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Fuel tank *final* install?

FlyGuy65

Well Known Member
When do you bolt the fuel tanks on the wing for the "last" time?

I'm storing my wings in a cradle while awaiting the fuselage kit. On one hand, I can easily install all of the screws and torque all of the bolts now. However, some threads talk about removing the fuel tanks to make it easier to install the wing bolts, so it wouldn't be worth the time to do anything other than only putting in half the bolts, and then only hand tight.

Thanks!
 
I let the tanks sit on a bench with ~5 gallons of 100LL for a few months, rotating them so gas sits on all internal faces for a few weeks. This is to find those weeping rivets that only show up with gas and time.

Once done, the fuel is sloshed around the tank then drained via a simple inline filter. This helps remove leftover trash in the tank from the proseal process.

After this, the tanks go on the wings for the last time. Wings go on the plane with the tanks attached. Some attach the tanks after the wings are installed, but I find doing all the tank bolts with wing upside down on a bench an easier approach.

Carl
 
I final installed the fuel tanks way back when the wings were still hanging on the jig. Did the final torque of the z attach brackets at that time too. I haven't pulled the tanks off since.

Just installed the wings this past weekend and the fuel tanks remained installed. Not sure why they would need to be removed in order to install the wing attached bolts? So, my answer would be do the final install of your fuel tanks now.

Ryan
 
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