While working on the drivers side front (stuck) brake Monday I looked back along the luggage compartment on the drivers side and noticed that it had come detached along its entire 6’ length and at both ends. Every rivet was popped! No external visable damge was evident. The only thing ever kept in these two compartments (due to there short hight) was folding chairs lanterns and extra hose’s. I have no clue as to how it happened. I strongly recommend anyone with this setup to check there’s out.

On another topic…Bill H. what’s the best brake lube to use on calipers and slides? Last fall I removed and polished everything and used Never seaze but obviously it didn’t work on one.

Popped rivets could be stress from body twist in an off-road adventure, but more likely galvanic corrosion.

Replacing corroded rivets is almost a monthly exercise on my rig where the aluminum skin is attached to steel structrural members with aluminum rivets.

So far, I've replaced the majority of the front cap rivets, and every time I take it out, another one pops up.

If you can pull the skin back enough to get a thin nylon washer between the skin and the steel bracing, you'll greatly reduce galvanic reaction....Plus make sure you use pop rivets with ALUMINUM mandrels... steel mandrels inside of aluminum rivets is a sure-fire short circuit and speeds up the process.
Also, any exposed steel that can be wire brushed and primed will help prevent steel rust particles from reacting with the aluminum......

I'm in the process of re-skinning the headlight panels on my unit. Upon removal of the old skin, it was obvious that galvanic corrosion had done its job - three steel braces around the headlight buckets were totally rusted through. I welded in some fishplate reinforcement, sandblasted & primed w/ Rustoleum red. I also covered the front of the square steel tubing with aluminum foil faced duct tape. (I may not be able to totally STOP galvanic reaction, but I've given it something else to gnaw on for the next decade or so.) Moisture, road salt and steel against aluminum makes my Barth a 24 foot long battery - just got to learn to live with it...........

I have had good luck with Boeshield. We are very close to the ocean, so humidity and salt air is a concern.

quote:

Originally posted by eric:
On another topic…Bill H. what’s the best brake lube to use on calipers and slides? Last fall I removed and polished everything and used Never seaze but obviously it didn’t work on one.

I use Dow Corning Molykote G-407. I scrub the surfaces with a stainless toothbrush and pressure spray them with brake solvent to open up the pores. Then apply the G-407 and rub it in. Then apply another light coat and assemble.

ON UPDATE: 12/14/10......MolyKote has come out with a NEW PRODUCT for this usage.

Thanks Bill I'll give that a try.

Corrosion is a constant problem... check out my post about "Battery Box", Mine pulled away from the floor pan, I ended up bolting it to the actual floor. The lower edges of the square tubing framework around the bottom of the boxes and bodywork is also a bad spot. Salt/sand collects here, it's a good idea to flush those areas out every trip, I think. I'm going to figure out how/where to install sacrificial zinc anodes from a marine application... let that zinc get eaten up first...

Just as a follow-up, for anyone who may want to learn more about galvanic reaction of dis-similar metals, there's a good aircraft-based explanation at:

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/189857-1.html

Also, not all pop-rivets are created equal, and another aircraft-based site covers pop-rivet theory in detail:

http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ht-87-1.html