 1966 Airstream 26' Overlander Twin that I need to get to work on. I seem to have more time than money so I need to learn to do much of this myself. Your info has been the most instructive so far in regards to sub-floor and polishing. I like the Zephyrpro40 guys. I want to use the Eastwood SCT for easiness but the DeWalt or Makita seem to be more versatile for polishing and the buff wheels are cheaper. So do you use only the Eastwood SCT for rust and polishing? I saw you had other polishers/grinders too.
@@AceWCLLC glad to be helpful. Ok so the SCT does work well but I have found that I really have to bear down on it to get results and the consumables are pretty pricey. I am going to test the sewn cotton wheel and see how it does for a 2nd stage but I am mainly using a Milwaukee variable speed 6000 rpm grinder and a DeWalt 3500 rpm polisher. At 6000 rpm you have to be careful and move fast to avoid warping the al. I use Zephyr orange and yellow airways for cut and then move to the green airway if areas need intermediate cut then a cotton sewn wheel. I will be putting out a video soon of this setup. If you are just polishing, the Zephyr method is ideal. The SCT is good if you need lots of versatility in a tool and do some of everything.
Hi, thank you for sharing the knowledge with us! I have acquired the Eastwood SCT tool with the buffing wheel and now I am considering getting the polishing drum. Have you had a chance to try it yet? (Haven't found any video).
Can you please answer What drum grit are you using for the initial cut on the SCT? I have from 320 grit to 600 grit, but I must be doing something wrong because it’s not cutting like the zephyr polishing wheels. Also, do I still use the same compound bar that I use with the zephyr initial cut? (Red Tripoli) I need some answers PLEASE!!
The consumables are way too expensive (50 dollars plus per each drum) for something as large as an Airstream. This tool has a line contact patch so it is designed to create a linear scratch pattern in exposed stainless steel. Using it to replace a large orbital polisher is going to cost you time and money. The large orbital polisher has a huge bonnet contact area. A 10 inch bonnet has 75 square inches (pi x 5 squared) of contact area polishing the aluminum skin of your Airstream compared to 4 inches times maybe 1/2 inch roller contact or 2 square inches. The bonnets are going to last much longer as the pressure per square inch is much lower an they cost 10-15 bucks each. They also will carry much more cutting and polishing compound compared to that linear drum. The SCT is designed to create a linear scratch pattern in exposed stainless steell. That's it's main use. Using it for polishing a large area of aluminum skin is going to waste time and money compared to a 10 inch diameter wool bonnet. For paint stripping the proper comparision is to compare the Coarse SCT stripping drum to a 3M clean and strip cookie pad or the higher end Norton Orange Blaze strip pad. Those are 10-15 dollars each for the 7 inch diameter pads and the 4 inch pads maybe half as much. They will run with any variable speed grinder set to a lower speed.
Have you used it? My guess is probably not. They are expensive but the one stripping drum did more work than 8 disks I bought for my grinder. Those disks were about 3 bucks, fully used up and after getting the SCT and finishing the job with it I still have about 75% of life left in the drum. Same with the polishing drum, last forever. I have gone thru 3 of the 8inch airway pads and zero of the drums with more use on the drum. Also, I would never polish doing the cotton bonnet method. Swirls, takes longer, etc. Large airway, Buffpro, or the SCT are the way to go. Ask the pros, (Eastcoast Polishing, Monster Polish, everyone I have seen or talked to on the topic of Airstream polishing uses airways and buff/drum polishers).
