Cleaning your Ercoupe

Mine is white base and I am currently sanding it down to its basic white. 400. 600. 800 grit. I had thought of stripping it back to aluminum. But at my age. I need to be more practical. I would never be able to keep up with shiny aluminum. But shiny aluminum is the best way to go. Swift owners also prefer to maintain the original shiny look as well.

Eric, an excellent question and one that will bring all kinds of answers. You will find a great deal of discussions in magazines and in forums on this subject.

Old school on cleaning the belly behind the exhaust some people use a degreaser found in the paint section your local hardware stores. This issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine suggested a product called Goof Off found on Amazon. Others have used Simple Green found at Aircraft Spruce.

Cleaning the airframe, I use just pain water and a little Dawn mixed in.

We have to be careful when cleaning the windshield as to not scratch the surface. I take a microfiber cloth and wet it down with water and Dawn. After rinsing, I use a chamy (sp?) to dry it off. There are quite a few products out there for cleaning windshields that you can carry with you while away from your home base as well.

Hopefully, some other suggests will pop up here that will be helpful to you.

Have fun keeping your new/old plane clean and shiny!

So I'm still new to airplane ownership, and my all-white Ercoupe is starting to look very not-white anymore. So what cleaning supplies, tools, and secrets do you all use to keep your planes sparkling?

I'm especially curious about keeping the belly of the plane beneath the cowl, and your windshields clean.