Gentlemen.
As a breath of 'Ol Limey Air', here are my thoughts.
What would they do in the factory ? ........................................
Yep, that's right - not a lot !!
So, if your beautiful babe of an Aeronca has survived thus far, basically, whatever you do to it now will be good to go for another 50 years.
Once it is blasted - get a coat of a simple etch primer on - in the UK I use Tetrosyl Autoprime, it is a 50/50 mixed, non epoxy etch primer that sticks like poo to a blanket. It isn't carcinogenic, it is about $30 for 1/2 gallon and goes on real sweet. I am sure your local auto shop has something similar.
Why not epoxy or powder coat ?
Simple - the coating is too thick and masks problems later on.
KISS works, prep the tube, give it a good etch primer, maybe a top coat of enamel or 2 pack.
Paint vs Epoxy vs Powdercoat?
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sedanpilot
- Posts: 113
- Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 03:12
- Location: Alaska
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My two cents is that powder coating has it's place, but that isn't on most aluinum parts (castings might be exempted) and there are some serious drrawbacks on tubular structure. On Aluminum it's because of the heat treat issue on aluminum as Dennis mentioned, it screw up the heat treat, so if you care about the strength (and sometimes you don't) I wouldn't powder coat an aluminum part.
On steel tubing the other thing to think about is the corrosion protection on the ID of the tube. Powder coating can really bake the old linseed oil until it is really a mess. This means because of the really nice tough OD, you don't know that the tube has become just a plastic tube made out of the powder coating plastic.
On landing gears, I like it because it is really tough and takes a rock ding well. But like any other painting process, if you don't prepare the surface right, it won't stick. Phosphotizing is on one cleaning process prior to powder coating that seems to work well for the OD. I just had the aileron hinge brackets and the tie down fittings on our Sedan powder coated. They are steel parts that aren't tubes and are riveted to aluminum. I think this should work well in this application.
On steel tubing the other thing to think about is the corrosion protection on the ID of the tube. Powder coating can really bake the old linseed oil until it is really a mess. This means because of the really nice tough OD, you don't know that the tube has become just a plastic tube made out of the powder coating plastic.
On landing gears, I like it because it is really tough and takes a rock ding well. But like any other painting process, if you don't prepare the surface right, it won't stick. Phosphotizing is on one cleaning process prior to powder coating that seems to work well for the OD. I just had the aileron hinge brackets and the tie down fittings on our Sedan powder coated. They are steel parts that aren't tubes and are riveted to aluminum. I think this should work well in this application.
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k2bords
Paul - Thanks for this info. I was definitely not aware that primer needed to go on that shortly after alodizing. By 'wash' do you mean redo the alodine process? Over the last couple weeks I've been cleaning all the crud that's accumulated on my ribs over the years and then have been rubbing them down with scotchbrite & alumiprep then alodizing. I was figuring I would epoxy prime once I had everything alodized. I guess I should wait to alodine until just before priming? I thought leaving the parts alodined until priming would be better than leaving bare aluminum, especially after having scratched the surface with scotchbrite/stainless brush. Thoughts?After using the alodine the part needs to be cleaned in clean water and heat dried. Primer should be applied as soon as you can, any longer than 8hrs you should wash again.
Matt