Corrosion in Tail. What to do about it?

[LinvilleMooney]

During an inspection, we found this corrosion on these 2 brackets in the rear inspection panel in the tail on an F Model. I am new to Mooneys and have been told a variety of things on how to fix this. Do these brackets need to be replaced, and the rivets need to be drilled out and replaced? Or does it just need some Scotch-Brite and Primer? Has anyone had any experience with these brackets being corroded before? 

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:25 PM by LinvilleMooney

[N201MKTurbo]

Scotch brite and primer.

[EricJ]

That looks like surface rust.   +1 to clean them up a bit and maybe respray with primer.

[47U]

58 minutes ago, LinvilleMooney said:

Has anyone had any experience with these brackets being corroded before? 

Clean up the rust and primer as mentioned above is the best solution.  The access in that area is sooooo restricted.  I’ve been hitting it with a wire tooth brush (with a shortened handle) and spraying it liberally with LPS 3 every annual as a stop-gap and that has kept rust under control.  

[redbaron1982]

I had some surface rust in my steel cage in the belly, and used Zinc Chromate Primer. I know is nasty from health / environment, but also I think is one of the best rust preventing primers.

[00-Negative]

Is there any place for a rust encapsulator or rust converter on an airplane?  

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-rust-encapsulator-platinum.html

 

 

 

[N201MKTurbo]

43.13-1b has a section on corrosion. It would be good to read.

[Paul Thomas]

Five rivets tails look funny in the first photo. The 3 in the middle of the bracket and the first outboard on each side of the bracket. It appears that they are -4 but the tail looks to have a lower perimeter than center.

[PT20J]

Those brackets are just elevator and rudder stops. They aren’t structural. Just clean them up as described above. 

[DCarlton]

49 minutes ago, PT20J said:

Those brackets are just elevator and rudder stops. They aren’t structural. Just clean them up as described above. 

What's the best cleaning mechanism for something like that if you can't remove it?  How best do you get around the rivets and in the corners without getting too aggressive with flapper wheels or something electric?  It is a shame there's no approved conversion coating that you can use to just kill the rust and lock it in forever; although I'm guessing you'd never be able to inspect it or know what's happening beneath the coating.  I just used POR 15 on my old Camaro and it's amazing stuff for cars.  

[PT20J]

28 minutes ago, DCarlton said:

What's the best cleaning mechanism for something like that if you can't remove it?  How best do you get around the rivets and in the corners without getting too aggressive with flapper wheels or something electric?  It is a shame there's no approved conversion coating that you can use to just kill the rust and lock it in forever; although I'm guessing you'd never be able to inspect it or know what's happening beneath the coating.  I just used POR 15 on my old Camaro and it's amazing stuff for cars.  

When I used to volunteer at a museum that had a lot of WW II vintage airplanes we ran into this all the time. Scotchbrite and elbow grease followed by a coat of epoxy primer was how we dealt with it.

[Paul Thomas]

I've used baking soda in the past to blast surface rust off.

Edited Wednesday at 01:02 AM by Paul Thomas

[PT20J]

There's a guy in my neck of the woods that does dry ice blasting. Might be interesting to try. No residue.