If you are paying 3 bucks for a cookie, it isn't a 3M Clean and Strip or a more expensive Norton Blaze stripping cookie. 3M invented it and they get 5-8 bucks per each because Autobody pros know they outperform the knockoffs. The Norton Blaze is made with ceramic abrasives for really tough coatings and blending welds instead of flap discs. Never use any of those on Aluminum sheet or risk burning right through it in seconds. Airways are coarse sisal for rough compounding and rapid cutting down. I wouldn't use a really coarse compound on an Airstream unless the oxidation was really bad as Al is a really soft metal. Wool and medium compounds are much safer. I own 2 Fein drum polishers and two Flex linears with vacuum ports for grinding applications. Eastwood SCT is made in China for Eastwood and so are the drums. The price points are all designed to appeal to the garage restorer. So have I used the Eastwood SCT, no but I have used my collection of Feins and Flex linear drums for many years, mostly on graining stainless steel, which BTW is their main application. I have helped strip Aluminum bodied aircraft for epoxy recoat but you don't need a high polish on the aircraft skin before the epoxy primer.
A sisal bonnet is designed to be used with a super aggressive compound for real fast cutting and that is typically used on rough castings. If you use that setup on thin aluminum sheet for oxidization, you better have a real light touch or risk deep scratches or burn through on corners. Aluminum is so soft that unless the oxidation is really thick, I would advise the owner to use something much less aggressive like a twisted wool bonnet and a medium coarse polishing compound. It may take longer but will be much less risky for somone who doesn't restore Airstreams for a living. I also make no mention of using cotton bonnets although I have wrapped cut up cotton flannel sheets around a used twisted knot bonnet for coarse cutting of rough brass to great effect. Saved me money but not ime compared to burning up new wool bonnets. The Eastwood SCT polishing drums are currently only sold as a cotton flap wheel. There are other companies that sell solid wool and also synthetic polymer drums for different polishing applications. Users must use each drum with a SINGLE COMPOUND as you do not want cross contamination between different grades of compound. Store the used drums in zip-loc blags clearly labeled between use. A three step process will need 3 different cotton flap wheels.
I took from other airstream renovations it is best to go with the grain of the metal -www.airforums.com/forums/f441/washing-polishing-with-the-grain-143675.html The cap sections' grain does run vertical though apparently ^^
I bet it would save some passes if you started with the coarsest setup and did the first pass horizontally, and then all subsequent passes vertically. This would mean you would be working a much more uniform surface in the vertical instead of just whatever random surface you are presented with. All scratches - whatever length, direction, depth, shape, etc. have to be worked off only in the vertical. .. working off a uniform field of horizontal scratches, all the same length, direction, depth, shape, etc. would HAVE to reach uniformity sooner wouldn’t it? Just a thought.
Great feedback, we love seeing the progress ya'll are making on the Airstream!
Thanks! Love working with Eastwood products!
That is amazing! That little patch that took you 5 minutes took me 3 hours! I will check out your website it's exciting!
Seriously, its amazing. I was using a buffer with a yellow airway pad and the Contour SCT is much faster. I am going to do some videos on polishing and show a 5 minute comparison. Thanks man!
DANG! Your shiny '76 Sovereign is going to make my '77 Sovereign look like the Beverly Hillbillies rat rod! I'm jealous!
Lol, it will take a ton of time tho! But hey, yours will have some great looking windows!
The Seek First Adventure No doubt about that!
Wouldn't a sand blaster be easier and faster to remove rust from frame?
After owning both two 1976 Sovereigns and a 1963 Globetrotter this Eastwood buffer would be great. The Sovereigns one was bought new by my parents which I inherited, and one old one I bought and restored. The Globetrotter was bought new by my parents, and passed to me and fully restored to original. I can remember mom HAND polishing with a creamy thick polishing liquid sold by the dealers it would take her about a day with using us young teens help, but this was maintenance and waxing from new not restoration. Of course, she was just touching up. The Globetrotter is ALCLAD 2024 with a .005" thick outer surface of 1100 pure aluminum, came bare and you polished with a metal polish. The Sovereigns both are clear lacquer over mill finish 6000 series aluminum. Two different animals keeping up the lacquer is like keeping up a car, and keeping up the ALCLAD is like keeping up an airplane. The Sovereign mom used to do by herself over the new lacquer, using car polish and wax in 2 - 3 maybe 6 hour days. In either case, I think the cotton buffer wheel would be great. BUT don't ever mix materials with a cotton buff... use the same polish grit or type with one buff, and another grit or polish with another, separate, for wax buffing one a separate pad for wax and one for removal. One buff assigned for each finishing material. You will not ever be able to full clean the old polish out and ruin you finish if you try to use a cotton buff use it with something else. Also, the cotton buff will need to be cleaned between uses, but still remains assigned to one type of buffing compound, wax or plain for final polish. If using a polish like rouge or something you have to "card" the caked on polish off the surface of the pad once in awhile to not be cutting properly, burning, or scratching the surface. You might be doing this every 10 -30 minutes for example.
