Bill Boyd
Well Known Member
I have under-seat fuel filters in the RV-10 with associated compression fittings. On the seat pan floor today during my conditional inspection I noticed a sticky puddle of varnish/residue from what must have been a very slow seepage from one end of the filter. The plane has often had a gasoline smell inside when sitting with doors closed and it's now worse after opening up the seat pans and airing this space out. I want to clean this residue out well enough that the smell doesn't return, but it has seeped under fay surfaces in the belly where stiffeners, spar web and bulkheads attach. The inevitable fuel spill from loosening and removing the filters for service has wetted and carried the residue still further into the recesses of the space beyond where it was forming a small stain before. I've wiped and blotted up as much as I can access with a rag over my fingertips. I can't get it all that way, though.
Wondering if there's an old-timer's gouge for getting gasoline residue out of closed compartments like this without damaging paint or otherwise making maters worse.
A tiny seep like this was and its associated odor doesn't really bother me - smells like my first car and just about every boat I've ever been around, but the wife is sensitive to the smell of gasoline on a whole different level - it can spoil the enjoyment of a cross-country for her from the minute she boards. To make matters worse, it's mostly mogas - which we all know smells awfully worse than 100 LL.
Thanks for any cleaning agent/technique hints.
Wondering if there's an old-timer's gouge for getting gasoline residue out of closed compartments like this without damaging paint or otherwise making maters worse.
A tiny seep like this was and its associated odor doesn't really bother me - smells like my first car and just about every boat I've ever been around, but the wife is sensitive to the smell of gasoline on a whole different level - it can spoil the enjoyment of a cross-country for her from the minute she boards. To make matters worse, it's mostly mogas - which we all know smells awfully worse than 100 LL.
Thanks for any cleaning agent/technique hints.