37-07 Fuel Neck and Sealant

[Gandalf]

I have my fuel tank and air vent in on a temporary basis. Now I am working on the fuel neck. Everything looks good except a very large gap between the flat flange on the fuel neck and the curved fuselage skin. It is my understanding that the sealant is used to close this large gap, correct?

Edit: Re-reading the instructions, I am to "bend the flange" to match the aircraft skin. I guess I will try with a vise and vise grips unless someone else can chime in with what they used.

Jeff

[12vaitor]

You can bend the flat flange to match the curve of the skin. The fit was close enough to use a gasket to make removal easier than using a lot of sealant on the flange/skin surface. I did run a small bead of sealant around the recess created by the pipe-skin contact area (inside the pipe flange).

John Salak
RV-12 N896HS

[rv9builder]

That looks nice, John! How did you get the pipe to be so shiny?

Thanks,

[Gandalf]

Originally Posted by 12vaitor

You can bend the flat flange to match the curve of the skin. The fit was close enough to use a gasket to make removal easier than using a lot of sealant on the flange/skin surface. I did run a small bead of sealant around the recess created by the pipe-skin contact area (inside the pipe flange).

John Salak
RV-12 N896HS

Thanks for the ideas and photo!

Jeff

[12vaitor]

Originally Posted by rv9builder

That looks nice, John! How did you get the pipe to be so shiny?

Thanks,

Polished on a buffing wheel with red rouge to a mirror finish and then powder coated with gloss clear.

John Salak
RV-12 N896HS

[DHeal]

I slightly bent the flange to approximate the curvature of the skin. I placed a piece of Saran Wrap (or equivalent release agent) on the inside of the skin at the flange/skin interface. Then I loosely installed the flange using a good bead of seml-flexible/fuel-tolerant sealant on the flange face. Don't fully tighten the screws until the sealant has cured and the Saran Wrap has been removed. This has worked well for me. Whatever you do, do not permanently adhere the flange to the skin -- one day you may have to separate the two.

[Gandalf]

Originally Posted by DHeal

I slightly bent the flange to approximate the curvature of the skin. I placed a piece of Saran Wrap (or equivalent release agent) on the inside of the skin at the flange/skin interface. Then I loosely installed the flange using a good bead of seml-flexible/fuel-tolerant sealant on the flange face. Don't fully tighten the screws until the sealant has cured and the Saran Wrap has been removed. This has worked well for me.

Thanks for the advice.

Looking forward to installing the canopy next.

Jeff

[rv9builder]

Originally Posted by 12vaitor

Polished on a buffing wheel with red rouge to a mirror finish and then powder coated with gloss clear.

Thanks, John!