Wow what a task! I really didn't expect this to take me roughly 10 hours to do one rear baffle! My process was slightly different than what the plans call for but I wanted to ensure a solid seal that would not yeild any of those pesky weaping / leaky rivets down the road. I plan on having the plane painted prior to the first flight so now is the best time to make sure all of those issues are prevented. Here is a decription of how I sealed the rear baffle. Still only time will tell if my approach worked.
- Thinned 60 grams of mixed proseal with 8 grams of toluene and used this mixture to ""paint"" all of the contact surfaces of the rear baffle.
- Using unthinned Proseal, I ran a thick bead of sealant along the rivet line of the tank skin and each rib. I added a pretty decent sized gob in the outer corners where the outter ribs, skin & baffle meet. I used the ""spit method"" smooth the gob to form a nice fillet between the skin & rib(s), thus leaving the rear baffel to do the rest of the corner fillet forming when inserted.
- I did NOT just drop the baffle in place as the plans discribe, rather I did it at an angle. I got the bottom flange in place & line up, keeping the top of the baffle out of the baffle bed. I had Kim come out & hold the upper tank skin away from the baffle while we layed it in place. Finally, i cleco every hole I had great ""squeeze out"" on the inter beads look awesome.
- Added a bead of proseal to the z-brackets & clecoed in place after triple checking their placement & orintation...
- Finally, I riveted everything in place, sealing each rivet as I went, cleaned up the excess proseal & trial fit the tank. It fit Perfectly!!!!! I'll have to come back later in week & encapsulate the shop heads as I was completely warn out.
I'll be taking this next friday off work to complete the right tank
