Corrosion!

[ratc]

My wings are complete and ready for priming. The kit is two years old. On removing the blue plastic I have found some corrosion on the skins but only in the area of the manufacturers spec. details. I assumed the ink is water based and corrosion is developing underneath the plastic post manufacture.

I am planning to scotchbrite, and acid etch prime. On a trial area of corrosion after using the fine (grey) scotchbrite the Alclad dulls off to a very dark grey. Nothing will remove this stain, even if I continue scotchbrite I had hoped to remove all of the corrosion prior to priming now I'm not sure if I'm doing more harm than good!!
The question is what is the best technique for dealing with this type of corrosion?
Do the areas of corrosion have to be completely removed prior to priming or does the process of acid etch combat further corrosion development?

Paint and finish solutions greatly received.

[RV_7A]

Andy use red Scotchbrite. The grey is waaaay too fine and in my experiences pretty much polishes the material. The red will give you much better surface for your primer/paint to adhere to.

-Jeff

[chaskuss]

Andy,
If the corrosion is advanced, use the maroon (Jeff calls it red) medium grit ScotchBrite discs. The gray discs are extra fine grit and won't do much. I prefer to use the blue, fine grit discs for most deburring and light scratch/corrosion removal. The blue discs will allow removal of the corrosion with less chance of removing the Alcad surface.
I would also suggest that you Alodine the corrosion affected areas as a minimum. If you live in a humid environment, doing less, will mean going back and doing this job again in 4 years, .
Charlie Kuss
PS The Germans have a saying. "The lazy man works the hardest".

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

I had that problem too....usually along the edges. You know what works great after the Scotchbrite (and a wipedown with MEK)? The Alodine pen.

[ratc]

Thanks for the responses. All very useful. I'll try the "red scotchbrite" and check the results.

[Steve Sampson]

This issue has bugged me for quite a while. I first approached VANS about 6 months ago because to some extent its a built in problem. I have summarised the problem as I see it at:

http://gikoncnsdr.blogspot.com/