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when to seal firewall?

Desert Rat

Well Known Member
Hey guys-

When you all riveted up the fuselage just prior to flipping the canoe, when did you seal the firewall?

I'm planning to use piano hinge on the vertical sides of the lower cowl, and I'd like to have it set up so that I could shoot the rivets wet, but the plans are pretty sparse on how far up they should go and I don't have the finish kit yet to eyeball where the cowl seam actually falls.

I see a lot of builder logs where people have evidently fire sealed the firewall and just clecoed it until later when they are fitting the cowl. any problems with clecos pulling that seam tight enough if you go that route?
 
Fire seal

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I see a lot of builder logs where people have evidently fire sealed the firewall and just clecoed it until later when they are fitting the cowl. any problems with clecos pulling that seam tight enough if you go that route?

That's what I did for that exact reason. I added a 4-40 nut to each cleko for extra tension.
 
I did the same thing (sealed it while holding it together with clecos). Just this past weekend finally riveted the cowl hinges to the firewall and everything fits nicely.
 
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