Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Test Priming Day 3

Woke up this morning and checked the 2K epoxy primed pieces. No question that this primer is tough! Resists scratches. When I got home from work...tough as nails (after 23hr dry time). The only concerns that I have had all day was with respect to metal prep. I phoned a friend who owns a local autobody shop. He confirmed to me that the two part epoxy primer was his recommendation for the job, however he indicated that he saw no need to apply alumiprep, but was fairly certain that Alodine was a good idea. He said that is the process used in aviation that he was used to seeing. He indicated that the process helps open up the aluminum to accept the primer. I am convinced that it is superior, however I have serious concerns with applying this method at home. Alodine is extremely nasty stuff, and the application process requires Alodine to be washed with clean water. How do I do that in winter? Do I want to Alodine in the house???
I've been looking at Endura Paints under aviation primers and they have two recommended methods for preping thin aluminum. The Alodine method, or a Biodegradable method using a cleaner and a Metalink product. According to the data sheet the metalink is waterborne "Endura MetaLink is an environmentally friendly, chromate free, pre-bond adhesion promoter for bonding metal alloys such as: Aluminum (#2024, #5052, #6061, #7071 and #7075)". The only concern I have is a lot of parts are alclad....not alloy....So how will this work? Hmm. Geezze my head hurts.

Update - 10:00pm Epoxy test pieces are great. Can't scratch a thing on them. I have tried to wipe them with MEK and virtually nothing comes off! 

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