I hate working on the fuel tanks.  Its not difficult work, but its very slow and very messy.  It tests my patience and I find it wholly unappealing work.  In this session I prepared all four end ribs for installation.

All of the interior ribs on both fuel tanks have been riveted and sealed.  I had planned to get a lot more time in the shop on this 3 day weekend, but a major snow fall, a ski trip, and running out of propane in the garage prevented that.  I did get a solid, but freezing, 8 hours in the shop.  I should be able to finish the tanks this weekend.  I need to install the end ribs, vent line, access plates, and capacitive fuel sensor.  All of that has been prepped so it should go together relatively quickly.  I can’t wait to do the tanks.  All in all, they haven’t been very difficult, but they are very time consuming and slow.  Working with the sealant is messy and I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed it.

Mike Bullock was kind enough to give me all the fittings to plug up the tank for leak testing.  Hopefully I can soon move onto riveting the rest of the wing!

No pictures this weekend.  I will post some next time.

Interior ribs was the name of the game for Sunday.  I completed all of them for the left tank.  I have the process down very well now.  50 grams of sealant and two ribs at a time works out perfectly for the work timing.  I think if I really am on my A game, I can do three ribs at once which means I could do all of the interior ribs on the right tank in two batches of sealant.

Not much else to mention.  Everything went as planned.  I will have some notes and tips for sealing, but we’ll wait to see that it doesn’t leak first!