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Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Zinc plating for plane's aluminum floats

I'm looking at buying a floatplane for flying in and around the west coast. I was told zinc plating on the aluminum floats is a good way to slow the corrosion process (it's a steel tube & fabric aircraft. What would I be looking at in terms of cost of getting that done, and/or the steel frame? Are there better methods for reducing saltwater corrosion? I plan to store the A/C out of water and hose with fresh water after every flight. Thanks.

Chad Gottfried
- Victoria, BC, Canada
2003

I am not familiar with this application; hopefully someone else is. Pending that, though, while zinc will galvanically protect steel, I don't see how zinc coating would reliably protect aluminum since aluminum is possibly a more active metal than zinc. (According to the 1N EMF series, aluminum is more active; according to the seawater series, zinc is more active than most aluminum alloys, but it's very close).

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003

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