[trib]

Almost ready to start shooting! I have a question about prepping the surface for priming. My plan was to use alumaprep and then alodine all of the surfaces prior to spraying with an epoxy primer. I've recently heard that there may be an issue with the alumaprep seeping into joints, particularly lap joints, where it may not rinse out and then subsequently accelerating corrosion. Rivet head crevices were even mentioned. Does anyone have info on this or techniques to use when using the alumaprep? An alternative would be to use an etching primer, but I was looking forward to the extra protection from the alumaprep/alodine combination.

If you painted your airplane using alumaprep, did you simply apply it to the fuselage and then rinse off, as I envisioned, or is the process more complex?

 

[DakotaHawk]

Alumiprep prep...

Trib,

I used alumiprep for all of my paint prep. I began by washing the part with a very strong soap solution to remove all grease, oil, wax, hamburger drippings, etc. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Then spray alumiprep onto the wetted surfaces and scrub with a red scotchbrite pad. Pay particular attention to any lap joints, as the scotchbrite pad will leave a slim line of non-prepped skin next to the lap joint. Get in there and get that slim line cleaned and prepped as well. You can tell when the skin is prepped when you spray water onto the skin and it sheets off, rather than beading.

Rinse the alumiprep off well, using lots of fresh water! I spray into lap joints to flush any residual alumiprep out. At this point, your skin will look pretty ragged - the original shine is gone!

I moved directly on to priming without alodining. Different paint systems, different recommendations. I'm using Stewart Systems water based paints, and have been pretty happy with results so far.