Air Force One... shining a part of American history.

[Joe@Superior Shine]

At the end of the day on day four, we were tired!! We felt a great sense of accomplishment though. We had not just polished Freedom One but we shined a presidential Jet Star as well!!

"Baby bird" looked amazing. She still needed just a little bit of work on her tail the next morning but we were just about done!!

Here is a photo comparing the faded finish to the fully corrected paint.

They looked beautiful together!!! It was amazing to see this in person!

 

[LEDetailing]

Thanks for sharing the photos and thanks for all the hard work.

My only question, who got to clean the pads?

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Let me warn you about something.... When you have a group of hard-charging, motivated and dedicated detailers sitting around eating pizza and drinking beer, with not much to do the next day, ideas start flowing........

"Fellas," I said, "You know there is a VC-118 sitting out in that yard?"

Daily, we ate at the museum cafe. We'd have to walk across the display yard every day at lunchtime and pass by a Douglas VC-118. This aircraft flew as Air Force One as well. We'd look at it and think, "maybe one day we'll shine her."

President Kennedy...

President Johnson and Robert Kennedy...

By this time in the week it had been raining for two days. The Az sand which is like concrete when dry turns to mush when wet. We couldn't bring the bird to us. We'd have to go out to here in the yard.

Knuckleheads had written graffiti on her as well in the aluminum and faded paint.

It was drizzling out. We steadied our ladders best we could in the mud and got to cleaning.

She could have used more work but we did the best we could given the circumstances. She looked much improved, was happy and loved us for it.

 

[rangerbay]

What an honor to do such a marvelous thing for our nations historical objects. You guys are indeed truly blessed with amazing generosity and fantastic skills. Thanks.

Bill

 

[pilotpip]

Wow!

That connie in the back that's rotting away needs some love too.

I love cars, but I love planes more. Great work!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Just before the Freedom One project, I made a new friend, Brenda. Brenda was the only female crew member on the first Freedom One flight. She was nice enough to send me a few pics from that time.

Here are photos of Freedom One and Brenda 38 years apart... they both are as just as lovely as ever. Of course we had to send her a team hoodie!!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Ultimately this was an amazing week!! We shined three Air Force Ones and I got to work side by side with some really great detailers!

The personalized plates on my van reads: "AF1DTLR." I have another van that could use personalized plates. I was thinking maybe: "FREEDOM1"

Lots of good people had to come together to pull a project like this off. I have to thank the crew in the restoration hangar at the Pima Air and Space Museum. They were so nice and helpful. Our sponsors... AUTOGEEK, Meguiars and Gary Johnson at Ace Clearwater are the BEST!! Without their help this wouldn't have happened.

THANK YOU!

Remember that white polisher resting on my shoulder early in this post?

You can read more about it here - In my opinion I have the worlds greatest Rupes polisher!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Awesome work again! I know what it’s like doing airplanes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

THANK YOU!!

Great save of American History, Thank You.

Dave

It's our pleasure!!

That's awesome! Great work.
That must have taken a lot of elbow grease and a lot of product.
Must seem a little overwhelming when you start a job of that size.

Dave

Lot of work and product. Not overwhelming at all. Great team, products, machines and processes made it a piece of cake!

Nice work, nice write up with great pictures Joe!

Ugh... I'm tired just looking at all the work that goes into projects this large...


You da man!



:dblthumb2:

You mean ... YOU DA TEAM!! I'm just a middle aged fat guy. I'd be a nobody without good people around me.

I am always amazed at the amount of work a project like this takes. Congrats!

There is one thing that bothers me every time I see a post about polishing large aircrafts like this: Everytime, D156 is used as a LSP... why? This stuff doesn't last. It will give maybe a month of protection.... why spend 100s of man hours on a plane an protect it with a product that has no durability? Should you not be using a long lasting sealant or some kind of ceramic protection instead?

I have two parts to your answer...
First, define "doesn't last." We performed tests on this aircraft with D156 and found 6+ months of protection.
Second, A coating would be a great idea. I do accept donations. PM me for my address. Please send plenty.

nice man!! you should have called me up I would have come and hung out with you guys. I still have my line bandage and secret clearance to go near all that stuff. did you guys get the yellow stands from the corrosion shop there or did you bring those in? I see you used a lot of the AGE stands as well.

Thank you. The rest of your post went over my head, sorry.

Excellent work, sir!

So great to hear from you!

Thanks for the kind words.

Look at it this way...............the next fleet will be 747's. These will look like piper cubs.

Dave

Hopefully I'll be retired by then.

Wow what a generous thing you guys have done! Awesome work everyone! And those pictures in the dark that highlights the plane is unbelieveble beutieful!

Thanks for shareing your work!

Regards
Tony
Sweden

We are all proud to be part of this. Thank you!

Kudos to you and your crew. Did your crew get instructions on where and where you cannot walk?

We are experianced aircraft detailers. What we didn't know we asked the restoration crew on-site.

Thanks for sharing the photos and thanks for all the hard work.

My only question, who got to clean the pads?

We took turns. Team effort!! Lots got saved as souvenirs!

What an honor to do such a marvelous thing for our nations historical objects. You guys are indeed truly blessed with amazing generosity and fantastic skills. Thanks.

Bill

The project was a blessing!! Thank you.

Wow!

That connie in the back that's rotting away needs some love too.

I love cars, but I love planes more. Great work!

We have a green light to polish it. It is the oldest known existing Connie.

 

[derass]

Great results, and great team work! I love the emphasis on safety too. These jobs certainly had unique challenges in that regard.

 

[RTexasF]

..........and 7,000 microfiber towels later they were done! Phenomenal work, many thanks to all involved for bringing these historical aircraft back to Presidential status.

 

[davidc]

These pictures and all involved need a trip to be honored at the White House. They did more than any Football, Baseball team in history. Again thank you for your efforts.

Dave