Wings

November 9, 2007

Started riveting tank ribs - 7.5 hrs.

It's time to start riveting some ribs in place in my fuel tank!

But first, the outboard rib needs a big rivet in the tooling hole. I was fortunate to have some -6 rivets on hand, so I cut one of them down (they were way too long) and hammered it home in the tooling hole.

Here's a shot of the bucktail on the inside of this rib. Some Proseal dabbed on both sides finished the job (below).

This is the T-410 stiffener riveted onto the same rib (the most outboard rib on the tank) and sealed.

These syringes work great for applying a bead of sealant to each rib. It's like a mini caulking gun. A pharmacist at Target was kind enough to give me a few of these for free (!!!) when I explained what I needed them for, and emphasized that I didn't want or need the needles... just the syringes. You should have seen him smile. I was even able to clean them up with MEK so they can be used again.

Here's what a nice job they do sealing the ribs inside the tank. I applied a bead with the syringe, and then smoothed it out with the rounded off end of a popsicle stick. There should be plenty here to do the job and seal this rib, without gopping on a huge amount of it and making a big mess. The next two shots below show the other side of the rib. You can see a dab of sealant applied over each rivet head.

This is the first rib riveted in place on this tank. All done. Six more to go.

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Contact me: swayze "at" europa.com (replace "at" with the @ sign... no spaces... you know the deal)