Ya know Andrew--

Good point---

And I am aware of elecrolosis, owning a boat with a stainless prop, and
an aluminum out drive----the housing wants to get eaten up by the
cavitation of the prop spinning---but if the thing isn't in the water,
and the prop just sits on the steel shaft, in the aluminum
housing--nothing happens--there also is a sacrifical annode, to help
eiminate this when in the water--

I'll go ask my friend who has a souped up 400 horse Stearman, ( PT-17 )
what is holding his wheel pants and cowel together----

I'll get to the bottom of this---:>)

Later,

Terry

E-mail message From Andrew�Jack

Terry,

If I took an aluminum plate, and laid it flat on a peice of steel,your
telling me the aluminum would corrode, after a period of time?

Might take a (long) while if it was inside, low humidity, etc. Stick it
outside on the roof of the Westy, throw in road grime (salt?) rain,
atmospheric pollutants, vibration - bingo!

I deal with this problem on an ongoing basis with my airplane, '76 model
(not a whole lot older than a Vanagon) where the Piper engineers have
used steel bracing in the aluminium frame. Works fine until the paint
deteriorates on the steel, then the steel rusts and the aluminium
oxidises. And this is INSIDE the airplane.

And a simple solution to this hypothetical problem, would simply
insulate the rivet from the cleat---dip the rivet into a bit of
silicone, prior to installing it into the stainless cleat---or bolt a
sacrificial lead annode on the luggage rack--yea that's it----and
nothing will happen----

The silicone would be squeezed out between the critical mating surfaces.
Ok, one more thing---please tell me the source for the stainless pop
rivets, that I never have seen---

We use monel rivets, not sure if you have them over there, or what they
might be called.
Andrew
Australia
'76 Piper Lance (Aircooled, Horizontally Opposed 6 cyl, 540 cu in, 300
HP, Mech FI)
'92 Transporter Kombi Syncro
'95 Audi 80 Quattro