Oxidation?

[cxlairstream]

Is this oxidation on my 2000 Safari? If not, any ideas of what it might be?

[drairstream]

Definitely. You need to get the aircraft spray mentioned in threads on the forum

[panamerican]

This is fill-form corrosion. It appears to be a fairly common issue with Airstreams of the early 2000s vintage. Airstream shifted from clear coating at the factory to buying pre-coated alum sheets from Alcoa in mid 1999 if I recall correctly.

The first 6-8 years after that cut over were hit or miss (with a stress on the miss). I think they may be doing a better job now than back then, but your trailer is now 20 years old. At some point, a break in the coating will happen and things will get in there and start the corrosion process. Be very thankful it just started now. Some folks had their brand new early 2000's rigs less than a few months when it started to show up, and some had a trailer that was just disastrous looking for a 6-12 month old trailer.

If just this area, I would gently sand the area where the issue is, careful not to damage adjacent coating, and touch up with clear coat and a find artist brush or use some clear nail polish. I've used both in small areas like yours and it has stopped it dead in it's tracks.

Once it gets away from you or if it does, you are looking at hiding/sealing it with trim pieces or worst case, sanding the trailer down and recoating it with clear which is an expensive thing to do. The key is arresting it early on.

There are a ton of threads on fill form corrosion on this forum. Do a search, grab a few bags of popcorn, a few drinks and read on....

[cxlairstream]

Thanks for this information.

[cxlairstream]

I’ll check out the threads for the aircraft spray. Thanks for this information.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Filiform will always be a concern as all modern Airtreams use the Alcoa coated panels with many rivets and cut edges.
Whatever method you choose to mitigate, inspect often and do it consistently.

After 17 Seasons I realized that it will never appear on all the seams and rivets.

When it shows, I attack.
After the first 4 years of worry only a very few new areas have shown up.

I scrape clean, cover with clear, and seal. A thin coat of Corrosion X after washing.

Bob
🇺🇸

[cxlairstream]

Thanks for this detail.

[DBSteed]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Filiform will always be a concern as all modern Airtreams use the Alcoa coated panels with many rivets and cut edges.

Whatever method you choose to mitigate, inspect often and do it consistently.



After 17 Seasons I realized that it will never appear on all the seams and rivets.



When it shows, I attack.

After the first 4 years of worry only a very few new areas have shown up.



I scrape clean, cover with clear, and seal. A thin coat of Corrosion X after washing.



Bob

[emoji631]

Thanks for this information.