I stood back to admire the nice big access hole I cut into my right fuel tank end rib. This is where the fuel level sender is installed. As I'm complimenting myself on how nice the fly cutter worked, and pictured in my mind's eye how well the access cover and fuel level sender would fit, it hit me. Did I??????Nooooo......I DID!!!!
I put a nice big access hole in the outboard end rib....not the inboard.
I then grabbed the correct rib and cut the big hole while I had it all set up on the drill press. Fit, drilled, deburred and riveted on the reinforcement plate and nut plates for the access hole.
So after throwing a post out on VANS AIRFORCE to gauge what other people would do (order a new rib or just make another access panel), I decided to order a new rib from Vans.
After I got off the phone, I was fitting the pre-fabbed fuel pickup tube/screen I bought from Vans to the access panel only to discover that the AN B-nut they installed on the tube was defective and had no threads in it. By the time I discovered that, Vans was closed so I called the next morning to tell them about it - they sent me a new pickup tube for free along with the rib.
