First up a little soldering work on the capacitive fuel tank connectors.  As soon as I install the end ribs, I will complete the install of the sender plates, wiring and fuel vent line and I wanted to get everything completely ready. 

I haven’t taken a lot of pictures of the fuel tank sealing because my camera is also my iPhone and I don’t want to get sealant all over it!  Today I installed all four of the end ribs.  All the ribs are now installed and sealed on both tanks.  The capacitive senders need to be screwed in place and wired.  The flop tubes and vent also need to be installed.  Then I’ll be ready to close up the tanks and move on to preparing the rest of the wing for riveting! I can’t wait to be done the tanks!  I keep the tanks in the basement where its a good deal warmer than outside to allow the sealant to cure faster.  I sure hope this thing doesn’t leak!!!!

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.