Today I had my first experience using the dreaded tank sealant. I had taken all of the tank componetns how and gave them a good washing with dishwashing soap the previous days. The first step was to clean the surfaces to be mated. I used MEK solvent for this and used a respirator I purchased at Sherwin-Williams while using the solvent. I also cleaned the rivets to be used in MEK. Once all parts were clean and dry I mixed the canister of tank sealant and started the process. A bead of sealant was put down along the stiffener rivet holes in the skin and then spread using a plastic knife. I had taped the areas so I could keep the areas outside of the stiffener clear of sealant. Using my 6' backrivet plate I could do an entire row at one time. After the sealant was spread rivets were inserted on all the rivet holes in the row, then tpae applied over the rivets. The skin was then positioned on the back rivet plate and the stiffeners placed over the rivets in their appropriate location. Rivets were then set using the rivet gun with a back rivet set.
This went reasonable well but was still messy and I repeatedly put on new gloves as the finger tips would get covered in sealant when inserting the rivets. When I did the final row the sealant had started to get thick and the rivets didn't seem to set quite as cleanly as the other rows, with much more sealnat on the outside of the skin. This can be cleaned up later.
For the remainder of the tank assembly I will go to the method described on VAF forum and will cleco parts and let them cure for a day before riveting. It sould like this will be a cleaner way to go.
