I decided to redo my fuel tanks. See here for why. The entries specific to the redone tanks are here.
Six hours of solo fun tonight back riveting the stiffeners, fuel flanges, drain flanges and some parts on the inboard ribs. A very sticky mess, though the 24 hour setting period prevented sealant from oozing out from under the mating surface, so that's a plus. Acetone cleans things up well enough though I'm sure it also is responsible for neuronecrosis.
I had dreams of making very clean seals. That ended quickly, as you can see. I smeared sealant on with the Popsicle stick. More is better, right?
Left fuel flange inside and out. It took a good 15 minutes of cleaning with acetone to get the exposed part of the flange cleaned up.
Left drain flange inside and out.
Some rivets on the exterior. You can see the small amount of sealant around the rivet heads. This was even after wiping down with acetone. So this material was under the heads. Guess that's the tank die set (dice?) at work.
Shop ends, some sealed, some not.
And some stuff on the inboard ribs. This was after vigorously cleaning the surface since squeezing rivets with gloved hands covered in sealant makes a mess. The plans state you don't need to seal the nutplates. But I had extra sealant mixed so might as well in case the seal on the fuel level sender plate fails. Perhaps it won't matter. It's hard to say without seeing it assembled.
I believe this is the least fun part of the build. Can't progress further until I get a riveting partner. Perfect (?) timing since my rivet gun stopped working. It just hisses now. I wonder if it got gummed up somehow on the inside. I'll run some acetone through the air intake.
Some rivets on the exterior. You can see the small amount of sealant around the rivet heads. This was even after wiping down with acetone. So this material was under the heads. Guess that's the tank die set (dice?) at work.
And some stuff on the inboard ribs. This was after vigorously cleaning the surface since squeezing rivets with gloved hands covered in sealant makes a mess. The plans state you don't need to seal the nutplates. But I had extra sealant mixed so might as well in case the seal on the fuel level sender plate fails. Perhaps it won't matter. It's hard to say without seeing it assembled.
I believe this is the least fun part of the build. Can't progress further until I get a riveting partner. Perfect (?) timing since my rivet gun stopped working. It just hisses now. I wonder if it got gummed up somehow on the inside. I'll run some acetone through the air intake.
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