Jack Savage came over to give me a hand with the fuel tanks.  There wasn’t anything in particular that required two people, but a second set of hands in the shop is always appreciated!  The two of us completed almost every remaining task prior to sealing the tanks.  All of the remaining dimpling is complete.  We cut out the snap bushing for installation of the capacitive fuel gauge wire.  The inboard holes for the BNC connector and fuel vent lines are complete.  We fabricated the anti-hangup guides for the flop tubes and installed two of the four.  The fuel trap doors have also been fabricated.  The only thing that remains prior to beginning the sealing is to install the fuel trap doors… which I may go back and do this evening.  I will also need to get some good soldering tools for the capacitive fuel sender wiring.  Luckily I have experience with soldering. While I was studying for my bachelor’s in electrical engineering I worked as an electronics technician with Honeywell.  Needless to say, I got to do a lot of soldering.  I’m feeling really good that the next significant session in the shop will be spent sealing!  Hopefully next weekend. 

Here is Jack dimpling the ribs. 

Holes for the BNC and fuel vent lines. 

The fuel trap doors. Still need to be installed. I forgot to take a picture of the anti-hangup guides.  I’ll try to update this post later with a picture of those.  I plan to pop rivet the final two in place after the ribs are installed.

I didn’t get a lot of time in the shop, but I was able to get some outstanding tasks completed.  I dimpled the remainder of the left skin and drilled the holes for the flop tubes.

I bought some tools for tube work.  The springs allow you to bend tubing by hand.  The Roto flaring tool (red handle) allows you to flare tips to the required 37degrees, and finally the blue handle Imperial 470 can do perfect bends of up to 180 degrees.  I will use these for the fuel vent. 

Here is the flop tube….

There’s one problem.  That one rivet hole under the elbow.  Its just barely outside the minimum distance required.  But….

Here’s where its a problem.  I won’t be able to tighten the nut all the way down.  I will have to countersink this rivet and install a 426 flush rivet instead.  

Tonight I got a lot of drudgery completed. I deburred all the holes and edges of both fuel tank skins. After that I removed the remaining vinyl from the rivet lines with the soldering iron. Next, I scored the mating surfaces for the sealant application on the inside of both skins. Finally, I dimpled the entire skin for the right fuel tank.