From what I have seen on our kit, it seems clear that not all LCPs are born equally. So far I have not heard from Van's about variations in batches of LCPs. That that would be improtant information to have, as it affects both part longevity and how to identify them as LCP.
You won't get that information because they simply don't have it. What you need to wrap your head around is that Van's operates zero parts traceability.
The barcode on a Van's part label simply says, "W-709-R". When the barcode is scanned as the part is put into your crate, it simply records that a W-709-R has left inventory and deducts one from the live total. No person and no system knows that the particular part went to you.
Under a simple traceability system, as you might expect a manufacturing company to operate, the bardcode might say: "W-709-R serial 00002198 made mm/dd/yy by method X at facility Y" and then when the barcode is scanned during crating, as well as updating inventory, the particular part with all associated information would be recorded as having gone to customer A as part of kit B on date C.
Van's have
absolutely no idea who got what. All they know is when they first had them in inventory - presumably they get that information from good inwards records - and from that you can infer which kits are 'clean' and which are not. For those that are not, they could have any combination of parts. There is simply no way to tell who got what, who got things from certain batches, etc. It's all totally random. An otherwise clean QB wing could be contaminated by a single laser cut part somewhere inaccessible, and even if you could see it you couldn't identify it for sure. Or it could be totally clean, or have laser cut parts in all possible locations, or any combination in between you can possibly think of. There is an almost infinite number of scenarios.
This is why they are trying so hard to limit the scope of the extra production and what they have to re-ship for free, because every single customer who received a kit within the (wide) date window could, if they wish, request a replacement for every single part on the laser-cut list for that kit, whether theirs were laser cut or not. Van's would not realistically be able to contest the request, because they have no data. Some kits have very long lists of laser-cut parts. Customers seeking to take advantage of the situation could obtain enough replacement parts to get fairly close to a whole new assembly, even if they did not need one or intend to replace theirs. With a bit of extra random part purchasing, you could get close to having a few extra airframes out there in the wild which carry no Van's build number at all and are made mainly of free replacement parts. The ramifications are mind-boggling.
For us standard builders who have complete or partially complete assemblies, if you didn't keep inventory records / photos and you can't remember what had blue plastic and what didn't then you're kind of screwed, assuming you primed and thus didn't leave laser cut parts identifiable.
I am far luckier than many. In my contaminated -7 empennage kit, I kept a record of what had blue plastic and what didn't. This is because I expected everything to have blue plastic (my only prior experience being the practice kits) and complained to Van's when some of it didn't as well as the general state of the parts. I was told brusquely to go away, that the parts were perfectly acceptable, and that the reason for a lack of blue plastic was because they were laser cut. Happily, I kept that handwritten list and so had it to refer back to. But that is sheer dumb luck, because I was impertinent enough to complain about the parts in the first place. If I'd not done that, I'd be guessing.
For what it is worth, I don't own a pitchfork. Instead, I wield a keen keyboard and a wicked pen.
