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Is this proseal job acceptable?

jwilbur

Well Known Member
I'm beyond the point of trying to make this look good. I'm now just trying to make it seal and have some measure of smoothness to it to prevent blobs from breaking off and plugging fuel lines.

So. My question is this. I don't have a good feel for how it should look. Does this look acceptable to you? My build log has a description of how I'm doing things. And here's a couple of pictures of the inside of a couple of stiffeners. What do you all think?

IMG-20120318-00122-1024x768.jpg


IMG-20120318-00123-1024x768.jpg
 
Looks like a little overkill to me. I only prosealed the rivets on the stiffeners. There should be no reason to seal the inside edges of the stiffeners. I know more proseal seems like better sealing but I would do a lot less, however I did glob a bunch on the corners of the inboard and outboard exposed ribs. I have 180 hours on my RV-10 slowbuild and have no sign of leaks. Personal opinion though.
 
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Looks good

It's hard to make a pro seal job look good.
Sealing the rivets with a generous amount of pro seal just like you have done is probably your best bet to keep the tanks from weeping fuel.
The extra around the stiffeners is probably not necessary but is one place I did not try to save weight and money and applied sealer just like you have done. (2 airplanes, no leaks).
You are overly concerned about proseal clogging you fuel lines. If a small piece or 2 of pro seal did come off, it would be trapped in your fuel filter not clog
you fuel line.
Most people hate pro seal but it is amazingly good stuff usable for all kinds of things.
 
I sealed around ALL edges/joints of ever single piece, dipped every rivet, and sealed shop heads. Then went over all of that with PR-1005 sealant. You not only prevent fuel from reaching the rivet between layers, you add alot of strength. There is flexing during turbulence/rough landings that may loosen rivets over time...possibly the reason why some have paint blisters/leaks. If you go down in small brush or the tops of trees at least you have all of the joint strength possible to prevent rupturing. Yours is looking good! You might use a gloved finger to wipe down the squeezed out sealant as it does not have to be built up much to seal. Remember to scotchbrite and MEK any alum where sealant is going to be including where shop heads are formed. Do not clean off outside surface with soppy MEK soaked rag as this dilutes/removes sealant at csk rivet head. Take off the excess then scochbrite/sand it off before paint. Nobody has looked at my proseal job and probably never will. I used almost 1 quart per tank. Your finger screens will catch any proseal.
 
Proseal

I would say your proseal workmanship is acceptable. There is a lot of archived threads on proseal techniques that you should read through, here's one of the best:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=7602&highlight=proseal
Rick also posted a workmanship standard reprinted from the manufacturer's data which I can't find at the moment, but have a look for it, it has diagrams of acceptable techniques.
I couldn't justify buying a Semco gun to apply proseal, but I think if I did I would have loved the tool. In its absence I made a "poor man's Semco gun" using some large syringes I bought at the local farm/feed store, and some pieces of 3/8" aluminum tubing (the 3003 stuff supplied with the kit). I made a number of curved nozzles and shaped the nozzle ends to look like some of the Semco nozzles on their website. Worked very well and I recommend that you experiment with this type of application.
I too used almost a quart of proseal per tank. Every joint was prosealed as well as every rivet shop head and a fillet on both sides of each joint. This was taken from the manufacturer's workmanship manual.
 
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