Restoration...
My technique... Now restoration usually involves removing pitting. The Globetrotters ALCAD only has .005" to work with before you ruin it. The Sovereigns are same material all the way through. ONLY the ALCAD can you get an absolute mirror finish. The Sovereigns are probably best left with an about 320 grit or finer directional finish applied to match the length of each panel then lacquered then waxed. Buffing an ALCAD to mirror may have to be done leaving deeper pits, but you can carefully use like a 320/scotch bright maroon fine grit finish wet with WD40 then use the Scotch Bright extra fine gray by hand (or machine) Scotch Bite only wet again, then use the Ultra fine gray Scotch Bite by hand or machine only wet.... then wipe down and polish using a cream type aluminum polish to mirror... that is the quickest way. You cannot lacquer over the polished ALCLAD and expect it to hold up... must polish, wax and buff only... or use a polish with a protective silicone additive. Some of the polishes leave a protective finish so you don't have to wax. Practice one one of the lower rocker panels to perfect technique. You can buff to a satin polish the Sovereigns 6000 series aluminum using the same technique, too but you will not get the absolute mirror the ALCLAD gives, and you would have trouble keeping it up long term if not lacquered.
Generally, do not use the 320 dry... or any of the Scotch Brite dry only wet that is what I found works best for removing scratches and pits. Doing the Scotch Brite by hand is pretty easy and quick, you will find. But if they have a finer pad with Scotch bright in the gray color extra fine or ultra fine as an intermediate stages for this machine that would really speed things up with the buffing as you have less deep scratches to buff away. Importantly, the real labor saving with the machine would be initial cleanup sanding / Scotch Brite maroon fine... but the extra fine and ultra fine steps go real fast by even hand. But the real labor saving is the buffing step that is where this machine would shine above all the others on the market with the cotton buff drum.
Way I have done is to: a) first remove any lacquer; b) Scotch Brite with maroon fine to remove pits and irregularities, going length wise on each the panels, you can skip if no pits or scratches; c) Scotch Brite extra fine gray at + 30 degrees to the length of each panel; d) Scotch Bright ultra fine gray at -30 degrees to the length of each panel; e) finish with cotton buffer with cream aluminum polish making sure last buffing is along the length of each panel. I would not use conventional rouge or grease type polishes... take too long.
A final note on polishing the really effective cream at the dealer was white thick liquid and you could take a 320 grit finish to final bright polish using it in one step... if you had something like this machine, I would think... I used to polish extruded aluminum tubes by using maroon fine scotch bite then that stuff... like a mirror using a small lathe. I think that polish was called Wallenbrize or something like... would not surprise me if it was Bon Ami with mineral spirts.
Note if patching panels use only exact match types of aluminum ALCLAD trailer use the aircraft ALCAD 2024 material, and the 6000 series aluminum trailers use a 6061 or a 6063 material.
Thanks for the great info! You clearly know Airstreams! One of the great things about the SCT is it has a 320 scotch bright drum and I have tested it wet in some spots and it works great. The polish I am using, Monster Polish has a protective finish so it works great. I have been using scotch bright and Bar Keepers friend on the window sashes as I rebuild them, then polish them apart so I can get them to a mirror without risking damage to glass or gaskets once put together. I appreciate the input and will keep that in mind when I really get going on the exterior polish!
