Left Tank Sealant

Today I continued working on the initial parts of sealing the tank.  I finished the filleting of the stiffeners and was able to get the end rib vent tube and fuel senders attached torqued and sealed.  They turned out pretty well.

I also worked on the fuel caps and was really excited for this part since they are so cool.  It turned out to be fine, but I am not super happy with the finish.  After a paint job, it will look perfect, but until the paint job, you can see minor scratches where the thin nose squeezer yoke was on the rivets.   I should have shot all of these instead of squeezing the ones close to the edge..  Rebekah's tank cap will look much better.  ;-)

I also decided to take the skin off the skeleton and work on deburring, countersinking and dimpling of the skeleton in preparation for the wings.  Typically this is done after the tanks but I had time and wanted to work on something else and it enabled me to get the skeleton all cleaned up.  Dimples in the ribs and countersinks in the spar.

Sealing Left Tank stiffeners

Today was my first day using the sealant.  Went fairly well, but it takes a long time.   I sure hope I get more efficient with this.   Here I am getting ready to go !  and a view of my sealing set up..

I was able to mix 2 batches of 33 grams each.  (30g of sealant and 3g of catalyst)  The first batch was used to insert the rivets "wet" by filling the dimple with the sealant, then buttering up the stiffeners and lowering them over the rivet heads and back riviting the stiffeners.

The second batch was used to encapsulate each rivet head and start putting fillets down the sides of the stiffeners.   I was able to get the flat side of the stiffener with the wood sticks I had, but the flange side will need to wait for a better solution.  The sealant was getting to thick for my taste with the size sticks I was using.

I also worked on closing up some of the tooling holes on end rubs, added the nose stiffener to the outboard end rib and attached the fuel drain.  Will finish working on the inboard end rib and attaching fittings tomorrow.

Left Tank Deburred, Dimpled, Scuffed

Today I spent about 3 hours taking the left tank apart and deburring each hole on each side of the skin and the ribs, then dimpling, and scuffing in preparation for the Pro-Seal.

I also cleaned the parts and got ready to proseal.  Leveraging other sites and forums I think I am ready to begin the Pro-Seal.  MEK, Gloves, Syringes, Popsicle sticks, Tape, Scale...   Here goes..

Tanks Continued

Since family is in town, I am not able to move to fast on the plane this week.  I was able to get a bit of soldering practice in on the capacitive sender BNC jacks.  Haven't soldered much, but think with the bit of practice first the final result turned out satisfactory.  I also fitted the vent tube in the tank.  I don't have a flaring tool, so will hopefully be able to borrow one when the time is right.

I also got a surprise from Bekah..  The Bob Archer wingtip antenna.  This guy goes in the fiberglass wingtip and can be used for VOR, ILS and Localizer.  Mounting is critical with this antenna, some people have good results, some marginal, but they work great in RV's.  I am going to have HID lighting in the wing tips as well, so will need to see if there is any noise that interrupts the Nav signal with the lights on.  Landing lights will only be on a fraction of the time when I would be depending on the Nav signal.  (IFR Night Approach)..  If there is any interference, then the right landing light will remain off until airport is in sight.

Capacitive Senders

I was able to test fit the Capacitive Senders for both tanks.  These guys are the way to go if you want a flop tube since there is no float to get in the way in the fuel pick up bay in the wing.  Those who use flop tubes need to relocate their float into the second bay where it needs to come in from the rear through the baffle if that makes sense. 

The capacitive senders are separated from the aluminum tank with UMAH washers that allow the electrical single to be measured through the gasoline.  More gas more signal, so the fuel guages are pretty accurate with this method.  Of course they have their own challenges upon install.   Per the instructions I cut back where they interfered with the bottom skin stiffeners on the outer bay ( you can see this in the right pic).  Sorry the pics are so bright, that is some reflective aluminum with the flash.  There are two capacitive plates in each tank, and everything is test fit in both tanks.

Tank End Ribs and Trap Door

I had mistakenly primed the nutplates that go inside the tank in the beginning of my work with the wings.  Not realizing at the time that the nutplates are internal to the tank.  You can't have anything inside the tank primed because it may flake off or interact in some way with the fuel.  So my order of extra nutplates arrived and I was able to rivet the end ribs attachment plates on.  Also I installed the right wing trap door into the second rib from the root of the wing.

Right Leading Edge Final Assembly

Rebekah and I spent a couple hours in the shop today putting together the right leading edge for the last time.  Turned out pretty well.   Now there is nothing standing in the way of the tanks.  After Thanksgiving, focus will be on the tanks until complete..

I also torqued both fuel pickups and safety tied the flob tube..