Epic road trip... we took our polishers!

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Preston’s Pride is a World War II era Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress that was placed on display near Route 99, in the city of Tulare in Central California in 1958, as a monument to California veterans.
Being that she’s bare aluminum, she is subjected to the elements of heat, cold, rain, wind and anything else mother nature can throw at her. Her skins had become rough, dull and badly oxidized.

Do you think she can be polished? If so, who would be crazy enough to attempt it?

 

[LSNAutoDetailingLSNAutoDetailing is verified member.]

Anything can be polished... is this a call for volunteers?

Or is this a “stay tuned...”

Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app

 

[dlc95]

That thing is gross!

Time to shine it, Joe.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Do you think she can be polished?

Yes. Aluminum unlike car paint and in context is thick and with enough abrading and polishing can be brought back to life.

If so, who would be crazy enough to attempt it?

With a team of hard workers passionate for perfection I would.

 

[Paul A.]

Oh, I can't wait to see this!

 

[Belo]

needs after pics!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

While living in a suburb of Los Angeles, I first discovered this B-17 in the early 1990s as I traveled to Northern California to visit family. In the subsequent years, I'd stop and visit the old bird three to four times a year as I traveled north. I'd do it everytime for the next 25 years or so.

Here is a pic I took of her and posted on Facebook in 2014.

This Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, #44-85738, was manufactured under Boeing contract by Lockheed Vega in Burbank California in May 1945. She was too late to serve in WWII but was used extensively in Americas atomic test program Operation Crossroad. She flew as the "mother ship" controling drone aircraft that were flown in and near atomic test areas at Bikini Atoll in the south pacific.

She was retired in 1958 and flown to Tulare, Ca. by Air Force General Maurice Preston who happen to be raised in the area. The aircraft was unofficially known as "Preston's Pride."
She is still owned by the United States Air Force but is on "permanent loan" to American Veterans Organization post 56.

This is a photo of Prstons Pride shortly after being put on display.

 

[PaulMys]

Holy Moly! A B-17???

The work horse of the US Army Air Corps that decimated Nazi factories (along with great losses) during WWII.

That is incredible, Joe.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Spring of 2017, while leading a crew detailing an airworthy B-24 at the Lyon Air Museum in Santa Ana, Ca., I met Greg Stathatos. He explained to me that he loves old war birds and recognized that so many on static display are incorrectly marked and in poor condition. He shared that he had created an organization dedicated to preserving B-17s called B-17 archaeology.
You can visit his Facebook page here - B-17 Archaeology

Before he even mentioned the Tulare B-17, I told him that I was "in" if he could arrange to let us at the aircraft to polish the aluminum skins. Doing so was something I had dreamt about for years.

I told him that seven years earlier I was tasked with polishing "Fuddy Duddy," another B-17 Bomber, owned by the Lyon Air Museum.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Greg had to get the caretakers, AMVETS, of Prestons Pride to allow us to work on her. They were hesitant at first. He had to convince them that we genuinely cared about the aircraft and had the resources to perform the services she required.

On a cold wet January morning, I made the 3 and 1/2 hour drive north to meet with Greg and the AMVETS folks at the location of the old bird.

They were a tough crowd. Greg did most of the talking. I was there to perform a test spot.

Soon after the meeting, the Tulare Fire Department showed up to give the old girl a bath.

Unfortunately, we had to evict the tenants if we wanted to properly care for the aircraft.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

As soon as I was able, I dried off an area and performed a test polish. This test will tell us if years of neglect was reversible and if she could be polished up to a brilliant shine.

The test went very well.

Everyone on-site was very happy with the test spot.



The AMVETS lined up for a photo before leaving. I guess that means we got the THUMBS UP!!

I headed home shortly thereafter.

Greg and a few volunteers he had assembled got started stripping off the old markings and prepping the bird to be polished sometime at a later date.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

I now had the green light to go ahead with the bare aluminum skin polishing of the B-17. At this point, I didn't know how, with whom, or when it would be done.

My first move was to announce it on social media, Facebook and Instagram. I explained that it would be an all-volunteer group. I invited those that were interested to be on the team. I had about 35 people commit to the project. Once I had man-power in place, I secured sponsorship to cover most of the exspenses. My client Ace Clearwater, a giant in the aerospace industry, offered support as well as our friends at Lake Country Manufacturing. We also had aluminum polishing products donated for which I am very grateful. Thier products are currently not offered on Autogeek so they will go un-named.

