Hi Don,
As an ex-welder (well I still weld but not, cough cough, for a living)
I'm always twitchy around aluminum. It's such a #%^& to weld nicely.
As a softer and more porous metal it's more easily etched into by acids,
and more likely to hold some of the agent, IMHO.
A metalurgest (SP) or chemist could tell you more, but I would say that
if you wash it really well, and did not get severe pitting then you're OK.
Personally, having just replaced the clutch on the TR3 and fallen into a
serious case of "shipwright's cleaning" I simply GUNK the casing and then
wire brushed the outside with a rotary brush on a drill.
It came up very well. In the long run I'm not a great fan of using
chemical agents like acid unless there's really no other way to get the
desired result.
Hope this helps.
Christopher Ball
triumph@io.org
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