The Murphy Builders Site

Late last spring I had to drill off a total of 4 corner wraps so I could replace my fuel lines. I was very pleased to find that the aluminum inside was as clean and shiny as the day it went together about 16 years ago. What disappointed me was that even though I thought I was being very careful about priming between the layers and assembling everything while the primer was wet I had almost zero adhesion between the panels. So when I put everything back together I used Sikaflex 1A construction adhesive. This is the same sealant that I used When building my floats and they turned out pretty tight. I think that if I were to build another rebel I would do the entire plane that way.

We have been using Sikaflex 252 adhesive for 15 yrs on our fleet of buses, It is very strong and flexable and works in a lot of difficult enviroments (winters in Ottawa can be nasty)
The trick to using in on a variety of materials is to clean the materials that you want bonded and to apply the primer and let it dry.

Hi Drew !

I'm very surprised ... I've torn the metal, trying to separate
sheets that were bonded with the PolyFiber EP-420/430 epoxy primer
that the factory supplied & recommended strongly. Perhaps there
was an oily film on the aluminum ??

The bonding effect of the Polyfiber epoxy is a desirable side-effect,
enhancing the rivets, but the primary purpose is corrosion prevention -
not sure how good Sikaflex is .... must be pretty good, as it's used for floats !

The only film on the aluminum would have been fingerprints. It had the plastic on it right up until I used it. I think the sikaflex will do a very good job of corrosion prevention by excluding moisture and oxygen.