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Here the tank skins and ribs have been mounted to the spar for fitting. The z-brackets have been installed per an RV-List post by Steve Hurlbut where the skins are opened up and the brackets clecoed on then drilled from below. It was a little hard to keep them from moving when drilling, however. | ||||
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The tanks and leading edges were then disassembled and some of the parts primered, the LE end rib, attach plate, and z-brackets shown. | ||||
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A shot of the complete z-brackets ready for installation. | ||||
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Although I'm not going to install a flop tube, I thought about doing all the other work involved such that a conversion down the road would be painless. Here is the trap door installation. | ||||
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Here the door is hown in the open position. The hinge pin is fit into a hole drilled in the rib and is trapped when the assembly is riveted on. The stop is just a piece placed behind the hinge to match the door height and the extra end is bent as shown. | ||||
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Getting ready to ProSeal! The surface is roughed up with a stainless brush. | ||||
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The stiffeners, drain fitting, and fuel cap flange riveted on. I used an Ohaus CS-200 scale to measure the Proseal by weight and the results seem pretty consistent. This scale has a 0.1 gram resolution. | ||||
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The tank filler flange came out really well. | ||||
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Ready to start on the ribs. This is where it all went wrong! I kept noticing small pieces of rivet in the Proseal or stuck to the bucking bar as I riveted. Turns out the rivets were clinching over and being chopped off by the dimple. With all the Proseal I couldn't see what was happening. To say I was frustrated is the understatement of the year! Lessons learned (after the fact by my experience and in discussions with other builders): 1. Stick to the -3.5 lengths even though the Avery guage shows them to be too short. 2. Keep the rivet tails clean before bucking. If you can't see what is happening your results will not be up to par. 3. As above, also keep the bucking bar clean so you can see how the shop head is progressing. Final decision - I decided to re-order the tank parts as well as the outer leading edge parts since I wasn't completely happy with those results either (being too much of a perfectionist sure is expensive). | ||||||||||||||||
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