Mike Rollison was kind enough to lend me his drill press so that I could finally drill the holes for the access plates in the fuel tank baffle.  This would allow me access to remove the remaining rivet pieces for the incorrectly installed z-bracket mess-up.

Here is the drill press with the circle cutter installed. 

I marked the centerpoint. 

Using the wing cradle I pivoted the head of the drill press 180 degrees and cut a perfect hole. 

I originally intended to do only two access plates. I would then use my cheap borescope to check all compartments.  Upon a little more reflection, I saw now harm in doing four access plates and ensuring I had every single bit of debris out of both tanks.  The peace of mind is well worth the effort.  Before I install the plates with pro-seal I will use my mirrors and borescope camera to thorough check every single part of the interior of the tank.

Next I measured out where the plates would be and double check to make sure I had all the spacing correct. 

I drilled each plate in place. 

I’ve been meaning to buy a shop vac for the hangar for a long time.  This was the perfect excuse… I needed to be able to clean all the metal bits from the drilling etc from the tanks.My final task for the day was to deburr all the edges and holes for the access plates.  Everything is ready for pro-seal.  I just need to order some new pro-seal and clean the surfaces with acetone or MEK. Then the tanks should be ready for leak checking and final install!  Only took a year!!

Well, both tanks are almost complete.  For the second time.  Now, if my fuel tank luck continues at its current rate, I’ll likely have several leaks!

Today I installed the new baffle on the right fuel tank.  I completed the installation including the z-brackets and now the only remaining part is to seal the access plate.

I started by drilling, deburring and scuffing the new baffle.  Then I cleaned all the parts with acetone and cheesecloth.  The z-brackets took quite a bit of work to get all the old sealant and primer off.  (Priming them was a stupid idea in retrospect especially considering I would need the sealant to adhere to them.)  

Here are the z-brackets in the process of cleaning.  I used my typical acetone, scotchbrite, acetone again approach. 

The instructions say to cleco every hole for the skin to baffle joint. 

Next I quadruple checked my z-bracket alignment and installed with the closed end pop rivets.

And finally I used the pneumatic squeezer to rivet the skin to the baffle.  Peaking inside through the access hole, there appears to be a good bead of sealant.  Hopefully I don’t have any leaks. 

I’ve been putting off working with sealant for quite some time, because… well I hate it.  But the time has come to finally finish the fuel tanks.  Earlier this week I ordered fuel tank repair kits for the right tank.  I’m going to cut access holes into the rear baffle of the left tank to remove any remaining rivet pieces.  I should have done this from the start instead of wasting so much time with other methods, but being a newbie I was very hesitant to do something I saw as “invasive surgery.”  In reality its a quick and easy fix, especially compared to replacing a baffle (which I still need to do on the right tank).

I started the day by rearranging the shop and laying out the parts for sealing. 

My original sealant has now expired… which tells you how long these fuel tanks are taking! For the last little bit I got the 6oz tube.  I’m not mixing it in the tube though as I don’t want to waste any. 

Before I proceeded, I cleaned the rivets, z-brackets and baffle with acetone to remove the last remaining proseal and impurities.  This took a little help from some scotch brite and several applications of the acetone. 

My sealant mixture was not the best for two reason.  First, my digital scale is a complete piece of harbor freight shit.  The auto shutoff is so quick its easy to have it shut off in the middle of a measurement… and when you turn it back on… it re-tares which unless you recall what it said before totally messes you up.  Further the dispenser opened suddenly and I wound up with more activator that I wanted.  Hopefully it will hold up.  The color looked pretty close to what I remember but maybe a little bit on the dark side. 

I installed all the z-brackets… correctly this time!  (I quadruple checked)

And the access plate.  I did not use the cork ring.. Just plain ole’ proseal. Now observant readers might ask, “why did you install the z-brackets prior to the new access plates?” My primary goal right now is to get the wings moved down to my new hangar which is much clsoer to my home.  In order to do that, I need to get the wings to a point in which they are rigid enough that I no longer need the wing stands.  In my mind that means leading edges, fuel tanks, and top skins attached. I can remove the fuel tanks easily later, but for now I need to install them in order to ensure my scarf joints are correct and sure up the wings.  I hope to have the kit moved to the hangar before my trip to Oshkosh at the end of this month.