Few months ago, I’ve met with the local Stewart System representative who explained to me about his vision around parts preparation and priming. Of course, they won’t keep you from spraying your entire airplane with primer (making money in the process) but on the other end, he said that only the “contact patch” between mated components needs to be primed. That is, I’ve elected to use the “EkoPrime” which is a waterbase type primer to surface prep all those mating surfaces.
So metal conditioning combined with primer application to only the mating surfaces should achieve the “weight-saving/corrosion-protection” building philosophy. As a side note, I own a 1967 Piper Cherokee. There is basically no primer of any sort anywhere on that airplane and it’s still flying. Based on the above, I trust that my new RV will probably outlive me.
