What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

No argument about the oxide being tough stuff.

But you better believe that any corroding aluminum will absolutely be weakened. Aluminum corrosion just takes longer than the faster voracious rust.
I have volumes of examples of aircraft aluminum structure being compromised due to corrosion! No exaggeration - volumes!
Swiss cheese looking examples.
I send multiple (4-20) reports daily to the FAA about corrosion findings and the removal processes here at the airline. If it wasn't a problem, we sure wouldn't work so hard at removing and preventing it.

Another thing about "oxide". Did you know that phosphoric acid will convert iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate? The phosphate not only completely stops the rust from continuing, but it is also a stronger material (& a great primer). You do have to paint the iron phosphate to stop future rust, but the current rust is gone! Chemically gone.

 

Correct, but aviation is extremely stringent on everything and rightfully so. A little bit of oxidation on aluminum bumpers, skids and sliders is absolutely not an issue though unlike rust on similar steel components. Iron phosphate is a similar concept to aluminum anodization, which literally is just an oxide layer on top of aluminum to protect it. Kind of like case hardening steel, a thin outside layer of harder material with a more soft inner layer and core. Like crust on bread. Chemistry is literally magic! Fun stuff!

 

Who did the install, you or the dealer?

 

It truly is. (Magic and Fun!)
Happy New Year Old Man

 

Good stuff! I need to pull my skid plates off and do some rust removal/mitigation and this is very helpful!

Thanks for sharing this!

 

I did this one:


Have one mounted in the bed of the truck, and another mounted on my quad.

 

You are welcome, of course.
I buy phosphoric acid by the name of "Ospho". Same brand I used when I lived on the gulf coast in 1977. Invaluable there!



Most every hardware store carries it (ACE, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.). Phosphoric acid is the main active ingredient in Naval Jelly.
It is also found in cola! But know that it is an acid. (I added some to the cooling system of a '42 flathead six, it overflowed out of the filler neck drain tube, splashed off the ground onto my trousers - without my realizing it. A day or two later my levis were pocked marked with holes. Lesson learned.)

Useful for things other than rust too. I had a camper battery spill over onto my concrete driveway once. Made a nasty ugly yellowish-brown stain. I poured Ospho on the stain which turned it white. Not the same color as the original concrete, but a hell of a lot nicer than that sulfuric acid stain was!

It will remove bluing, so be careful around firearms with it.

 

Another socal taco!

 

Any Gas mpg change?

 

Yeah, I live on the coast and the salt air shows no mercy on anything that gets scratched.

Thanks for the advice and warnings! Hope you have a Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year, Ron!

 

Me. They tried to tell me I overtorqued it and went through the sheetmetal at the bottom of the hole. And from what I know, there isn't any bottom to the hole. Their crappy foam gaskets just don't keep water out. So today I'm getting rubber gaskets and silicone to fix the issue.

 

Years ago when I was still stupid D) I wanted to de-rust some Yakima roof rack parts with CLR. I left one steel bracket in the compound for a few minutes and moved to another task. I finally remembered I had left it in about 4 days later. Did I mention that I was ONCE naive and stupid?

 

When I did mine I went overboard with the silicone after reading several stories similar to yours.
Below is an example of what I used. Regardless of the brand you go with just make sure it is metal safe, you don't want to end up with rust too.
I had to "finesse" mine to make the upper and lower channels seat properly. It is a shame that an OEM product does not fit perfectly without any mods.

Good luck with the redo!







Removed several burrs like this one on the lower channels...

 

I see the Taco Garage DMM. I have one and love it. The crew at Taco Garage are awesome! Looks good

 

Meso dual color map and dome lights. Bright as hell in both colors.

Thanks @Tacoooooos

 

It’s amazing. I wish they made one for my ram. It’s so clean too

 

new wheels and box on the rack

 

Had to update this. I didn't think it would make much difference, but first drive this morning was like a whole new truck. Throttle was so much snappier. $10 for this from Wally World and it feels like I got 10hp in return.

 

It's only been on for a couple days. No difference at all so far, mostly city driving.