@@MillerGarage Bon Ami may very well work better than Bar Keeper's Friend... though I use Bar Keeper's Friend every day on the pots and pans! Bon Ami breaks down and get finer as it is used. I am not sure Bar Keeper's Friend does. In Junior High wood shop we made some plexiglass projects and used sandpaper progressively finer and then as last step Bon Ami with water to achieve high glass like polish on the plastic. As a side not people who rebuild engines often use a tiny bit of Bon Ami blown into the intake are or as a paste mixed with oil to seat piston rings and valve seats.... works great and diesel / natural / propane gas engine makers often recommend or use it themselves for this break in process... with surprisingly no ill effect to the engine.
But you give me an idea... I just wonder how well the Bar Keepers Friend would work on the buffer drum for creating a satin polish... sounds like you know as you have used on window frames.... note usually with satin polish the final pass should be directional on fwd aft line of the panel or trailer. Love finding that these cheap solutions are often better than purchase stuff.
Try some of the cream polishes rather than the Monster stick polish... also you might want to mix some bon ami with some mineral spirits or vaseline if you want thicker for final polish... be interested to find out.
Hello trying to get your advice,I bought the vevor Stainless steel polisher handheld sander polisher wheel and started using it on my airstream. I used the wheel that came with it. but now when I go to do the next pass with a joker wheel by Zephyr I get a big black spot. And it just spreads no matter how much I pass over it. No sure where to go from here. Would appreciate any advice. Thank you.
How did you clean your buffing drum and did you use Eastwood Contour SCT® Spiral Sewn Buff Drum
Item #21976?
I used a normal polishing rake but just was careful with it to not tear it up. I have the Sewn drum but have not gotten to use it yet. I will be in the next few weeks. There will be a video about it.
@@MillerGarage Thanks. I have 1966 Airstream 26' Overlander Twin that I need to get to work on. I seem to have more time than money so I need to learn to do much of this myself. Your info has been the most instructive so far in regards to sub-floor and polishing. I like the Zephyrpro40 guys. I want to use the Eastwood SCT for easiness but the DeWalt or Makita seem to be more versatile for polishing and the buff wheels are cheaper. So do you use only the Eastwood SCT for rust and polishing? I saw you had other polishers/grinders too.
@@AceWCLLC glad to be helpful. Ok so the SCT does work well but I have found that I really have to bear down on it to get results and the consumables are pretty pricey. I am going to test the sewn cotton wheel and see how it does for a 2nd stage but I am mainly using a Milwaukee variable speed 6000 rpm grinder and a DeWalt 3500 rpm polisher. At 6000 rpm you have to be careful and move fast to avoid warping the al. I use Zephyr orange and yellow airways for cut and then move to the green airway if areas need intermediate cut then a cotton sewn wheel. I will be putting out a video soon of this setup. If you are just polishing, the Zephyr method is ideal. The SCT is good if you need lots of versatility in a tool and do some of everything.
Hi, thank you for sharing the knowledge with us! I have acquired the Eastwood SCT tool with the buffing wheel and now I am considering getting the polishing drum. Have you had a chance to try it yet? (Haven't found any video).
Can you please answer What drum grit are you using for the initial cut on the SCT? I have from 320 grit to 600 grit, but I must be doing something wrong because it’s not cutting like the zephyr polishing wheels. Also, do I still use the same compound bar that I use with the zephyr initial cut? (Red Tripoli) I need some answers PLEASE!!
What polishing compound are you using?
Zephyr Tripoli Rogue, the red cutting bar. Its pretty good but I want to try Monster Polish's new cutting bars.
what speed are you running tue sct
The consumables are way too expensive (50 dollars plus per each drum) for something as large as an Airstream. This tool has a line contact patch so it is designed to create a linear scratch pattern in exposed stainless steel. Using it to replace a large orbital polisher is going to cost you time and money. The large orbital polisher has a huge bonnet contact area. A 10 inch bonnet has 75 square inches (pi x 5 squared) of contact area polishing the aluminum skin of your Airstream compared to 4 inches times maybe 1/2 inch roller contact or 2 square inches. The bonnets are going to last much longer as the pressure per square inch is much lower an they cost 10-15 bucks each. They also will carry much more cutting and polishing compound compared to that linear drum. The SCT is designed to create a linear scratch pattern in exposed stainless steell. That's it's main use. Using it for polishing a large area of aluminum skin is going to waste time and money compared to a 10 inch diameter wool bonnet.
