The belly.... it goes on forever

You are very aware of it when trying to clean the oil off the belly of a pA32 fo sho....!
 
Can't tell if that's the bottom of an airplane or a john boat...

Oh, and our belly is washed by rain. It ain't called the dirty bird for nothing lol.
 
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Wait, is it painted black? If so, what's the point in trying to clean it? Its going to be black when you start and it'll still be black when you finish. :dunno:
 
I'm a "spray it with soap and go fly/drive in the rain" kind of guy.
 
oh, woes me, I'll be doing my Mooney tomorrow after I do my first oil change... Actually bought a creeper to make it a bit easier... Looking forward to it... N O T!
 
Just think of all those extra KTAS you'll be gaining...
 
I’ve always wondered....WHY?
Just wipe off antennae and go fly.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
Wait, is it painted black? If so, what's the point in trying to clean it? Its going to be black when you start and it'll still be black when you finish. :dunno:
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Perhaps you’d rather deal with removing corrosion in the exhaust trail than cleaning the belly periodically? Not cleaning the plane = not caring about it in my book.
 
mondtster said:
Perhaps you’d rather deal with removing corrosion in the exhaust trail than cleaning the belly periodically? Not cleaning the plane = not caring about it in my book.
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I agree. Once you get it clean, keeping it clean is a lot easier and takes a couple of minutes. I say, why not?
 
And a lot of that oil seeps through the belly's riveted seams and scums up the inside of the belly skins. It attracts dust and builds a tough film. Not a nice place to work, and with water getting in there you get acid formation, the same as inside the engine's crankcase where water and oil react in the presence of metals to form corrosive acids.
 
mondtster said:
Perhaps you’d rather deal with removing corrosion in the exhaust trail than cleaning the belly periodically? Not cleaning the plane = not caring about it in my book.
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It was not a serious question.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
It was not a serious question.
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I figured it might not be. Serious or not, the problem with corrosion does exist and should be mentioned. There are people out there who never consider taking care of their airplanes. They will pay the price someday, and it won't be pretty. I did an extensive corrosion mitigation project on a PA32 a few years ago and it was not fun nor cheap. The airplane had a recent paint job on it too and there is no way that corrosion wasn't there when it got painted.
 
Let it go long enough, and someone will take a picture like this:
011.jpg
 
I always considered the belly oil film to be my do-it-yourself corrosion protection.
 
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