Corrosion Protection

[Scarbrough]

Newbie to the build. RV-7 Empennage enroute. Looking for comments on what to use for corrosion protection inside the HS and VS and stage ribs. Rattle can or are people using something else? I’m thinking of buying a HVLP system to apply these paints. Advice??

Thanks everyone
N612LJ (reserved tail number)
Brian Scarbrough
RV-7 Empennage enroute

[David Z]

Near the bottom of these forums, there's a section called The Never Ending Debate Section and in there is a subform titled Primers. That area contains a ton of information relating to what you ask.

As a summary, you will find a whole plethora of answers.
Everything from simply using the alclad for protection all the way to alodine and epoxy primer.

If the plan is to put your plane on floats and fly off salt water, you'll definitely want more corrosion protection than if you live in an inland desert. The right answer is up to you, your goals, what you want to do with the plane, where it's kept, how much the primer costs and even what products you are able to source. The information in the Primers subform will help point you in the direction on how you wish to proceed.

Welcome to the journey.

[rongawer]

Whether in storage or actively flying, Corrosion X is an excellent corrosion inhibitor that can be applied in a fine mist spray across everything from bare metal to electronics. I spray my engines down as well with it after cleaning at each annual inspection and it works great, but then I do the whole aircraft internals (includes tail, wings and floorboards) every other annual.

Even for the folks who do prime everything, if you spray out your aircraft internals with C-X, or comparable product, you will prevent corrosion on all the other things that generally don't get primed, yet do corrode in time, such as connecting hardware, pulleys, control cables, wire terminals, etc...

Any excess application will evaporate over time, however, note that if you've not used it before, it gets into EVERYTHING and you will likely see black streaks coming from around rivets, seams and fittings - a pretty good sign that you had corrosion there, even though you may think it was secure with primer, and shows just how porous aircraft really are at a microscopic level.

Don't plan to paint for at least 6 months after applying it.

[JeremyL]

Originally Posted by Scarbrough

Newbie to the build. RV-7 Empennage enroute. Looking for comments on what to use for corrosion protection inside the HS and VS and stage ribs. Rattle can or are people using something else? I’m thinking of buying a HVLP system to apply these paints. Advice??

Thanks everyone
N612LJ (reserved tail number)
Brian Scarbrough
RV-7 Empennage enroute

Hey side track, I noticed you were in warrenton. I am close by and am ordering my tail in the coming weeks to start building. Hit me up if you want we can bounce ideas off each other since we will be building at almost the same time. Congrats on the undertaking.

[wcalvert]

DUCK! Someone just tossed a PRIMER BOMB !!

[rockitdoc]

Originally Posted by Scarbrough

Newbie to the build. RV-7 Empennage enroute. Looking for comments on what to use for corrosion protection inside the HS and VS and stage ribs. Rattle can or are people using something else? I’m thinking of buying a HVLP system to apply these paints. Advice??

Thanks everyone
N612LJ (reserved tail number)
Brian Scarbrough
RV-7 Empennage enroute

SEM rattle can. Prime just the parts that touch each other when connected. Moisture gets in there. Prime parts where alclad was scotchbrited off. SEM is really durable stuff when used with SEM cleaner. Not cheap. I’m on my 15th can at $25/can and just finished my fuse and tail feathers. Convenient, though. And dries fast so little waiting between prime and assembly.

[David Z]

15 cans at $25/can. That's still cheaper than 2-part epoxy primer.

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by David Z

15 cans at $25/can. That's still cheaper than 2-part epoxy primer.

Take a look at Kirker products. Also sold as Eastwood and Summit. Enduro Prime is a DTM 2K Epoxy primer.
Gallon of Kirker Enduro Prime is $72
Catalyst is $52

I'm a fan of SEM and Napa 7220 too.

[David Paule]

There's a two-part epoxy in a rattle-can that's pretty good. It's an Eastwood product. Once mixed, though, it's only good for 48 hours, so you won't want to use it often.

SEM's good but it's not an epoxy. I've used it a lot. You can get it for less than $25 a can if you look hard.

Wirejock's done some nice work with Kirker products but they aren't spray cans. You'll need a regular spray gun. The rattle can spray can makes all the difference when you need a quick shot on something.

For some things, the Harbor Freight $14 touch-up gun is decent. Bit of a surprise for the price.

Dave

[MWH265]

Are we getting another RV at HWY?