What it costs
How Much Does Aircraft Brightwork Polishing Cost?
Brightwork is quoted on hours, and the hours are set almost entirely by the condition the metal is already in. Two identical airframes on the same ramp can sit a full crew-day apart because one has been kept on interval and the other has been left to haze. Span, access and what the last vendor did to the metal do the rest. Below is what moves the number on your aircraft, panel by panel, and how to read a quote closely enough to tell two of them apart.
Why there is no number on this page
We quote brightwork against a written scope, after someone has looked at the metal. A published figure would be wrong for most aircraft in both directions: wrong for a well-kept King Air needing a maintenance pass, wrong again for a large-cabin jet whose leading edges have been hazing for two seasons. A number on a page also becomes a ceiling. It gets read as the price of the job rather than the price of a job, and the work is then trimmed to fit it, which is how an airframe ends up half-corrected. A vendor who quotes firm before seeing the surfaces is guessing, and the guess gets corrected later, on your invoice or in the metal.
What actually moves the number
How much polished metal you actually have
Span is the obvious part, but the useful question is which surfaces are bare metal at all. Many turboprops carry pneumatic de-ice boots along the leading edges, so what looks like a long polishing run is rubber and a different job entirely. Aircraft using bleed-air anti-ice often leave those same edges bare. Add nacelles, wing root fairings, gear doors, tailcone panels and, on a turboprop, spinners, and the polished area runs well past what the airframe's size suggests.
The condition the metal is already in
This moves the hours more than airframe size does. Metal kept on interval needs the refine and burnish stages only. Metal left to grey over two seasons has to be cut back first, and every stage after that first cut takes longer because it is correcting the stage before it. Water spotting that has etched in, and pinpoint corrosion from salt air, add hours that have nothing to do with the aircraft type.
Exhaust stacks are not aluminium
Stacks and tailpipes are typically stainless or a heat-resistant alloy, carrying heat tint and baked carbon rather than simple oxidation. They need their own abrasive sequence and their own pace, which is why they belong on a separate line rather than rolled into a leading-edge figure. Deep heat tint sometimes will not come out completely, and that gets said before the work, not after.
What the last vendor left behind
Recovering someone else's work is the most demanding condition we see. Rotary holograms and pigtail marks have to be cut out and refined away. Compound packed into rivet lines and lap seams has to be extracted before anything is sealed over it, or it weeps out in the slipstream and streaks the paint behind. A surface already etched by an acid brightener has to be worked past that etch before it will hold a finish.
Access, height and stand time
A stabiliser leading edge sits well above the deck on most business jets, and the underside of a nacelle sits awkwardly low. Both are machine work performed from a stand, and stand time counts: repositioning, re-masking and reaching the same seam three times burns hours that never show as visible progress. Walkway restrictions and where a lift can physically be placed shape the plan as much as the metal does.
Hangar, open ramp, and how much room you have
In a hangar the work is predictable. On an open Georgia ramp in July, compound flashes off before it has finished cutting and the sequence has to be reworked around the heat; in spring, pine pollen settles onto surfaces between stages. Wind matters too, because polishing residue carried onto a neighbouring aircraft is a problem you own. Some FBOs restrict where this work can be done at all, and at a field as busy as PDK that shapes when we can have the space.
The deadline you are working to
A compressed window buys crew, not shortcuts. Bringing an airframe to one even finish before a Friday departure, a pre-buy or a static display means more people and more machines on the same surfaces, and often work at night when the ramp is quiet. The scope does not shrink because the calendar did, so the hours land in a narrower window rather than disappearing.
Whether you want it recovered or maintained
A one-off recovery and a standing interval are different products. Recovery starts coarse and touches every polished surface. A maintained aircraft is largely refine and seal, and stays there for as long as the interval holds. Operators who polish once and then wait two years buy the recovery every time, which is the most common way to make brightwork expensive.
