Lexan vs. Plexiglass. Plexiglass is the Athos Haas Co.(spelling?) trade name for Acrylic resin plastic. It's also known as Lucite. Lexan is the General Electric Co. trade name for Polycarbonate resin plastic. Polycarbonate is about 30 times stronger than Acrylic and 250 times stronger than glass. Both Polycarbonate and Acrylic exhibit the same resistance to scratching, however both are treated with a hard silcone coating that will give you a great amount of scratch resistance. Scratch resistant Polycarbonate eye glass lenses are an example of hard coated Polycarbonate. If you have a large glass supplier near you, check out the availability of either. Polycarbonate is also available with a UV coating on one or two sides. Which to use, the choice is yours. Both will last for years if taken care of. The sun shade on my coupe is only about 12" wide and is gray colored Plexigalss. Polycarbonate is the best plastic for machining. It's hard to crack it while drilling, even if forced. Just ensure you radius the corners of all holes and the cut edges. Stainless steel is a very low carbon type of steel and as such is ok to use on Aluminum. Wire brushes are available in either plain carbon steel or stainless steel. Check them out with a magnet and the stainless will not be very magnetic or none at all based on the type of stainless used. BUT some cheap flea market wire brushes are made of a unknown type of stainless that will rust and is magnetic. Buy a good quality brush! As far as cleaning the interior, my coupe (undergoing refurbishment) was estreeeeemly dirty in the bilges. I used a lot of soap and water to get the grease and oil out of it. Most of the grease and oil came from the control system behind the seat. If the oil and grease are not removed, the Alodine conversion coating will just bead up and not work. The aluminum must be clean, clean, clean to ensure the following coating of zinc chromate or whatever primer you use will adhere. I am using Alumaprep 33 (very mild acid) to etch and remove surface corrosion, then alodine 1200 followed by a water rinse per directions, dry and then zinc chromate. You mentioned a bad wing tip bow. Service Bulletin 29B deals with damage to the wing tip and the main spar wing tip extension loosening rivets. Calls for inspection if tip is damaged and replacing countersunk rivets with domed rivets. Where are you located?? Richard [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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