Brief Description: washed right tank parts and backriveted stiffeners
Skyking is in town for some training – so we washed all of the right tank hardware, rivets, ribs and skin with MEK in preparation for riveting. We were also able to get the trap door riveted to the outboard rib of the first fuel bay. As an aside, per the Van’s builder support, only one trap door is needed for the inverted fuel tank – which is riveted to the first outboard bay – to keep fuel in the bay with the flop tube. Initially, I thought that all outboard ribs would get a trap door – but that is not needed. Also, riveted a scrap piece of aluminum over the hole in the outboard rib of the first fuel bay to also keep fuel inboard.
Then we popped the top on the tank sealant and back-riveted the right tank stiffeners in. It was a messy job, but the results look good. Not too many pictures as we were covered in the tank sealant. We ended up taking the slow road on the back riveting – by clecoing the stiffeners in the tank sealant and then placing the rivets and back-riveting, one stiffener at a time. It took longer – and that was my judgment call – but on the bright side – the rivets are really well sealed!
