June 8, 2014 – Peter's RV-8

Wings 25 (0.5 hrs)

This entry was posted in Wings Wings - Structure on June 8, 2014 by Peter

I regret not taking pictures during the assembly of the stall warning, however I have several pictures of the completed product. In the last shop session, I countersunk and primed the required parts, so today was quick. I riveted the two nutplates and put the assembly together. A few notes for anyone assembling this part below. Van’s instructs you not to over torque this bolt. The stall warning vane must move freely so you can’t over tighten. Avoid over tightening the other two bolts as well.

Also, don’t forget to ensure your grounding wire has a good contact point. I used a little scotchbrite to remove the primer.

I wanted to install the assembly in the leading edge today, but found that there is currently interference between the skin and the vane. I will need to play around with the bracket alignment and possibly do a little more filing for clearance during the next session.

Fuel Tanks 25 (3.5 hrs)

This entry was posted in Fuel Tanks Wings on June 8, 2014 by Peter

Today’s primary task was to remove the sealant around the previous fuel tank baffle. Removing proseal isn’t fun, and requires a fair amount of sweat to accomplish. I did a fair amount of research on the forums in advance and here are my tips for removing proseal.

Purchase some tough plastic scrapers like the ones pictured below from harbor freight. They’ll allow you to scrape the proseal without scratching the aluminum. Additionally, you can easily resharpen the plastic with the scotchbrite wheel. Sharp edges help substantially.
Next you can use a combination of scotchbrite pads, heat, MEK, and the scrapers to continuously work down the remaining sealant. I personally didn’t use heat as I found it too time consuming for such a large sealant removal job. I did use scotchbrite and MEK.
A couple iterations of scraper – MEK – scotchbrite seems to do the trick!

Here are the tools I bought at Harbor Freight. The scrapers are for the proseal removal. The pneumatic angle grinder and sanding discs are for the wing skin scarf joints. Here is a “before picture” of the baffle proseal.And a picture after the first round of scraping.After the first scotchbrite / MEK run….And the final product!