WOW! An amazing Mustang with over 1400 horsepower!

Joe@Superior Shine

Joe@Superior Shine

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Bunny is her name. She is a P-51 Mustang. She belongs to the Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs California and had just completed a 14 month restoration,

I first saw Bunny on her facebook page and she looked like this.

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I thought if they are going to keep the fuselage bare aluminum I want to polish it.

I reached out to them and made contact with Brian Ratliff. He said they would welcome the help. Soon after I went over to meet with the crew working on Bunny.

Here I am performing a test spot on the sanded aluminum.

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When the fellas working on her saw the test spot they were sold on the idea and arrangements were made for us to polish her.

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A few days later we arrived at the airport to find Bunny out on the tarmac waiting for us.

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Polishing aluminum is a dirty job so polishing outside on a cool day is preferred to dirtying up and making a mess of the hanger.
 
We set up our scaffold and other equipment and got to work.

We started by masking off areas we didn't want to polish.

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Here is Enrique getting started on the cutting step near the nose.

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We did HARDCORE POLISHING all day long. Here is our progress about mid-day.

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Here Brad is getting started on the other side of Bunny.

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By the end of the day we had done a ton of polishing. Our muscles were sore but we were greatly rewarded with an awesome shine on a magnificent war bird!

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Here is Bunny in the hanger. At this point most of the polishing had been completed.

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What products did you use? I'm really curious what you have to use to machine polish something like this. I've only ever hand polished small parts before.
 
After we finished polishing Bunny the crew at California Aerofab spent countless hours reassembling her. Various panels had to be rehung, her engine re-installed and a million other things had to be done I am sure.

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The museum had decided to paint the P-51 to represent an example flown by Lieutenant Colonel Bob Friend, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

On Feb 27th 2015 a ceremonial unveiling was held at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Lt. Bob Friend was there as well as a few other Tuskegee Airmen.

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Here she is just before the unveiling.

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Here is Bunny in all her glory!! She does look sweet!!

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The Tuskegee Airmen present at the event signed the tail.

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I'm amazed that the mechanical crew could finish the restoration in only 14 months.
I watched a crew that worked on a P-38 for over a decade.

Is there any surface treatment put on the aluminum skin to keep it that shiny? It would be a shame for it to tarnish in only a few years again.

Are you still using Cyclos for that type of heavy polishing work?
 
Beautiful, just BEAUTIFUL!

Side bar: There is a P-51 that 'lives nearby', there is NO other sound like that AC during takeoff.

Bill
 
As always, an incredible restoration on your part. What a wonderful tribute to both the aircraft and Lt. Col. Friend.
 
Wow! Bunny is beautiful! Congrats on such an endeavor! Great work! I would love to see her in person someday!
 
Last weekend, Lt. Col. Bob Friend, a Tuskegee Airman, 95 years old, took a ride in "BUNNY" How cool is that!!!



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