1.8 Hours -
Finally, I was able to get back to work on the RV today. First, I quickly fixed a bad blind rivet in the rudder. I noticed this rivet was standing proud of the rib prior to moving, but waited to fix it until now. I’ve read that removing blind rivets is difficult, but this one was easy. I drove out the shaft, drilled into the head, popped off the head, and pushed the shank out. Thirty seconds later, a new LP4-3 rivet was set…this time, properly!
With that done, it was finally time to glue the rudder trailing edge. I clamped the rudder parts together with my match-drilled piece of angle and did one final check of the alignment. Everything looked good, so I took everything apart and prepped it for gluing.
The trailing edge clamped together before gluing to check alignment.
Another view of the ready-to-be-glued rudder.
Some reading gave me some tips on how to make my first endeavor with tank sealant a painless one. I started by generously rubbing some Boelube on the aluminum angle and on the shafts of all the clecos that would be used to clamp the glued rudder together. I’m hoping that the Boelube will act as a releasing agent for any areas that shouldn’t be glued together such as the clecos and the rudder, itself, to the angle.
Next, I found everything that I would need for the entire process. This included rags, acetone, nitrile gloves (extras too), and the tank sealant kit.
The 1 ounce sealant kit from Van's contains a jar of goo, a packet of goo, and a stick to mix the two goos together and make a super goo!
With everything ready, I could no longer delay dealing with the “black death.” When I mixed the sealant together, I quickly understood how it obtained the “black death” nickname. This stuff is stickier than anything I’ve every encountered. It is stringy like melted mozzarella cheese, slightly thicker than peanut butter and immediately sticks to anything it touches.
Once mixed, the sealant reagents make a very sticky compound affectionately referred to as "black death."
Using the supplied popsicle stick, I spread the tank sealant evenly on both sides of the trailing edge wedge. Then, I changed gloves in an attempt to keep the rudder clean and carefully slid the wedge into place between the rudder skins. The rudder assembly was then clamped to the aluminum angle using my Boelubed clecos. When clamped, some of the excess sealant oozed out, but this was surprisingly easy to clean with an acetone soaked rag. After cleaning up, I did one final check and everything looked nice and straight! The rudder will now sit for at least 4 days to allow the tank sealant to fully cure before riveting.
A bead of sealant oozed out when the rudder was clamped together. Using an acetone soaked rag, clean-up wasn't too bad.
Nice and straight. I'll unclamp and rivet in about a week.
Finally, I started to rough cut the stiffeners for the elevators. As with the rudder, Van’s supplies some stock that is notched. The notches indicate where to cut, resulting in perfectly sized stiffeners. I completed the rough cuts on 13 stiffeners…16 are left to be cut.
13 elevator stiffeners rough cut, 16 to go.
Using tank sealant is definitely a messy task. However, it really wasn’t that complicated to apply. Using it on the fuel tanks shouldn’t be an issue.
