1.9 Hours -
I had just about forgotten how much fun it was to rivet ribs coated in sealant (sarcasm)!
The ribs for the left tank still needed to be scuffed and cleaned, so I started the evening by doing those tasks. It is a good thing that I always take a close look at my parts during this stage or at some point right before final assembly…I had managed to miss three holes in one rib when I did my dimpling. At least this is a quick fix, as all I had to do was pull out my squeezer, turn on the air, and pull the trigger three times.
Once everything was scuffed and thoroughly cleaned, I clecoed the ribs into the tank skin.
After scuffing and cleaning the ribs, I clecoed the left tank back together.
After the tank was assembled, I removed the second most outboard rib and then mixed a batch of sealant. At this point, I’m starting to run low on sealant. I may have enough to finish the tank, but it will take a lot of scraping of the can. I’ll go ahead and order another quart kit from Van’s to make sure I have more than enough. Since I may still have leaks to fix in the right tank, and who knows on the left, I’m better off having plenty of sealant on hand.
Once my 44 grams of sealant was well mixed, I spread some on the rib flange and reinserted the rib with clecos in every hole. I then removed the outboard rib to allow better access for riveting.
Finally, I riveted the rib working from forward to aft, one side at a time. After riveting, I did some clean-up on the tank and my tools, but I really didn’t make much of a mess this time…I even managed to keep my gloves clean.
Once the factory heads are cleaned up, the rivet line looks pretty nice.
The sealant filet on the inboard side of the rib.
The sealant filet and rivet encapsulation on the outboard side of the rib.
One rib down, six more to go.
