Jamie

Jamie

Well Known Member
Hey All:

I'm trying to fix a tank leak and I understand that there are some flush head, closed end 3/32 pop rivets floating around. The leak is on a bottom rivet so I don't care if I have a pop rivet there. Any suggestions? Searching the forums didn't return anything useful.

Thanks,
Jamie
 
If you can't find them, you can use any pulled rivet that retains the broken mandrel. Pro-seal will seal them just fine. The bi-plane I'm building calls for standard "Avex" rivets in the fuel tanks. Just be generous with the pro-seal. Cherry "Q" rivets are considered "self-plugging" and are very good for this application.
 
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Jamie said:
Hey All:

I'm trying to fix a tank leak and I understand that there are some flush head, closed end 3/32 pop rivets floating around. The leak is on a bottom rivet so I don't care if I have a pop rivet there. Any suggestions? Searching the forums didn't return anything useful.

Thanks,
Jamie
Click to expand...
Jamie,
Here's what I planned to do to address one weeping rivet I had but didn't have to go there because it fixed itself with a stategic dab of proseal shoved under the head of the offending rivet about a year ago and has not weeped since. In case that simple fix did not work, I bought a few Cherry CR9162-4-1 (flush) rivets from Bon-Aero. My plan was to drill out the offending rivet, ream the hole to .1250 and slightly deepen the dimpled countersink using a machine countersink just enough to accept the slightly larger head of the Cherry rivet. I tested my theory on scrap material and it seemed to work just fine but I must stress that I never had to put my theory to a practical test...yet I would have if a Plan B proved necessary. See my comments at the time here.
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=7602&page=3
 
I recently pulled apart the Fuel tank for a 1999 -6 and found that all the proseal beads on the inside of the tank were severely cracked. What vintige are the tanks that are leaking for you guys? I'm wondering if Van's didn't have a bad batch of sealant. That stuff should have been good for 20+ years.
 
Weeping Rivet

As Mel said: Any pop rivet that retains the mandrel will work.

Fixed one on my tank with pro-seal and a MK-319 countersunk rivet that was included in the kit. The MK-319 is just a tad larger in diameter than 3/32nds. If I remember, it takes a 7/64 bit to ream the hole out to where it fits.

Make sure the fuel level is below the offending rivet. After you drill the rivet out, rough the surface of the dimple AND the rivet well with scotchbrite then clean the area AND the rivet thoroughly with naptha or equivelent. Goop up the MK-319 with pro-seal and pop that dude in. Let it cure a couple of days and never worry about it again.
 
Thanks, Guys.

I have some of the MK-319s laying around so I'll give that a try.

Jamie
 
Pop and proseal

I had a leaking rivet on the bottom of a factory tank.

I gingerly drilled the head off and pushed the remains of the rivet very gently in to the tank where I could feel it restrained by the proseal.
I then emptied about 1ml of proseal into the tank with a hyperdermic. - I had one lying around.

Then covered the skin and a pop rivet (Left over from the kit) with proseal and insert the pop rivet.

Totally sealed.

Beats Vans suggestion of opening the tank, fixing the rivet and then trying to seal the big hole you made to fix the rivet.

Pete.
PS. Can't guarantee it will work in the Northern Hemisphere.
P
 
A suggestion made many years on the RV-list was to drill the hole out to #30, which is the size of the closed end rivets that are used to attach the tank baffle to the ribs. Then, if you dimpled your holes originally, do a little countersinking to provide a bigger relief.

Pop rivet one of the closed end rivets into the hole (using proseal under the head, of course).

Once the proseal cures, use a file to file the head of the rivet flush, and use a little filler if necessary to fill any small voids around the rivet head.
 
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