Brief Description: Some rivet repair & planning of a fix
This evening I was inspecting all the manufactured heads on the driven tank rivets and found four rivets that had tiny cracks in the flush head. If you look closely in image one below you can see a tiny triangular crack in each rivet head. Oddly enough, all four rivets were in the same tank rib close to the leading edge (three on the top surface and one on the lower surface). I debated whether to replace these rivets but in the end decided to drill them out and replace. While I don't think they would leak or present a structural issue, they will certainly be easier to correct now than later. I am not sure why these rivets cracked. They did not appear to be over-driven and both the shop and manufactured heads looked ok. Nevertheless, they did crack.
Now it's time for an admission. I got ahead of myself (not thinking again) and inserted the end ribs before I installed the tank vent line. The vent line is easy to install before the root rib goes on but not so easy once the tank end is closed. Anyway, after some thought a possible solution emerged. I did some measuring so the exact length of the vent line is known. The plan is to cut the line to length, install the fitting and flare the end of the line, and then carefully route the soft aluminum tubing through the snap bushings all the way to and through the clip at the filler cap. The root bay on the fuel tank is wide enough I should be able to reach in and make the slight "S" bend to align the tubing with the fitting at the rib. The large access port in the root rib and the soft tubing should help facilitate the fix. I need to remind myself to slow down and think before doing!
