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

[Joe@Superior Shine]

I've been shining paint since the early 1980s. I've had my own business shining paint since 1990. I absolutely adore my job. I've been blessed to shine the paint on many amazing things such as most models of the world's exotic supercars, multi-million dollar classics, vintage aircraft and presidential transports.

Recently I lead a team to polish, for the second time, a Boeing VC-137B, Special Air Mission 971.


Towards the end of President Eisenhower's term in 1958, the Air Force added three Boeing 707 aircraft into the presidential fleet. They were designated as VC-137s and referred to by Special Air Mission "SAM" and the last three digits of their tail numbers, 970, 971, and 972.

All three sister aircraft were used as Air Force One, which is the call sign of the aircraft when it is transporting the president of the United States.


I've had the honor of polishing SAM970, which on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wa., a couple of times.

After detailing SAM970 I set out to locate the other two aircraft. Unfortunately, SAM972 had been retired and scrapped years ago. I feared SAM971 had fallen under the same fate.

SAM971 seen here, in the back ground in her early 1960s white and orange livery, behind President Kennedy.

To my relief, I did find SAM971 on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Az.

I soon found out that she not only had served as an Air Force One but she had flown under the call sign, "FREEDOM ONE" twice. 1980 she was dispatched to retrieve Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days. She flew under FREEDOM ONE again 10 years later when she brought home American prisoners of war from Operation Desert storm.

She had been retired in the early 90s and had been on display since. She was dirty, her paint was badly faded but I knew we could save her and restore the finish.

So, in 2015 with the help of AutoGeek, Meguiars and a client of mine, Gary Johnson of Ace Clear water, I put together a team and we shined her!!

TEAM SHINE was born!!

We had a ton of fun! She came out gourgous!!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Fast forward to 2018, it had been three years since we shined SAM971. I knew she was sadly over-due for a "wash and wax" but hoped she wasn't too bad.
I contacted the Museum and offered our services again. They were eager to have us out. I put together a team to gather in Az to polish her finish again.

Her finish wasn't nearly as faded as she was when we first found her but it still needed lots of TLC to get her back to her presidential status. Here is a photo of a "50/50" of a fully correction portion versus an area that is slightly weathered.

Our combination to shine and protect her finish was the same we used last time.....

Meguiars 6inch Yellow Polishing Foam Disc - Meguiars 6 Inch DA Foam Polishing Disc

Meguiars M20501 Ultra Finishing Polish - Meguiars Mirror Glaze #205 Ultra Finishing Polish, final polish, Meguiars polishes, car polish, 205 FP

Rupes Bigfoot 21 - Rupes BigFoot LHR21 MarkII Random Orbital Polisher

and topped for protection, Meguiars D15601 - Meguiars Synthetic X-press Spray Wax, X-press car wax, Meguiars X-press spray liquid wax, D156


As you can see, the results tell no lies;

 

[MrRoo]

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


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[Joe@Superior Shine]

Polishing paint is polishing paint, be it an automobile or aircraft. The fundamentals are the same. The challenging aspect of this type of project is how to safely reach every inch of the aircraft. We used scissor lifts, a boom and various ladders and mobile stairways to acheive this.
Our primary concern was that nobody be injured. Our second was that we do not damage SAM971. Third, that we did an awesome job worthy of a historic aircraft.

 

[davidc]

Great save of American History, Thank You.

Dave

 

[crovello]

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

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Our least "favorite" portion of SAM971 to polish and protect were her wings!! The wings recieve a constant beating from the sun and other damaging elements. They are tough to do being that they are horizontal. Most of it has to be done while working on your hands and knees. The work is painfully tedious.
It is also is the least "glorious" portion of the aircraft, the nose and tail being the most.

My hats off to my team for insuring every square inch was treated properly.

Here is a "50/50" photo of a treated and untreated portion of the wing.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

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:

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

The nose and the tail our are favorite areas of Freedom One to work on. The areas are easily identifiable and look get in photos.

Being way up high on a boom working on the tail is extra exciting as it bobs around in the wind!!

 

[Calendyr]

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?

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

The second night working on SAM971 we were in THE ZONE! Her finish was starting to come around. Even though we had already worked a good 8+ hour day, we decided to stay late and keep shining away.

Little did we realize that there would be no lights around us. As the sun dimmed the lights under the roof seemed to grow brighter, the high-intensity lights highlighted the brilliant finish that she now proudly displayed.

It was sureal and made for amazing photos!

We took advantage of this opportunity to take a team photo. Look as her smile!!

I love and greatly respect all these guys. Remember, this is an all volunteer gig.
From bottom right to left... Jason, Ryan, Felix, David, Robert, John, Luke, A.J., Chris, Paul...upper level are Andrew and myself. (Hey....What is that resting on my shoulder... more about that later.) Not in the pic, Cougar and Chris J.

 

[Cruzscarwash]

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.

 

[dlc95]

Excellent work, sir!

So great to hear from you!

 

[boomdone]

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?

Probably from a cost perspective I'd guess. I'm not sure how much it would cost in product to ceramic coat a plane of this size. $10 grand? More? If he used polish angel it would be like half a mill lol.

 

[davidc]

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:

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

Dave

 

[Cruzscarwash]

Probably from a cost perspective I'd guess. I'm not sure how much it would cost in product to ceramic coat a plane of this size. $10 grand? More? If he used polish angel it would be like half a mill lol.

also the planes don't normally get any extra protection beyond the clear coat itself so any added protection is a bonus, well they don't even get washed much

 

[SWETM]

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

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

We had allotted 5 days to complete the project. By mid-day of day three, we had most of her shined up. Other than a few guys up top tying up loose ends, I was running out things for the team to do.
The Pima Air and Space Museum is an amazing place. It is huge! I knew they had another aircraft on display out in their field that I took notice of. It was very dirty and very badly faded.

Allow me to introduce you to the Lockheed VC-140B Jet Star.

In 1961, the U.S. Air Force acquired six Lockheed VC-140B JetStars to transport the President, high-ranking government officials and other heads of state. The Jet Stars were used to operate on runways that were too small for the much larger VC-137 and were used for short trips. The VC-140B provided fast and economical travel for several US presidents. Whenever the president was aboard, these small jets flew under the radio call sign Air Force One.

This baby bird was badly faded. People were using their fingers to write graffiti in the chalky finish. This upset me greatly!

I informed the Museum that we were ahead of schedule. Rain was expected later that day. I told them if they would be so kind as to pull the Jet Star out of the field and under the roof, we'd shine it as well. They were more than happy to accomadate us.

First order of bisness... wash her up!

and then..... the test spot!!

Shortly after the wash the museum crew tucked "baby bird" up near "mama bird." As part of the team was finishing up SAM971, others started on the Jet Star.

It is always a treat to polish up Ol' Glory. I did a large portion of the American flag on the VC-137 and had the honor of polishing up the Flag on one side of the Jet Star's tail.

Faded....

Freshly polished and protected....

 

[Rsurfer]

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

 

[Cruzscarwash]

So I don't know if it's this same jet but the chrome belly is what caused alot of these to spot flying. They were buffed so many times that it thinned the metal and weakened the fuselage

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