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Old 06-21-2016, 07:56 AM   #1
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HELP! Need corrosion chemist...

Greetings,
Our "new" boat was used in salt water and the aluminum window tracks are corroded where the fuzzy track strips slide into place. Slide is the operative word here. The grooves that accept the fuzzy are visible but quite inaccessible to mechanical scouring/scraping and are very small (in the order of .080").

There is a rock hard deposit of what tastes like salt but is probably an aluminum oxide/aluminum chloride mixture built up in the grooves. As mentioned, mechanical removal is almost impossible so I'm searching for the chemical which will actually dissolve or at least significantly soften the deposits.

I've tried sulfuric, hydrochloric acids and Starbright "Salt-away" with seemingly no reaction other than the HCl reacting with the Al. I can live with losing a bit of the Al IF it means easy removal of the deposits.

So, is there something that will dissolve/soften this mess so I can be fuzzy again?

Thanks in advance.
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