For paint stripping the proper comparision is to compare the Coarse SCT stripping drum to a 3M clean and strip cookie pad or the higher end Norton Orange Blaze strip pad. Those are 10-15 dollars each for the 7 inch diameter pads and the 4 inch pads maybe half as much. They will run with any variable speed grinder set to a lower speed.
Have you used it? My guess is probably not. They are expensive but the one stripping drum did more work than 8 disks I bought for my grinder. Those disks were about 3 bucks, fully used up and after getting the SCT and finishing the job with it I still have about 75% of life left in the drum. Same with the polishing drum, last forever. I have gone thru 3 of the 8inch airway pads and zero of the drums with more use on the drum. Also, I would never polish doing the cotton bonnet method. Swirls, takes longer, etc. Large airway, Buffpro, or the SCT are the way to go. Ask the pros, (Eastcoast Polishing, Monster Polish, everyone I have seen or talked to on the topic of Airstream polishing uses airways and buff/drum polishers).
If you are paying 3 bucks for a cookie, it isn't a 3M Clean and Strip or a more expensive Norton Blaze stripping cookie. 3M invented it and they get 5-8 bucks per each because Autobody pros know they outperform the knockoffs. The Norton Blaze is made with ceramic abrasives for really tough coatings and blending welds instead of flap discs. Never use any of those on Aluminum sheet or risk burning right through it in seconds. Airways are coarse sisal for rough compounding and rapid cutting down. I wouldn't use a really coarse compound on an Airstream unless the oxidation was really bad as Al is a really soft metal. Wool and medium compounds are much safer. I own 2 Fein drum polishers and two Flex linears with vacuum ports for grinding applications. Eastwood SCT is made in China for Eastwood and so are the drums. The price points are all designed to appeal to the garage restorer. So have I used the Eastwood SCT, no but I have used my collection of Feins and Flex linear drums for many years, mostly on graining stainless steel, which BTW is their main application. I have helped strip Aluminum bodied aircraft for epoxy recoat but you don't need a high polish on the aircraft skin before the epoxy primer.
A sisal bonnet is designed to be used with a super aggressive compound for real fast cutting and that is typically used on rough castings. If you use that setup on thin aluminum sheet for oxidization, you better have a real light touch or risk deep scratches or burn through on corners. Aluminum is so soft that unless the oxidation is really thick, I would advise the owner to use something much less aggressive like a twisted wool bonnet and a medium coarse polishing compound. It may take longer but will be much less risky for somone who doesn't restore Airstreams for a living.
I also make no mention of using cotton bonnets although I have wrapped cut up cotton flannel sheets around a used twisted knot bonnet for coarse cutting of rough brass to great effect. Saved me money but not ime compared to burning up new wool bonnets.
The Eastwood SCT polishing drums are currently only sold as a cotton flap wheel. There are other companies that sell solid wool and also synthetic polymer drums for different polishing applications. Users must use each drum with a SINGLE COMPOUND as you do not want cross contamination between different grades of compound. Store the used drums in zip-loc blags clearly labeled between use. A three step process will need 3 different cotton flap wheels.
I took from other airstream renovations it is best to go with the grain of the metal -www.airforums.com/forums/f441/washing-polishing-with-the-grain-143675.html The cap sections' grain does run vertical though apparently ^^
I bet it would save some passes if you started with the coarsest setup and did the first pass horizontally, and then all subsequent passes vertically. This would mean you would be working a much more uniform surface in the vertical instead of just whatever random surface you are presented with. All scratches - whatever length, direction, depth, shape, etc. have to be worked off only in the vertical. .. working off a uniform field of horizontal scratches, all the same length, direction, depth, shape, etc. would HAVE to reach uniformity sooner wouldn’t it? Just a thought.