Brief Description: Primed Spars and Inside Skin Surface
I cleaned, etched, and primed the vertical stabilizer front and rear spars and the inside of the skin surface. I'm trying not to put too much primer on because it could affect the mating of the parts later when they are riveted together. Just a light coat to cover the bare aluminum is all that's needed.
The outside skin will be primed later. The aluminum skins are 2024-T3 Alclad aluminum. The Alclad means the aluminum has a thin layer of pure aluminum covering the parts that acts as a protective coat. There is also a blue vinyl wrap that covers most of the parts when they are shipped form Van's. This is an addiditonal layer of protection against scratches while handling the parts.
Prepping the parts for priming includes removing the vinyl covering, and removing the Alclad material with a scotch brite pad during the etching process. For the vertical stabilizer skin, I only did this on the inside skin surface since that is all that's gets primed now. The outside surface still has the Alclad and vinyl to protect it.
