DONT EVER use a steel/wire brush on your aluminium airframe...unless you want to ruin it. Microscopic bits of steel will break off and be left behind in the aluminium...very, VERY bad news.
Use scotchbright.
Don't just use any old sikaflex type material...one type is compatible with aluminium and the other will literally eat the metal away completely. Look at the leading edge rib in my vertical stab for where some moron got lazy and instead of using the rubber grommet that is just inches away put silastic there instead...it has
dissolved the first couple of inches of rib.
By all means do it yourself if you want to but get professional advice first.
