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Old 11-05-2020, 06:14 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Floor patches / fasteners with dissimilar metals

I've been reading a bunch about this but wasn't sure if there's been a consensus – just how bad is it if I'm using aluminum materials to patch my steel floor? Specifically:

1. The screws that kept the plywood on also attached the floor to the frame. To replace them, can I use aluminum rivets (possibly with a bead of silicone caulking)?

2. If I wanted to make some small patches, could I repurpose the aluminum side panels I yanked off during demo? Thinking about 2" x 2" glued with silicone.

3. I've read the penny/epoxy method is disputed because of this / galvanic corrosion in general. What do you think?

For context, I'm thinking of what condition the bus might be in 5 years from now. How quickly will these things become a problem?

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Old 11-05-2020, 06:34 PM   #2
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Metal will only corrode in the presence of water and oxygen. Just sticking two dissimilar metals together will not cause corrosion - it will only make one metal corrode preferentially if (and only if) corrosion is occurring at all. If the things you are attaching (patches, pennies, whatever) are completely sealed and painted, you will not have any corrosion, galvanic or otherwise. If your patches and hole covers are not completely sealed, then they'll rust anyway even if everything is mild steel (especially if everything is mild steel).
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Old 11-06-2020, 10:04 AM   #3
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
Metal will only corrode in the presence of water and oxygen. Just sticking two dissimilar metals together will not cause corrosion - it will only make one metal corrode preferentially if (and only if) corrosion is occurring at all. If the things you are attaching (patches, pennies, whatever) are completely sealed and painted, you will not have any corrosion, galvanic or otherwise. If your patches and hole covers are not completely sealed, then they'll rust anyway even if everything is mild steel (especially if everything is mild steel).
Thanks for the response! I've been going off this article I found: https://www.trailer-bodybuilders.com...similar-metals

They say there that "If aluminum and stainless steel were immersed in a corrosive environment (road salt solution) the corrosive rate of the aluminum would be highly accelerated while the rate of the stainless steel would be reduced." which similar to your response, would lead me to conclude that an aluminum patch might be risky. So would covering the patch in primer/paint beforehand negate this?
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Old 11-11-2020, 08:05 PM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
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My experience

Here is my experience with steel and aluminum. I have a Datsun 280z of 1975 vintage. Rear brake drums are cast aluminum with a steel braking surface. The hub is steel. The aluminum drum is in direct contact with the steel hub. A new set of drums is pretty expensive. An original factory set of Datsun drums are like the holy grail, and nearly non-existent. Why you might ask, because the steel and the aluminum stick together so tightly, in many cases cast aluminum drums break trying to get them off. I don’t think in your application putting steel and aluminum together is going to be that big an issue, as I doubt you plan to remove it once it is there.
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