The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Anyone have suggestions on best methods to remove surface corrosion from my firewall?

It kind of depends on what you plan to do with it. If you intend to coat the firewall with zinc chromate based epoxy primer, then any acceptable method of corrosion removal would provably be fine. If you want to try to preserve the aluminized finish, I would try a small area by hand with gray Scotchbrite using a lubricant such as Corrosion X.

I would be replacing it with a stainless steel firewall. When fitting the new firewall i also used a heat proof gray sealant. The sealant went down first and then the firewall was riveted in . That produces an oil and exhaust gas seal. Plus some structural integrity . It’s a days work but my original firewall had patches on patches and some were not sealing the cabin from fumes. So easy to clean too.

Thanks for the input. Decided the best path would be to paint. Here’s what Im planning: Alumiprep followed by alodine, epoxy primer and a VHT heat resistant top coat. Probably going to stick with a grey or aluminum color. Also changing out the tinnermans (5 or 6 are broken) for floating nutplates.

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