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aluminum flashing for bonding a vehicle?

Sideways

Active Member
Mar 18, 2013
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southern ohio
I've been working on bonding my pickup. I had enough 3/4" flat copper braid to bond all the body parts, bed to cab to hood to fenders and so on. Now I'm out of braid and need to bond the body to frame. Would aluminum roof flashing work for this? I was going to cut 2-3" wide strips, and use serrated lock washers to bond the aluminum to steel. Or would this be a waste of time snd just order some more braid, as it is not available here locally.
Any thoughts appreciated.
 

I've been working on bonding my pickup. I had enough 3/4" flat copper braid to bond all the body parts, bed to cab to hood to fenders and so on. Now I'm out of braid and need to bond the body to frame. Would aluminum roof flashing work for this? I was going to cut 2-3" wide strips, and use serrated lock washers to bond the aluminum to steel. Or would this be a waste of time snd just order some more braid, as it is not available here locally.
Any thoughts appreciated.

Aluminum will quickly oxidize when in contact with dis-similar metals. How about a heavy gage copper wire soldered in a couple of ring terminals and bolted between the two areas you want to bond?
 
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Don't use aluminum for the reason stated above. Also you do not want to use solid strap as it will flex and eventually break. Braid is the way to go. Even a few pieces of old coaxial braid can be used if you have some scrap cable around. Just make a strap from two or three pieces in parallel.
 
I guess that was my main concern, bonding the aluminum to steel knowing aluminum oxidizes almost instantly. Thanks for saving me some work.:)
 

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