1/1-9/2008 - 7.5 Hours
Received another quart of sealant from Vans. Also received the Parker Rolo Flare tool to flare the vent tubing.

Finished off the ribs on the left tank by sealing/riveting the inboard and outboard ribs. (no pics)

Cut the holes for the fuel senders in the 2nd most inboard bay of each tank baffle. Mounted the sender and riveted.

Ran the fuel tank vent lines in both tanks

Fabricated the flop tube anti-hangup strips and riveted

Safety wired the flop tubes


1/12/2008 - 2 Hours
Prepped the tanks for sealing of the baffle. Blew out the tanks with compressed air and vacuumed them too to get all the little metal shavings off of the sealant of the ribs. Did a few other odds and ends.

1/13/2008 - 6 Hours
1st off... sealed the flop tube in and then the vent line after torquing (thanks to Chad again.. I borrowed his crows feet for the torque wrench). Next was to seal the baffle onto the rear of the right tank. I was expecting this to be about a 2 to 3 hour job... started at 2:30 PM and walked back into the house from the garage at 9 PM! Got it done though. Still need to do the left tank yet and then seal both access hole covers.

Here's a pic of the sealant on the baffles and then cleco's in every hole. Not sure why the directions call for this... it says something about 'pillowing' between the rivets. I would presume from too much sealant but mine looked perfectly fine. Lot of rivets ... I kept thinking the whole time that it is going to take quite a while to clean all those damn things!

Here it is.. completed:


1/16/2008 - .75 Hours
Sealed the access panel onto the right wing. The plans call for just putting the gasket it and then screwing it on. Some people leave the gasket off and then seal everything. I did a modified approach... put the gasket on, sealed around each of the screws then the perimeter of the gasket/panel. If I need to take it off in the future then it should be rather simple to clean up.


1/18/2008 - 5.5 Hours
Took half the day off of work to complete the left tank. It's all done now. Access panel has been sealed up as well. No pics as there really isn't anything new to show versus the other tank. Thank the good lord it is done!!!

1/20/2008 - 6 Hours
Long day in the shop! Spent a good 8 hours, the first two were cleaning up from the tank sealing and then I decided to document most of the tools necessary for construction. The 6 hours actually logged to the project involved deblueing and deburring all of the wing skins. Some 2160 holes or so, deburred on both sides for a grand total of 4320+ holes deburred in 6 hours including breaking all skin edges. Glad that's done but on the other hand anything is better than tank sealing! No pics.

1/21/2008 - 1 Hour
Deburred the right wing skeleton (ribs and spar).

1/22/2008 - 1 Hour
 Deburred the left wing skeleton (ribs and spar).

1/23/2008 - 2.75 Hours
Started dimpling the wing skins. Got the 4 shorter panels done. On the 4 longer panels, I did all the holes that I could access via the pneumatic squeezer. Will pound the remaining dimples tomorrow night in the C-Frame.

1/24/2008 - 1.75 Hours
Finished dimpling of the wing skins. All are complete now. Also dimpled all of the ribs and rear spars. Messed up one hole though. The pneumatic squeezer is a great tool but you have to be careful. On very rare occasions, I will let my thumb do a double tap on the trigger. I did that to the left rear spar in the corner and it created 1 big hole. I have a fix devised though so no worries.

1/26/2008 - 2 Hours
Countersunk 2/3rds of the holes in the spars where the tanks, skins and leading edge will be riveted to.

1/27/2008 - 5 Hours
Finished off the spar holes. Primed all countersunk spar holes. Drilled/Deburred/Dimpled the W423 Joint plate between the LE and the Tanks. Riveted on the platenuts too. Leak tested the right tank and found leaks on 3 of the screws to the acces plate. Sealed them. Leak tested the left tank as well... no leaks!! Pic coming soon.



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