Polishing your prop?

"Stu Gotts" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 23:50:39 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Is polishing your prop legal?

Probably not. See
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...03-3-140x.html

Dang. And we just finished it today.

It took two days of stripping, Scotch Guarding, wet sanding with 220,
then
400, then 600, and a whole bunch of Simichrome and Mother's polish -- but
it
looks fabulous!

Guess I'll have to ground myself now...

I could have sworn it came from the factory that way!


Welp, 2025 alloy and 7075 alloy, two of the alloys of aluminum props,
develop intergranular corrosion and die if the passivating layer of chromic
acid conversion and paint are not left on the prop. But I guess if it is
polished every day . . .

Welp, 2025 alloy and 7075 alloy, two of the alloys of aluminum props,
develop intergranular corrosion and die if the passivating layer of
chromic
acid conversion and paint are not left on the prop. But I guess if it is
polished every day . . .

"Welp"? How'd THAT get past your chell-specker?

Anyway, of COURSE the very first flight we took with the polished prop was
to Door County -- where the plane literally spent 60 hours sitting outside
in the rain. (We don't even use water to WASH the plane, for gosh-sakes,
and then we immerse the bare aluminum in a shower for two days...)

Well, I'm happy to say that the Simichrome polish we used on the prop
apparently leaves some kind of a protective coating on the metal, because no
corrosion was evident when we returned. We gave it a light polishing when
we parked Atlas in the hangar, and the prop still looks GREAT.

(We actually had two line-guys on this trip comment on how good it looked!

--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:1wDcb.578743$o%2.261452@sccrnsc02...

Is polishing your prop legal?


I never thought about the legality. I've been using lemon Pledge furniture
polish on mine for years.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message nk.net...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:1wDcb.578743$o%2.261452@sccrnsc02...

Is polishing your prop legal?


I never thought about the legality. I've been using lemon Pledge furniture
polish on mine for years.

I think he means stripping the paint and polishing the bare aluminum.

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
m...

I think he means stripping the paint and polishing the bare aluminum.


Mine has no aluminum.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message nk.net...

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
m...

I think he means stripping the paint and polishing the bare aluminum.


Mine has no aluminum.

I wouldn't recommend striping the varnish off of it then.

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
m...

I wouldn't recommend striping the varnish off of it then.


Sound advice.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:1wDcb.578743$o%2.261452@sccrnsc02...
Is polishing your prop legal?

Now that we've got ours almost done, of course one of our airport wags
mentioned that it might not be acceptable -- despite the fact that every
10th plane you see has one.

Someone recently circulated a document (not official) claiming that removing the
paint removes the "corrosion resistance that was part of certification." I'm
not sure I buy that. Certainly people have stripped other parts of their aircraft
and not run afoul of such complaints. I'm sure Hartzell will tell you not to do
it, but I'm not sure that there is anything concrete that prohibits it (that is, you
are once again at the mercy of your local FSDO if they ever notice it).

Ron Natalie wrote:

that is, you
are once again at the mercy of your local FSDO if they ever notice it.

And all of us know how merciful Jay's FSDO is.

George Patterson
The British drink warm beer because they all own Lucas refrigerators.

Just had this go round at Ryan. The argument is that the hypothetical
prop was manufactured, alodined and painted. Some FSDO's consider the prop
to no longer comply with the TC when stripped and polished.
My friend (an A&P) contacted Sensenich about his polished prop. He
asked them if polishing it affected its airworthiness. They said no. He
asked them to put that in writing. They declined. His prop went to the prop
shop and returned painted.

--
Kevin McCue
KRYN
'47 Luscombe 8E
Rans S-17 (for sale)




-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----