Shine On You Crazy Airstream

The most recent challenge I've tackled has been polishing my trailer. For my faithful blog readers who aren't as familiar with vintage Airstreams (all both of you), the aluminum used on Airstreams up until the early 80s or so, is an alloy that is capable of being polished to a mirror shine. Not all aluminum alloys can do this, and polished to a mirror shine is also NOT how they came from the factory, rather they had more of a flat, mil finish. But, over the years, oxidation sets in, and one way to improve the dull, weathered, gray look of the panels is to polish them.

Of course, as usual I've failed to get adequate "Before" pictures before beginning a major project, so I'll just have to use this one we took at the beach a couple of weeks ago. Aside from featuring my lovely wife and son, it's not a great shot, but it does show the general condition of the skin, which is the standard, dull gray of an unpolished vintage Airstream.


My goal here is not to have the shiniest trailer on the planet-- that takes a ton of initial work and also a lot of regular maintenance. I just wanted to clean up and brighten the look a little bit. There are as many polishes, tools, products, and techniques to perform this task as there are Airstreamers performing this task, but the method that I am using involves using Diamondbrite truck box polish, and my Porter Cable random orbit sander/buffer.

Since nobody picked up a camera to record the actual polishing activity, we'll just skip to the "Afters."




I did take a couple detailed shots of the front lower panel that features the Airstream nameplates and badging. Here's the before:


I removed the badges and cleaned up the small, oval MHMA badge a little bit. Almost two years ago, I had purchased a replacement Airstream nameplate, and I finally had the opportunity to install it.

As you can see, there's still quite a bit of corrosion on this panel, but I think it looks much better than before, and that's what I'm shooting for here.

Overall I've now spent about 17 hours to polish about 85% of the trailer to what I call a "20-foot shine" meaning it looks pretty good from 20 feet. Any closer, and you begin seeing the corrosion, scratches, and scars that remain. I still have some work to do on the rear endcap, and streetside roof panel.

But the nice thing about this polishing method is that it's not very messy. I can polish in normal clothes, without using an apron or goggles or anything else to keep the black powdery aluminum oxide off of me, because none of it escapes the polishing bonnet. So it will be easy to work an extra 30-45 minutes here and there wherever it needs it, and every pass improves the polish to a deeper shine.

But now it is time to prep the trailer for another trip. Shine on...