Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Thanks Paul!

Kevin

Kevin,

Several items are used with aluminum to steel connections to prevent corrosion:
1. Rivets for fuselage skin are stainless steel. (all rivets for any steel to aluminum connection for the Panther are stainless)
2. Fuselage and all steel parts in kit are powder coated.
3. The builders manual recommends a sealant to be used between the skin and the fuselage tubes, the rivets are installed while sealant is wet, that will tend to coat the rivets with sealant during installation. Which is a corrosion inhibitor.
4. Doesn't hurt to prime skin and fuselage tube rivet holes. I did that on mine.

Does anyone have any thoughts on dissimilar metal corrosion between skins and pulled rivets? On some builds guys run a thin coat of primer down a rivet line prior to installing rivets to minimize metal to metal contact. Maybe our pulled rivets are made of a non corrosive alloy? Does anybody know? Is it not worth worrying about? Note our skins are not alclad therefore having an a pure aluminum protective barrier.

Are the rivet heads aluminum?

Thanks,
Kevin