The metal shaping finishing skills are born of being in straightening & refinishing for past 45 years....i fell in love with the feel of cutting aluminum long ago....it has so much more resilliance than the soft materials used in bodywork. Primers, fillers are a bitch to keep definition in, once shaped , and run through the grits to a finishable surface. The aluminum has a sweet spot temperature where it likes to be manipulated....it talks....too cold it chatters.....too hot it chatters and cuts with irregular cut pattern.....i like my scratch patterns even, consistent. If You saw the aircraft windshield some posts back.....a very critical, arduous process, to maintain tolerance & optics.....light crazing runs 5 - 10 thousandths....when cutting even with 80 grit, it takes about 8 hours to get to bottom of damage.....very slow & tedious...once that is accomplished, it's about 3 to 4 hours to get into 1000 & do a 2 stage polish.....the Baron/Bonanza Speedslope pictured(a pressurized Baron 58P)is a difficult shape, being compound curve. I spent two pretty full days on the windshield.
There is a saying from old artisan days......sculptures with flaws, whatever medium, that for one reason or another not pursued to end, would be filled & disquised with WAX.....antique bondoe!
For the sculptures that were near flawless, they would be known in the category of "SIN CERA"
"Without Wax"
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