Exterior repair for fuel tank leak

[alcladrv]

At Oshkosh, I stopped by the "Click Bond" booth. In reading through their literature, I came across "Click Patch". It's described as "Self-Fixturing Patches for Wet Wing Repair". Some of the description includes:
- Repair wet wing aircraft without defueling
- Aluminum, stainless steel and other patch materials in diameters 1" through 5"
- Standard repair manual procedure for Boeing commercial aircraft
- Used for over 25 years in airlines and armed forces worldwide

Anybody have experience with this? It sure looks pretty attractive for leaky rivet repair.

Mike

[dhammer]

I used them for years on corporate type aircraft for a temp with something like a seeping rivet for a short period until permanent repairs could be made inside the tank. What you end up with after applying them is a round sealer spot that is the size of the patch that is ugly and not flush. In theory the sealer should be forced into the leak gap and you trim the external sealer off the paint but, with the kerosene we used it didn't work. At the next opportunity we always went into the wing and fixed it properly.

I feel it's like trying to repair a tire with a plug you stick in from the outside. It may hold for a while, but you really need to dismount it and patch the inside where the pressure comes from.

In the airline world where they paint airplanes with rollers - American Airlines - they don't give a rat's back end how the airplane looks any closer than a hundred feet or so. What they do care about is getting the airplane back in the air so it can earn it's keep and them not get violated during a ramp check for an excessive leak.

My suggestion is they are fine as a temp to get you home, but if you have a leak there are no shortcuts for a good repair. You didn't pound all those rivet's half a##ed. Don't fix fuel leaks that way either.

Just my very humble etc. etc.

Don