Consideration of alodining and return to use of EkoPrime

I was considered to abandon the use of EkoPrime and switch to alodining, in line with TAF current practice for factory-build aircraft. At this time only the elevator and horizontal stabilizer hardware has been primed.

I contacted two Alodining shops at Moorabbin airport, one in the eastern suburbs, and visited a site at Lilydale airport. For a variety of reasons I decided to not pursue this option.

While investigating these options I stripped back with acetone the horizontal stabilizer ribs and small components (but not the spars) of the EkoPrime, with a plan to continue this process for the elevator. I was already anticipating stripping back the elevator over a concern as to the thickness of the primer coating, the desirability of applying corrosion preventative to the stainless steel rivets, and an overall concern with the choice of rivet direction (seen to differ from a pre-built Sling 2).

In the event, I decided to drop the idea of alodining before much of this work had been done.