I did it today
My airplane has been flying for about 9 years and I have had individual tanks off three times, the last time being this afternoon. It's only about a 15 minute job if the tank and/or screws are not painted in place. Against my instructions, my painter did paint everything in place, but that was only a problem for the first tank removal. My advice is to plan on removing them, although I am sure there are people that haven't had to.
I originally installed the access plates with the supplied cork gasket and Fuel Lube, which was being highly touted at the time. I'm not a big Fuel Lube fan, having had to replace that whole mess at around a year and a half. The Fuel Lube turned into a crispy, ineffective, white substance.
The second attempt was with Aircraft Spruce's version of a Pro-seal type sealer. I installed the plates with the sealer and no gasket and squirted a little of the sealer into the screw holes and tightened the screws. I have read recently on this forum that that is not a good way to seal the screw holes.
For the last 7 or 8 years I haven't had any more problems, until this weekend. I hadn't flown for about three weeks, because of ear problems, and when I went to the airport on Saturday the right tank, which I left full to the top, didn't have enough fuel in it for any to come out the quick drain.
I took the tank off this afternoon and surprisingly, since I lost 19 gallons in three weeks, there is no obvious source for the leak, although there are lots of blue stains. The tanks have never had anything in them except av-gas until today, when I put in a couple of gallons of high octane car gas to try to see the leak. No leak apparent. I left for a couple of hours and came back. Not a single drop has leaked onto the floor. I'll go out again tomorrow.
If I can't get anything to happen I think I'll install some o-ring screws on the plate. The most likely place or at least where the biggest mess is, is the two lower mounting screws. I know they are under the greatest pressure, but jeez, it's not by much.
Looks like it has been leaking for a while. I probably should have noticed before, but between black paint and black asphalt hangar floor, I didn't.
An odd thing. Pretty much everywhere there is a blue stain, the original sealer (Philippine Quick Build) is very gooey, just a little more viscous than peanut butter. I had to keep wiping it off my fingers after trying to clean up a little with alcohol. It doesn't seem like fuel should soften this sealer!
Oh, and whatever I do to this tank I'll be ready to do to the other. I find they aren't in perfect synchronization but it will happen over there to sooner or later.