PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

tobybul · #49 11-23-2009, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jerry_W

Does anyone have any evidence as to how Al stands up to salt? Salt is a nasty fact of life in this part of the world, and the old Al. bodied Landrovers did NOT fare well, seems the salt seriously aggravated the dielectrics of having Al in the same general space as the steel frame.
As far as the little bulge to (more or less) duplicate the original, I've had good luck with using the double flare adapter and leaving it at that (don't finish the flare with the cone),
plus, it opens up the burr from the cutter without making metal shavings.

Whether steel or aluminum, once in place, I plan to spray all the lines with undercoating spray to give it additional protection from oxidation. There's different brands out there but I like the 3M undercoat spray. I think this would be especially helpful around the brackets.

I still plan to use aluminum. I spoke with Classic Tube this morning. Apparently, they will bend the tubing for you if you send them the old ones to duplicate. Just another option. Although I will probably do my own. I believe they charge over $100 to prebend. For that, I'll get the bending tool plus the tubing ($20) and be ahead.

Here's an interesting article on aluminum corrossion. I believe it states that corrossion on aluminum turns into aluminum oxide which hardens the surface which makes it even more corrossion resistant.

http://engineer.cmiwaterfront.com/whitepapers/aluminum_corrosion.pdf