Crud removal

[robert l]

OK guys, here's what I wound up doing. Mineral spirits. I know, not water soluble. The project was C150 wings that had been treated several times with a corrosion preventative over many years. A lot of caked on dirt had collected, particularly aft of the rear spar. Some places I could reach in scrape the crud off and the vacuum out the clumps. Wings were NOT on the airplane. Dish soap, engine cleaner, WD-40,ect. did not perform well enough. I sprayed in mineral spirits and let soak for 1 hr. I then used a pressure washer with a 90* nozzle to blast out the crud. Not squeaky clean, but enough to evaluate the wing internal condition. Oh ya, mineral spirits does kill your back yard grass.

Did you take pictures or video ?

[Dana]

When I had my annual done this spring, the IA drained avgas from the sink into a pump spray bottle and used that to clean the engine and firewall. Made me nervous, but all the grease and grime just ran off, no brushing required.

When he took a smoke break, he did it far from the hangar...

[Eric Brown]

Did you take pictures or video ?

Got lots of photos.