What the work actually consists of
Work starts with a walk of every polished surface and a written scope: which panels, to what level, and what we will not touch. Adjacent paint, composite, transparencies and seams are masked before a machine is switched on. The metal is cut with the coarsest stage it needs and no coarser, refined through progressively finer abrasives, then burnished, with residue pulled out of rivet lines and lap joints between stages rather than left to weep. Stacks run their own sequence. Bare alloy is sealed so it is not left open to oxidize the moment we leave. On a midsize airframe that is a crew of two to four, measured in crew-days, plus an interval to hold it. Your FBO has our certificate of insurance before the crew arrives.
Questions to put to any vendor
Including us. If a vendor cannot answer these plainly, that tells you more than the number at the bottom of their quote.
- Which surfaces are in the scope, panel by panel? Brightwork done in patches looks worse than brightwork left alone, because a bright leading edge against a dull nacelle draws the eye straight to the gap. If a quote says only 'polish brightwork' without naming panels, you do not yet know what you are comparing.
- How many stages, and how do you decide which one to start on? One pass with a heavy compound is a different product from a multi-stage cut and refine. The starting stage should be chosen from the condition of the metal in front of them, not from a standard menu written before anyone saw the aircraft.
- Is any part of this chemical rather than abrasive? Acid brighteners give a fast shine and leave an etched surface that hazes back quickly and makes every future polish longer. Both approaches exist in this industry. You are entitled to know which one you are buying.
- How do you keep compound out of seams and off paint, glass and composite? Residue left in rivet lines weeps out in flight and streaks the paint behind it. Slurry and solvent on acrylic cabin windows can craze them permanently. The answer should involve masking and extraction, described specifically rather than promised generally.
- What goes onto the metal afterwards, and how long should it hold? Bare alloy has no clear coat, so it starts oxidizing as soon as the polishing stops. A vendor with no answer here is selling a result with no half-life, and the finish will be dulling again sooner than you expect.
- Who is physically on the stand, and what insurance covers them? Machine work at height beside a winglet, a probe or a radome carries real risk. Ask for aviation-specific cover at limits your FBO will accept, and a certificate of insurance you can read before the crew arrives.
- What will you refuse to polish, and what will you report back to us? A polisher who has never declined a panel is not assessing anything. Pitting, thin or previously over-polished skin and corrosion should come back to you as a finding for maintenance, not get buffed over for the photograph.
Questions we get
- Why is brightwork polishing quoted separately from an exterior wash?
- Because it is a different discipline on a different material. A wash removes what is sitting on painted skin. Brightwork is bare alloy with no clear coat over it, so restoring shine means machine abrasion in stages. Different tools, different training, different insurance exposure, different hours.
- Does polishing wear the metal away?
- Every polish removes a small amount of material, which is exactly why the starting stage matters. We cut with the least aggressive stage that will do the job and no more. Polished on interval, an aircraft stays in the refine stages. Left for years, recovery has to start coarse.
- How often will brightwork need doing again?
- Most of the operators we look after settle on an interval of three to six months once the finish is at a consistent baseline. Coastal and high-humidity flying dulls it faster, and so does sitting outside on a ramp year-round. A maintained interval is always fewer hours than a recovery.
- Can brightwork that was polished badly be fixed?
- Usually yes, and it is much of what we get asked to do. Correcting holograms, patchy brightness or trapped compound means bringing the whole surface back to one level first, so it takes longer than maintaining good metal. We will say honestly if a panel cannot safely take it.
- Do you polish exhaust stacks as well?
- Yes, on their own sequence. Stacks are typically stainless or a heat-resistant alloy rather than aluminium, so the abrasives and the pace are different. Heat tint baked in over years may not lift completely, and we will tell you that before we start rather than after.
- Can it be done on the ramp, or does it need a hangar?
- Both are possible. A hangar gives the most consistent result, because compound is not flashing off in direct sun and no wind is carrying residue onto the aircraft next to you. On an open ramp we contain the work and schedule around heat, and we advise which is sensible at your field.
Send us the tail number, the aircraft type, the airport it sits at and the date it next has to look right. Add a few photos taken in daylight, straight on: a leading edge, a nacelle and a stack. That is usually enough for a real number. If it is borderline we come and look rather than guess.
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Tail, airport, aircraft type and your deadline. That is enough for a written quote against a written scope.
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