Corrosion proofing

Morgan3820

Morgan3820

En-Route
Joined
Jun 29, 2013
Messages
4,792
Location
New Bern, NC
Display Name
El Conquistador
Home Airfield
KEWN
New to me plane. Brought it to the East coast from the Midwest. I am looking for advice as to corrosion control. Wings are bare inside with some light surface corrosion. All I read about the topic says spray with Corrosion X. I was thinking of using zinc chromate instead. The advantage that I see is a more lasting treatment vs. retreating every other year.
 
I think zinc chromate is going to be a bit pricey. Going to have to mask everything from the overspray. ACF-50 or Corrosion X should do the trick.
 
Go with the corrosion x ,more fluid and continues to weep. Only trouble is it weeps out of the joints, staining the paint.
 
Corrosion X. I find that ACF50 pools in low areas and corrosion X does not. I love the stuff
 
Morgan3820 said:
New to me plane. Brought it to the East coast from the Midwest. I am looking for advice as to corrosion control. Wings are bare inside with some light surface corrosion. All I read about the topic says spray with Corrosion X. I was thinking of using zinc chromate instead. The advantage that I see is a more lasting treatment vs. retreating every other year.
Click to expand...


Zinc chromate is an aerosol spray-on type primer, like painting with spray paint. Not that there is anything wrong with it but it will not do much of anything for lap joins in sheets and where ribs are rivited to skins. In fact, all it will do is TRAP any contaminants in those joints and it will continue to corrode. Zinc chromate and other primers are best applied during aircraft assembly where you can get the product BETWEEN those joints for maximum protection. The turbine world even shoots rivets wet with primer or some type of corrosion inhibiting sealent and often lays sealent in joints.

Plus I'm not certain about the newer environmentally friendly "zinc chromate" formulas. They aren't exactly what they used to be.

Your best option for already assembled GA aircraft is corrosion X or ACF50 and a very watchful eye. These products will do nothing to repair already corroded/pitted areas. Touching up areas of sheets and spots on ribs with zinc chromate is fine, just avoid overlapping seams.

If you were to apply stick-on insulation sheets on the interior cabin skins, then yes, some type of primer should be applied first.

There are numerous articles at airmod.com about it, like this:
http://www.airmod.com/articles/PDF/cpafeb07.pdf
 
Last edited:
People always gripe about the weeping on Corrosion X and I couldn't figure it out until one day I looked closely. There are definite advantages at times to having a dark colored airplane.
 
That stuff oozes from every seam, then collects dust, and looks nasty. But, A little WD40 on a rag and it wipes right off.
 
Corrosion X and ACF-50 work better when sprayed with a paint gun. A fine mist is all that's needed. I do this during the annual, and have no weeping.
This is a case where more is not better.
 
Isn't the weeping the whole reason why you use these corrosion sprays? It gets into the nooks and crannies where corrosion forms.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top