Back story; I was working on the anti-hangup guides for my right tank today. I wasn't too fond of putting the inboard guide right across the middle of the access hole, so I decided to locate it further aft and attach it directly to the rib instead of through the doubler. After evaluating the travel of the weight at the end of the flop tube, I ended up positioning the guide such that it angled forward at the top of the tank.
Unfortunately, after drilling the holes in the rib, I realized that the top end of the guide was going to interfere with the doubler. After thinking through the problem, I convinced myself that the best option was to put a notch in the doubler to clear the end of the hangup guide. I didn't feel that this would compromise anything structurally.
But now that it's later and I'm not in the heat of the how-do-I-deal-with-this-stupid-thing-I-did moment, I'm questioning this decision. Which if of course why I'm posting here.
Here are photos of the setup and the notch:
Minimum edge distance between the screw hole and the notch is a hair under 1/8".
My analysis is that with proper smoothing of the notch, there isn't much of a chance of a crack developing here. Seems like a low-stress area. But now that I'm looking back at this, I feel like I need a sanity check.
Worst case, moving the thing wouldn't be much of a big deal. There'd be an extra hole in the rib, but that's easily plugged with a rivet and sealant. And I'd have to order a new doubler, which looks like a $10 part from Van's.
So...what say you?
Tank access cover doubler...bad idea to notch the edge?
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