Fuselage Corrosion

[Jim Herpst]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

Mike Depends. Many questions must be asked, researched, asked again and THEN we must re-read the book. You must be able to safely answer the following before proceeding: how long are the feelers fingernails? How thick are the feelers nails? Has the feeler been taking vitamins to encourage good health nail growth?

Sorry sometimes I cannot help myself. Mike I thought mine to be safe when smooth to the eye and to the "touch". My mileage may vary from yours when it comes to "touch". If you read that it must not catch the fingernail then I would suppose that makes sence . Mine were smoother than that I can assure you.

Take care all

Jim

[1948TCARTDRIVER]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

Rust never sleeps as they say. The most important part of corrosion or rust removal is to make sure the area is free of rust or corrosion to begin with. At the airlines this requires inspecting the area with a 10 power magnifying glass. Once the area is free of rust it should be wiped down and primed/ painted asap. This is very important in humid conditions and coastal areas. Don't handle cleaned parts with your bare hands or you will contaminate your work. I would then use a two part primer followed by an epoxy topcoat. I believe sand or glass bead blasting to be the best method of rust removal using a steel wire brush only to remove initial heavy rust and dirt. (don't use a steel wire brush on aluminium) When I use to live in South Florida you could almost see rust forming on bare metal and this was a never ending battle.

I hope this helps.

Geff and 5281M

[N96337]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

As a former paint/primer manufacturer, I strongly recommend topcoating any primer that isn't marked specifically as a primer/sealer...this includes epoxy.
John H.

[Wayne]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

Is there a reason no one has mentioned powder coat?

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

yup.

It looks great until your frame breaks because of the hidden corrosion or crack.


Richard Boyer
N95791

[N96337]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

Not to mention that it's not approved...
I'll echo Richard's comment from personal experience.
John H.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

I agree with John H on top coats. When I did my 45 fuselage I blasted for about an hour, cleaned the area of blast residu and wiped the area with solvent followed by an IMMEDIATE Epoxy prime. The heat was intense in the hangar I worked in, especially inside the plastic "blast booth" so an hour in the blasting suit was about all I could take. After the prime was done I did something else till I could do another section. I always blasted back past the old primer edges to clean metal and move out another hour (each cluster basically got blasted twice). In this way NOTHING was over an hour old before it was primed. Once an area was about three hours wide I put another coat of primer on, following the whole blast and prime with a full 3ed coat of primer and an epoxy top coat of the whole frame.
I bought the 41 after this was all done (several years ago) and the uncovered 45 fuselage has been stored in a DRY barn awaiting a restart of the restoration. In spite of all the care there are a few small spots of corrosion peeking through the Epoxy. I plan to local blast those spots, prime and Epoxy top coat before I put the stringers and all the small parts on. THIS FUSELAGE IS NOT GOING TO RUST!

[Armstrong]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

I am getting ready to blast and prime my T-craft parts and I just want to epoxy prime and cover. I did a search and found this thread , but it looks like there is no consensus on whether you need to top coat over epoxy primer.
Could it be the epoxy primerd parts that rusted were not completly coated?
I know it is normal to put a light ,thin coat when primering and its easy to have light spots when spraying tubing.
I guess I will just order the Poly Fiber book and CD and follow the process all the way through.
Thanks, Rob

[N96337]

Re: Fuselage Corrosion

Rob, that's the way to do it...follow their procedures to the letter.
JH