W

Wills_9A

Active Member
Hi all, I am starting on my fuel tanks and have a question about the proseal expiration date. I have a nearly full can(s) of proseal that I would love to use on my tanks but they both say expires after 04/05. Normally I would not care, but I REALLY do not want to mess up these tanks and have to do them over...is this stuff ok to use in such an important piece. By the way, I would plan on starting to proseal probably around mid-may and hope to be finished with the tanks by early June.
 
Proseal can last a long time. The date of manufacture of the proseal I bought from Van's is April 2000. The label lists a shelf life of 9 months stored at a temperature below 80. By that reckoning, my supply should have been toast years ago. The fact is, I use (whats left of) it to this day and have not seen any degradation in performance whatsoever. But from the day it arrived I have always stored it in a very cool location which is a key to its longevity. I would say buy your proseal and store it in the refrigerator when not in use. Cold storage happens to be SOP with a well known aircraft manufacturer I used to work for. Our sealer was stored in freezers set to 60 below zero but because the proseal was already activated or "premixed", it did have a limited shelf life. Unmixed proseal parts A and B, if kept cold should last a long time indeed.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"
 
I just used some Pro-seal from Van's that I recieved back in 1996. Put it around the bottom of my windscreen last month.

Where up to date Pro-Seal will set up overnight, if not soooner, this "old" stuff takes about a week.

Wouldn't use nine year old material for tanks, but I doubt I'd worry about a month or so. Over the years, I've used differently aged can's for various reasons, and have always found that the age seems in proportion to setting up time.
 
How about left over Proseal? I bought the tube for the caulking gun from Vans to do my rudder and I know I'll have plenty left. Is there a way to save it till I get to the elevators or am I just doomed to throw it away?
 
Don't mix it all...

jlfernan said:
How about left over Proseal? I bought the tube for the caulking gun from Vans to do my rudder and I know I'll have plenty left. Is there a way to save it till I get to the elevators or am I just doomed to throw it away?
Click to expand...
Probably too late for you, but... I take the tube apart, squeeze out only what I need (in the required 10:1 ratio) and then keep the rest. I rubber band or tape small plastic bags over the nozzles so it doesn't ooze out, stick it back in the foil bag it came it, tape it up good and airtight and then chuck it in the fridge.
 
I unscrewed the plunger part from the main tube, squirted the black stuff into one airtight container, the white stuff in another. Now I just mix up what I need for the rudder and elevator parts.

Mike
 
renewal date exists for a reason

By contrast to the other folks who had good luck with expired product, I received a 1 oz. pack of Proseal to use on my rudder. I received it early this year and it expired in fall of last year. It was impossible to get the black agent out of the syringe. I had to cut the top off. Then, of course, it was impossible to mix. I elected to throw it away rather than ruin my hard work.

Antony
 
aparchment said:
By contrast to the other folks who had good luck with expired product, I received a 1 oz. pack of Proseal to use on my rudder. I received it early this year and it expired in fall of last year. It was impossible to get the black agent out of the syringe. I had to cut the top off. Then, of course, it was impossible to mix. I elected to throw it away rather than ruin my hard work.

Antony
Click to expand...

I used my 1oz proseal a couple of weeks after I recieved it and it was darn near impossible to get out of the syringe too. I wish I'd though about cutting the syringe instead of wasting 20 minutes trying to squeeze it out. DOH!
 
MTBehnke said:
I unscrewed the plunger part from the main tube, squirted the black stuff into one airtight container, the white stuff in another. Now I just mix up what I need for the rudder and elevator parts.
Click to expand...

I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner. I have two tubes left over from my tanks and want to use them on small jobs. Putting the white/black in separate containers is a great idea.
 
Time to revive an old thread...

I found myself in much the same situation... sealant nearing expiration. I bought it at the end of '05, thinking I would be sealing tanks soon. We moved and the project got put on hold for a few months. I am now ready to seal the tanks, and I dug out my unopened can of sealant to find it has an exiration of 08/06. The problem is, I left it in a box in the garage and we've has some HOT weather here recently (in the 100s).

What do you think? Has the temps rendered it ineffective? Is it worth using or should I drop $40 on new sealant?
 
Brad (RV7Factory).

I'm looking forward to what the group says.
My gut says - ok to use on trailing edges, but I wouldn't risk it on the tanks.
$40 for new stuff probably isn't worth the extra resealling & cleaning up hassle.....

Lorin D
9A Wings (just need a little more goop to finish the tanks...)
 
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