Wing cleaner

You don't generally leave your airplane soaking in cleaning solution
for extended periods of time. Try repeating your experiment by using
Simple Green to clean off a greasy scrap piece of bare aluminum sheet
and then rinse it well with a generous amount of clean water, dry it
off and then let it sit for a couple days. You won't find any
evidence of corrosion. Simple Green has a high pH (alkaline, around
9.5 or so), probably contains a small concentration of NaOH or KOH in
solution. Using any alkaline aqueous cleaning solution on aluminum
requires good judgement on how alkaline the solution is and how long
you let it remain in contact with the aluminum. Mildly alkaline
cleaning solutions like Simple Green or 409 are usually OK on dull
aluminum as long as you just use it to cut the grease and don't allow
prolonged contact and rinse off all residue *completely* afterwards.
However, don't use them on polished aluminum unless you're intending
to re-polish the metal afterwards :-)

"Paul" wrote in message ...
"
Simple Green is a NO NO on aluminum planes.


I took a piece of scrap 2404 that was nice and shiny.
I immersed half of it in a simple green solution and left it for
a couple of days. The portion that was immersed exhibited
a decidedly frosty appearance.

This let me know that Simple Green does NOT belong in any faying
surface.

Cheers:

Paul
NC2273H

One's Too Many wrote:

You don't generally leave your airplane soaking in cleaning solution
for extended periods of time.

No, but any cleaning solution will creep into joints and rivet holes. No
matter how carefully you rinse, some will stay there.

George Patterson
The optimist feels that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The
pessimist is afraid that he's correct.
James Branch Cavel

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
One's Too Many wrote:

You don't generally leave your airplane soaking in cleaning solution
for extended periods of time.

No, but any cleaning solution will creep into joints and rivet holes. No
matter how carefully you rinse, some will stay there.


I don't know if I'd use it on the wing, for the reason stated above,
but I regularly use it to clean off my greasy nosewheel pant and the
fiberglass cowl. Nothing works as good on old oil stains. I just
make sure to thoroughly rinse it off.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Military backed off.
Me too.
ELBOW GREASE

"John Galban" wrote in message
m...
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...
One's Too Many wrote:

You don't generally leave your airplane soaking in cleaning solution
for extended periods of time.

No, but any cleaning solution will creep into joints and rivet holes. No
matter how carefully you rinse, some will stay there.


I don't know if I'd use it on the wing, for the reason stated above,
but I regularly use it to clean off my greasy nosewheel pant and the
fiberglass cowl. Nothing works as good on old oil stains. I just
make sure to thoroughly rinse it off.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

"H. Adam Stevens" wrote in message ...
Military backed off.
Me too.
ELBOW GREASE

"John Galban" wrote in message
m...
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...
One's Too Many wrote:

You don't generally leave your airplane soaking in cleaning solution
for extended periods of time.

No, but any cleaning solution will creep into joints and rivet holes. No
matter how carefully you rinse, some will stay there.


I don't know if I'd use it on the wing, for the reason stated above,
but I regularly use it to clean off my greasy nosewheel pant and the
fiberglass cowl. Nothing works as good on old oil stains. I just
make sure to thoroughly rinse it off.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Try Stoddard Solvent. This is a the stuff that most shops use to wash
down engines. Works very well.

"Clay" wrote in message m...

Try Stoddard Solvent. This is a the stuff that most shops use to wash
down engines. Works very well.

Also known as Varsol or Texsolve. Any airplane, auto, or print shop has
tons of the stuff. If not, you can find it in small cans at home centers.
Mineral Spirits is a close match as well.

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 10:43:44 -0400, "Ron Natalie"
wrote:


"Clay" wrote in message m...

Try Stoddard Solvent. This is a the stuff that most shops use to wash
down engines. Works very well.

Also known as Varsol or Texsolve. Any airplane, auto, or print shop has
tons of the stuff. If not, you can find it in small cans at home centers.
Mineral Spirits is a close match as well.


I use a low-vapour "naptha" like what you use in a mechanic's
parts-washer. Probably the same kind of stuff you mentioned by brand
name. My bro-in-law bought some generic in bulk for his machine shop
and I scarfed a couple gallons from him. Works great on the belly of
the plane and doesn't irritate your hands like mineral spirits can.
After cleaning the belly off with this stuff, I then go over it with a
spraycan of Lemon Pledge. This solvent does no harm to the paint
either, but then it's pretty much impossible to hurt the paint on my
plane.

But really rinse well. At my last annual the lineboys were told to
wash my plane prior to returning it to me. They apparently used Varsol
and water to clean it but didn't rinse it afterwards. Left major paint
discoloration and a real mess that would not wash off.

The shop had to have my plane completely detailed (Compound & wax?) to
make it right. They didn't argue about it at all. A later discussion
with the service manager revealed they were very much afraid that they
had permanantly etched the paint and might be going for a paint job.

And there I was designing my new paint scheme! Oh, well..............




"Ron Natalie" wrote in message om...
"Clay" wrote in message m...

Try Stoddard Solvent. This is a the stuff that most shops use to wash
down engines. Works very well.

Also known as Varsol or Texsolve. Any airplane, auto, or print shop has
tons of the stuff. If not, you can find it in small cans at home centers.
Mineral Spirits is a close match as well.