(Think Musically from your Childhood) - This is the Way We Wash Our Parts, Wash Our Parts, Wash Our Parts..........

Due to the unseasonably warm weather over the holiday week here in Denver, and the fact that I managed to take some much needed time off from work, it was time to get back to business in the airplane factory once again. Those of you who have followed my blog in the past have undoubtedly read the following phrase many times: "Wash, Rinse, Repeat.."

Well this time I mean it quite literally. Today was washing day - not for my clothes, and not for my car (although both are sorely needed) - but for my wing ribs that have been sitting patiently in their scuffed up state, just waiting for final preparation steps to be taken to get them all cleaned and primed. The mission for today was to wash all of the main wing ribs for both wings (28 in all) with my usual mix of warm water and regular Dawn dishwashing liquid. I also wanted to clean the two end ribs and prime them so that I could re-attach them to the main wing spars and remount them back on the wing stands.

I am happy to report that I managed to accomplish both goals today in our lovely 60 degree weather.

Here are some pics:

First are the two HD buckets - one with the detergent water,and the other with the rinse water:

Now also for those that are aware of my trials and tribulations this year - you know that I had to deal with two bathroom remodels this year. The upstairs bathroom now has a much larger new bathtub. As I began to plan for this washing and rinsing task for my wing ribs, I briefly thought about using that new spacious bathtub for this task. It would certainly make easy work of the entire process for washing and rinsing all my wing ribs.I stopped short of following through with this thought when I realized that the new tub is not cast iron, but is fiberglass, and it would not take much fora piece of sharp metal to cut right into the tub and cause all sorts of additional pain and suffering that frankly I just don't need right now. So I quickly got that idea out of my system and filled up the HD buckets instead.

The idea was to wash them, rinse them, and set them somewhere to dry. Here is my jury-rigged drying table made up up spare wood and two saw horses - very high tech indeed!

And another showing the operation in full swing, including my new priming table with the two end ribs on top:

And another shot of the two end ribs after applying the NAPA 7220 self etching primer:

And then finally, if you have any doubts about the need to thoroughly clean all of you parts before you apply primer, just take a look at this next pic of what used to be clean, clear water!

The amount of residue and grime just from the washing process is amazing. Even more amazing is the final part of the process which is cleaning each dried rib with a microfiber cloth and acetone (or your favorite carcinoginic cleaning chemical). Even more grime get lifted from this process, if done thoroughly and correctly. It is not inherently difficult - just time consuming. I still need perform the acetone cleaning step forthe remaining ribs, but to have them all initially cleaned is a major accomplishment for me, so I will take it. One other side note about all this. Once you get to the rinse and acetone stages of this process, you need to wear protective rubber gloves to prevent depositing oils and grime from your own hands back onto the parts. There is nothing I hate worse than having to re-clean something over again, so I always keep a large supply of rubber gloves handy. I think I may have gone through about  8 pair for this little session today. I changed them to a dry pair to perform final drying of each rib with a clean, dry cloth, and then again just prior to applying the acetone. Seems to work pretty well for me.


It felt good to work on the plane again - even if I am still not quite ready to rivet some parts together...