float cleaning`

tazin river · Post by **tazin river** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:32 pm

Hello again

We parked our float plane in a shallow bay with lots of emerging/floating aquatic vegetation. What is the best way to get rid of a summer worth of thin layerof greenish stuff sticking to the floats even after removal from the lake?

Cheers

Meatservo · Post by **Meatservo** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:04 pm

tazin river wrote: What is the best way to get rid of a summer worth of thin layerof greenish stuff sticking to the floats even after removal from the lake?

Elbow grease.

linecrew · Post by **linecrew** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:34 pm

Boaters will use a roughly 50/50 mix of water and vinegar. Use a spray bottle, let it sit for a sort period of time and rinse off.

North Shore · Post by **North Shore** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:14 pm

Red lead paint works wonders for anti-fouling..not sure if it's approved for aviation use, tho..

ahramin · Post by **ahramin** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:29 am

A dock brush. Make a scrubber with some old carpet wrapped around a 2x4, add a handle and scrub away.

5ly · Post by **5ly** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 6:10 am

Toilet cleaner. It has a low concentration of muriatic acid which is what you need. You can also get muriatic acid at Can. Tire. Be careful with it though. Nasty stuff.

Maynard · Post by **Maynard** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 6:46 am

Muriatic acid works wonders on Fibreglass boat hulls, 50/50 mix. not sure the effects, if any on aluminum....

SuperchargedRS · Post by **SuperchargedRS** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:36 am

This stuff works well

http://www.lakeandair.com/Exhaust-Stain ... p/3000.htm

Also NON PUMICE gojo, wipe on, let it sit for a little, wipe off, it's also totally safe for people, critters, etc.

Meatservo · Post by **Meatservo** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:34 am

My advice would be against "muriatic acid". Muriatic is an old-fashioned word for "Hydrochloric" and that is what you will be buying. It is available to balance PH in your pool, and I have used it to etch cement before painting and also to etch brass before painting. Pure aluminium is extremely reactive with hydrochloric acid. The alclad on your floats is pretty corrosion-resistant compared to pure aluminium, but if you have a scratch through the alclad alloy layer? I wouldn't want to find out. It probably won't do anything, but I still don't think it's a great idea. Buy some boat soap at Canadian Tyre and a stiff brush and employ some of that elbow-grease I was talking about. I had that scummy crap on my boat and I let it dry over the winter because I was too lazy to clean it, and it was the very devil to get off the next year. I had to use scotchbrite in some places! But I still wouldn't treat it to an acid bath!

DonutHole · Post by **DonutHole** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:55 am

Isn't alclad the sacrificial layer of pure aluminum which encapsulates the alloy? Most floats i've dealt with are 2024-t3 which uses copper as its alloying agent

PilotDAR · Post by **PilotDAR** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:52 pm

I agree with Meatservo, I certainly would not be applying acid to my aircraft. The corrosion possibilities are too great. In particular, should acid find its way between lapped skins, assuring its removal is very difficult.

Last year, I used a pressure washer on our aluminum fire depratment boat immediately after it was removed from the lake. The pressure washer I used was able to apply very hot water, which seemed to help. When using pressure washers on lapped skin joints, try to spray "off" the joint, rather than into the joint of the skins - you can drive water in where you don't want it.

Alclad is a pure aluminum surface on the 2024-T3 alloy sheet. The pure aluminum is much more corrosion resistant than the copper alloy 2024. However, depending upon these characteristics could result in disappointment later, particularly if the Alclad is abraded.

Saxub · Post by **Saxub** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 4:33 pm

No experience with floats, but I managed to clean my boat pretty well with a power washer. But not sure how that would work with floats and lots of rivets etc. As said above

JulietTango · Post by **JulietTango** » Sun Oct 23, 2016 9:57 pm

Touch-and-goes on some wet grass? Repeat as necessary.

crazyaviator · Post by **crazyaviator** » Mon May 15, 2017 1:44 pm

Alclad is a corrosion-resistant aluminium sheet formed from high-purity aluminium surface layers metallurgically bonded to high-strength aluminium alloy core material. These sheets are commonly used by the aircraft industry.[1] The first aircraft to be constructed from Alclad was the all-metal US Navy airship ZMC-2, constructed in 1927 at Naval Air Station Grosse Ile.[2] Alclad is a trademark of Alcoa but the term is also used generically.

Described in NACA-TN-259,[3] of August 1927, as "a new corrosion resistant aluminum product which is markedly superior to the present strong alloys. Its use should result in greatly increased life of a structural part. Alclad is a heat-treated aluminum, copper, manganese, magnesium alloy that has the corrosion resistance of pure metal at the surface and the strength of the strong alloy underneath. Of particular importance is the thorough character of the union between the alloy and the pure aluminum. Preliminary results of salt spray tests (24 weeks of exposure) show changes in tensile strength and elongation of Alclad 17ST, when any occurred, to be so small as to be well within the limits of experimental error." In applications involving aircraft construction, Alclad has proven to have increased resistance to corrosion at the expense of increased weight when compared to sheet aluminum.[4][5]

FADEC · Post by **FADEC** » Mon May 15, 2017 4:52 pm

2024 is very strong; equivalent to mild steel in T3 Condition.
2024 corrodes if you look at it! In Australia, they say "you can hear the Cessnas fizzing near the coast.
Alclad inevitably gets scratched through the surface layer of pure aluminium; especially on floats.
Don't let Acid or Alkali (lots of Supermarket cleaners are strong Alkali) anywhere near Aluminium.
Simple Green Aircraft (not supermarket) might be a good choice.

waterdog · Post by **waterdog** » Mon May 15, 2017 6:04 pm

FADEC wrote:2024 is very strong; equivalent to mild steel in T3 Condition.
2024 corrodes if you look at it! In Australia, they say "you can hear the Cessnas fizzing near the coast.
Alclad inevitably gets scratched through the surface layer of pure aluminium; especially on floats.
Don't let Acid or Alkali (lots of Supermarket cleaners are strong Alkali) anywhere near Aluminium.
Simple Green Aircraft (not supermarket) might be a good choice.

Simple green aviation is excellent but expensive. Simple Green also make one called "Pro HD". It purple and identical in its chemical composition as the aviation one, its half the price and available at Home Depot and Canadian Tire. You do need to dilute it so make sure you get a spray bottle. I used it to clean an entire plane and it was amazing!

Scudrunner703 · Post by **Scudrunner703** » Tue May 16, 2017 5:30 am

If the floats are painted then the alclad is already sanded off. Spray nine works well

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