Prosealed Stiffeners to Fuel Tank

Austin and I prosealed the stiffeners to the inside of the right fuel tank today. The stiffeners go on the bottom of each tank to prevent the tank skin from sagging. Each tank holds 21 gallons so at about 6 lbs per gallon, that's 126 lbs the bottom of the tanks need to carry.

Apparently, proseal makes you crazy. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It helped that we took all the precautions I'd read about over the last year including protective hand cream and two pair of gloves. Anytime the top layer glove got proseal on it, we'd replace it. We went through almost a box (100) of gloves between the two of us but we stayed clean. Early on, I thought a little proseal on a glove wouldn't be a problem but when I tried to pick up a little rivet, I'd get 5 stuck to the proseal so that's when we started replacing gloves with impunity.

We applied proseal until we could say "there's no way in hell this is gonna' leak". We didn't actually say that...cursing isn't polite...we just wanted to to apply enough proseal so we could say it if we were in the mood for cussing, which we weren't because things went fine but we still reserve the right to cuss if needed some time in the future.

Here, I'm mixing the proseal on my new scale. It measures down to a tenth of a gram which helps when measuring small quantities. I plan on doing the fuel tank ribs one or two at a time so I'll only be using small amounts of proseal for each session. Glad Paula didn't see me mixing it on her nice dining room table.

Redneck Air Conditioning Helps with Tank Dimpling

Austin came home today to help with the tanks as my late father's day present. He's standing in front of our "Redneck Air Conditioning" ice chest with a fan blowing over it. Actually worked well. Got the idea from a company that sells a Van's RV air conditioning system very similar to this.

My friend and RV mentor, Norm, came by today with his wife Carol for a little visit. He's working on an RV-10 and was interested in seeing and talking about my fuel tank progress. He's built an RV-7A and finished an RV-9A and said the tanks were a mess. He talked me into doing the fay sealing method of sealing the tanks and I extracted a promise from him of help if they leak.

Fuel Cap & Flange

Here's an inside the tank view of the fuel cap and flange. I finished match drilling and countersinking both flanges last night. Since the fuel tank is a wet wing type, the flange will be prosealed and riveted in place. The fuel cap that's sticking out of the flange below is similar to a plumber's pipe stopper where two plates with a flexible gasket between them are squeezed together to seal the hole. Just a lot higher quality. And, hi to Little Gail. You're welcome anytime.

Fuel Tank Access Plates

Below are the inboard ribs of the fuel tanks showing the backing plates and the holes I cut in the ribs with the hole cutter. Oh, the carnage...it was a noisy, messy job with the hole cutter (aka fly cutter) in the drill press. But, the holes did come out nice and neat and round. In the above right of the picture are the covers that close up the holes and hold the fuel level senders and fuel supply lines. Should be a quick job to finish up these and then it's on to the fuel caps and fuel drains.

Oshkosh B'Gosh

I get to go to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh for the first time this year. Yippee! 10,000 visiting airplanes make Oshkosh the busiest airport in the world during "The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration". 2,500 showplanes, 500 forums, 100's of vendors, aviation museums, music by Chicago, Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band and Asleep at the Wheel. I also get to go to a special reception for EAA Chapter Presidents. Free food and drinks...wouldn't miss it.

I do have a question or minor pet peeve about AirVenture. I couldn't find the words "experimental" or "homebuilt" on the professionally built home page linked above. The letters "EAA" stand for Experimental Aircraft Association. Are they afraid of the word Experimental? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'll be going with Dan, the husband of one of Paula's co-workers. He's got a similar aviation background. Paula said his wife was happy to have someone to sub for her as she's been many times.

Tanks Almost Ready for Proseal

The fuel tanks are almost ready for proseal. I've gotten all the ribs and stiffeners and baffles for both tanks done and I've match drilled everything. The skins are countersunk for the baffles. I've finished the tank attach brackets and only need to open the ends for the fuel attach hardware and then deburr and dimple and then on to the black goop from hell. I still get a kick out of the the fact that the tank sealant (proseal) has no known solvent on the planet. Nothing melts this stuff...which is good considering it helps hold the fuel that keeps you aloft!

In the left side of the picture below, you can see the tank attach brackets that were fabricated out of a big hunk of aluminum angle. Both are shown but only the left one that's nested into the the nose flanges goes with this rib. I just had them together showing Paula how fun it is to fabricate stuff. She was thrilled.

Here are the two tanks in their cradles. I'm building both tanks and wings at the same time so clecos are at a premium which is why the left one has no clothes tomatoes clecos. I ordered more from Vans when I ordered the proseal but I accidentally ordered 3/16's and not 3/32's. I returned them and I'm waiting to receive the correct size. I also planned a swap sale at our next EAA 958 meeting and put out the word that I'm looking for more (good) clecos. I will send a crisp one dollar bill to the first person to contact me and mention this post.