Van's Air Force
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alodine on skins ?
- Thread starter jibby212
- Start date
Decide this first. Will you be painting or polishing the exterior? If you will paint then I would etch and alodine both sides. If the plan is to polish I would not etch-alodine anything. Apply a good self etching primer to the interior parts but leave the exterior cladding alone. Polishing something that has had an etch-alodine can be done but it never really comes up nice like untouched cladding does. That's been my experience anyway.
I am on my second airplane build and have settled on a corrosion protection plan that seems quick easy and effective to me. I alway have a quart of DuPont VeriPrime self etching primer and activator available in the shop. For small and large parts both interior and exterior skins, I will clean up with a hand squirt bottle of diluted degreaser solution. And while that is drying, mix up a small batch of VeriPrime. I mix it thin, then brush on with sponge brushes. For small parts I mix up just a thimblefull. I will transfer the primer into my mixing cup with my primer stir stick so I don't contaminate the lip of the can so it seals back up nicely. The primer dries very quickly and is very forgiving of fingerprints and other contamination if my cleaning isn't the best. It give a clean, thin, light protective coating, quickly and inexpensively.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/Boomer506/IMG_3084_zps4128fe03.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e25/Boomer506/IMG_3084_zps4128fe03.jpg
Yes alodine will be fine for a long time. I kept my RV-6 exterior skins bare metal for a couple of years while flying it and found it difficult to maintain. You get filiform corrosion on the alcad pretty quickly and it takes time and effort to polish out. The alclad coating is not as corrosion proof as I originally thought. On my RV-8 I am going to paint exterior surfaces right from the start and have put my veriprime self etch primer wash coat on all surfaces during constuction.
Where can I buy DuPont VeriPrime? Search of Aircraft Spruce and Wicks does not find it?
agirard7a
Well Known Member
Prime
Man that sounds like a ton of work! Here's
what I did. Scuff and clean interior parts. Spray
SEM rattle can primer on the parts or at least the mating
Surface after drilling, deburing and dimpling.
As for the skins, drill, deburr, dimple. Than scuff , clean
And SEM primer the mating surface. SEM primer is a great product
And bonds very well on the aluminum. Does not scratch off like Napa.
The outside skin will remain unfinished. If painting the plane yourself,
scuff ,clean and prime with a light coat of epoxy
Primer suitable for the finish paint.
Man that sounds like a ton of work! Here's
what I did. Scuff and clean interior parts. Spray
SEM rattle can primer on the parts or at least the mating
Surface after drilling, deburing and dimpling.
As for the skins, drill, deburr, dimple. Than scuff , clean
And SEM primer the mating surface. SEM primer is a great product
And bonds very well on the aluminum. Does not scratch off like Napa.
The outside skin will remain unfinished. If painting the plane yourself,
scuff ,clean and prime with a light coat of epoxy
Primer suitable for the finish paint.