Ace Clearwater Enterprises – ACE has the Expertise and the People

The LCM wool pads are phenomenal. You can find them at AutoGeek here - Wolfgang MetallWerk? Wool Metal Polishing Pads

A date was set......

Everything was in place.
Team Shine's "Operation Crossroads 2018" was born!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

About three months later, a few of us arrived at the site the evening before the project start. We found that the aircraft was washed and that most of the paint had been stripped. We had just enough day light to un-load and set up some equipment before crawling around exploring the airplane top to bottom inside and out.

Here we have -

Scott "Capt. Morgan" Gallagher,
Paul "Dirty Santa" Sparks
and Erik "German Erik" Walschek.

Over the years the interior had been badly vandalized. It still was very interesting to experience.

The setting sun cast a golden hue over the skins. I admired the patina but knew it would look beautiful polished up.
The evening was quiet and peaceful. I watched the sun set. We were excited. Tomorrow was the BIG day.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Day 1, THE GRIND!! The day was beautiful. The forecast was for it to be in the upper 80s.

Of the 35 or so that said they would volunteer, only 10 actually showed up. Immediately I realized we would be seriously short-handed. Of the 10 that did show, all but one, I had work with before on other projects, WW2 aircraft and/or Air Force One.

I had the best of the best on location and we decided to tackle the job anyway.

The first thing I did was go over the polishing process with the team.

Once we were all on the same page, we geared up with high-speed rotary polishers and aggressive wool pads and got to work "grinding" off years of neglect.

Polishing aluminum isn't easy. It's very laborious, monotonous and dirty. The guys on the team were without a doubt driven by passion. I am proud of each one of them.

By the end of day 1 we had a large portion of the aircraft "cut." It was tough work and we were beat but we were making progress.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Great job! I see my friend Brad in a couple of those pics.

I outta get on Facebook to find out about things like this.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Day 2, MORE GRINDING!!!

It was another beautiful day even though the weather forecast was that a storm was going to roll in later that evening.

We quickly geared up and got to work with more "cutting."

In this photo, you can see a big rig driving by on the highway. Quite frequently drivers would blow their horns in support of what we were doing as they drove past.
It always was particularly awesome when a honk of support came from a big rig air horn!

By this time we had lots of dirty wool pads. We ran them many times through the pad washer to keep us going. The pad washer is a very important piece of equipment.

We put in another 12-ish hour day to get what we could before the rain came in. We were losing the sun to darkness. By this point, most of the cutting was done.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Damn those pics of the pad washer are Great! Lol. Never seen anything like that.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Day 3... We woke up to rain. As much as we didn't like losing a day, it was actually a blessing in disguise. We were sore, tired and plain just beat. A day off would do us wonders. About half of us decided to visit the Sequoia National Park, home to the largest trees in the world. It was a little over an hour away up a mountain side and it wasn't raining there!

Chris wanted to try his hand at polishing a Sequoia!

Day 4...

It rained all day and all night. We arrived on-site to find a wet bird. Hey, at least the water beads now!

We dried what we could with mops we had on hand. The clouds soon blew out and the sun quickly dried her out.

We still had the engine cowlings and other small areas to cut. A few on the team got to grinding those areas.

The rest of the team started the highly anticapated step II in the polish process. This is where we are no longer cutting or grinding but are starting the refine polishing step. This step removes the deep machine buffer trails put in by the aggressive first step. Here is when start to bring out the brilliant shine of the aluminum.

You can see the difference in the top portion of this tail section I am polishing with my Rupes Mille.

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

I love this!!!!

 

[Joe@Superior Shine]

Day 5!!! Finishing...


Today I am excited and a bit stressed. It's the last day and we have what seems like so much work to do. We are again beat and sore but the brilliant deep shine she's giving us keeps us going.

All of us are on some level of refining and sh's looking gorgeous!!

Erik is taking care of all 4 spinners.

Part way through the day clouds roll in. We welcome the shade it provides us from the sun and makes for some seriously crazy reflection photos.

In this pic we are all SMILES.... This is the last of the polishing - FINALLY!