I swore by torque seal on every nut, then a FedEx feeder crew in Memphis changed my mind
I used to be that guy who put torque seal on just about every fastener I touched on a CRJ, and I figured anyone who skipped it was cutting corners. Last Tuesday I was helping a contractor crew on a FedEx feeder out of Memphis, and one of their old leads walked me through their logbook from an audit back in March, where a 12 year buildup of seal hid a cracked nut plate on a flap track. He said it plain: "You can't see a crack under 12 coats of paint." That night I pulled up the manual and saw nothing in it says you have to seal every single nut, just the critical ones. So now I mark only the specified joints and leave the rest bare, and honestly it has saved me maybe 20 minutes a side. Still feels wrong some days, and I know this is just one hangar's habit, so take it with a grain of salt. Anybody else run into a case where the seal itself hid a bad part?