Polished Aircraft and Paint

[wyoranch]

Ok, so I have a stupid question. I have seen some beautifully polished aircraft with painted details. My question is, is the entire aircraft polished before or after paint. I know it is a stupid question, but I have always been curious. It would seem to me that if the plane was polished before that the paint adhesion would be reduced.
Thanks
Rick

[prasmussen]

Self-etching primer over the polished surface maybe? I had a polish that left a silicone coating behind so that might be an issue.

[ottodog]

I've wondered the same thing. My guess is they do the priming/painting first, and once that's done they polish the whole thing.

[crusty old aviator]

We always roughed out the location of the trim stripes with masking tape, then polished the plane around the tape, then we washed everything, masked off the stripes and numbers, scuffed up the paint areas with Scotchbrite pads, recleaned, and shot the primer and top coat. After the paint cured, we buffed and waxed the whole plane. There are probably other sequences that would work, too...