It's increasingly becoming profitable to deal with it locally. Enough so that recycling centers in the countries of consumption are popping up a lot more.
It's a product of our trade imbalance. Look at the west coast ports, there brimming with shipping containers. Some people have made houses from them, and some of the houses aren't that bad.
OK back on topic. I tryed Rust Oleum latex Aluminum Primer. It sucks. we thought it would dry flexible but it dryed hard and cracked around the rivit heads and it did not stick that well to cleaned aluminum. Scraped all that off and tryed Rust Oleum Aluminum Enamel. Much better its some what flexible and sticks well. It fixed all the leaks exept one spot. We just got some EPDM Liquid Rubber to try on the one spot that still leaks. I will keep you all posted. Andy
Enamels dry hard. That is, the curing process, which is a chemical reaction, continues for months. They get harder, much harder, with age. Dope, which was and still is used on fabric-covered airplanes for ages, remains flexible. Aluminum dope is a required layer. Any aircraft supply store can provide it. I suggest dope, if you are going with paint/lacquer. But, I still recommend first a purpose-made, flexible, aluminum-filled coating.
Have you tried that spray on bed liner? Mythbusters did a bit on it a while back , seems like it stiks pretty good, and it's made to be out in the weather.
Have you tried that spray on bed liner? Mythbusters did a bit on it a while back , seems like it stiks pretty good, and it's made to be out in the weather.
It needs a lot of cure time, proper application to a well prep'd surface. You can't just spray, slop, or paint epoxy onto rusty metal and expect a mirical.
It needs a lot of cure time, proper application to a well prep'd surface. You can't just spray, slop, or paint epoxy onto rusty metal and expect a mirical.
Everything rusts jpanhalt. Aluminum rust is white generally. Proper anodizing or passivization of aluminum can help prevent additional corrosion. General raw aluminum is poorly corrosion resistance because the oxide layer isn't strucutred properly, as you said it's lose.
Everything rusts jpanhalt. Aluminum rust is white generally. Proper anodizing or passivization of aluminum can help prevent additional corrosion. General raw aluminum is poorly corrosion resistance because the oxide layer isn't strucutred properly, as you said it's lose.
As for aluminum oxidation, "raw" (I think you mean pure, but please be more specific as to the alloy) aluminum is pretty resistant to corrosion. In fact, some of the stronger aircraft alloys are made with a thin coating of essentially pure aluminum because of its corrosion resistance and protective effect (see:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alclad).
Pure aluminum will corrode in an instant when exposed to oxygen. It is NOT corrosion resistant, it's oxides however ARE providing a boundary layer which can help protect the base metal, it's not an inherent property of the metal which makes it corrosion resistant.
The thin coating of strong aircraft alloys are in fact anodized layers of pure aluminum, and it's the oxide layer that acts as the barrier protector of the substrate.
What I read from the Alclad article is that it get's it's strength from the aluminum alloy, and it's corrosion resistance from the surface after it's properly passivated (through heat treating)
Pure aluminum itself is one of the more reactive metals known to man, it's also however readily forms stable and controllable oxidation states. It's the oxide layer, the rust itself which actually does the protecting, not an inherant property of the raw metal.
Have you tried that spray on bed liner? Mythbusters did a bit on it a while back , seems like it stiks pretty good, and it's made to be out in the weather.