Hopefully I'm not rehashing old news here:
We are close to the final assembly of our wings, and there is a lot of parts
that
are bare aluminum (the OR hardware, etc.). We've been doing the Alodine
treatment
to all internal aluminum parts before bonding, but haven't given a lot
of thought to external hardware. We also have some zinc chromate primer
available.
My question is twofold: (1) is it better to have the individual bits painted
(either
powder coat and/or prime and spray paint), and then assemble the wing mechanism
with the raw hardware, or better to Alodine the alu bits and spray the
hole works when the wing is painted, hardware and all? If the answer is (1),
does anyone have a list of all the hardware items (wing and fuse) that they
powder
coated so I can riffle through our inventory to get all the parts together
for a single paint run?
The other thought I have is what does the 400 deg. F temps in the powder coating
oven do to the heat treatment of the aluminum? From my materials classes in
college, I seem to remember the temp. to age aluminum is around this number.
It seems to me that after a thorough baking at 400, the properties of the
aluminum
would be changed. For non-structural stuff, it won't matter much, but for
an airplane.....just wondering.
Thanks for the help!
Chris Beck
A159
PS Hopefully soon I'll have the opportunity to get some time in the 152 where I
do not have to fight 20kt. winds. Makes for interesting landings while
training.
Wisconsin sure is windy in the spring - and 152's sure are slow.
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