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Ross, salt water preservation again!!!!!

Posted by Cees Broere on Thu Mar 20, 2003 11:47:17 AM

I was thinking about the discussion we had last week in preserving heavily correded engines from salt water.

Now, if the funds and equipment are available then a good deal could be done to stop the corrosion and preserve the artifact for many years to come.

But in case we do not have unlimited access to the bank and no expensive preservatives, so what would be the best to do?

In my experience the best thing we can do is hosing the engine (in this case) down with a steam cleaner and try to get rid off the salt inside the nooks and crannies of the engine, after that a thin film of oil is applied to avoid any oxygen trapped underneath which would speed up the corrosion process again. But this doesn't stop the corrosion of course but merely slows it down as a result of the salt having penetrated the intergranular structure of the aluminium (did I really wrote that?).

How can we stop this with "cheap" products? We have tried to preserve a propellorblade by bead blasting and it looked beautiful but after some time it turned blue again as a result of the intergranular corrosion.

What do you think?

Cees

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