Fuel Tank Assembly

[mackd]

I know everyone talks about how much of a pain this is, but I wonder if anybody has some advice. I started trying to cleco my right fuel tank together today and things just weren't working out. Mostly I'm worried that in the process of pushing the ribs into place to get them clecoed, I've left some nasty scratches in my tank skin.

My rib flanges are all properly fluted and flanges are 90 degrees.

Any thoughts on easing the fitting process and avoiding the scratches? What do people do with scratched fuel tank skins, since they aren't primed?

Thanks,

David

 

[bullojm1]

David,
I had the same issue with my tanks. Putting everything together is a major pain. If I recall, I started at the nose and worked myself back, evenly on the top and bottom. Once you match drill everything, they seem to go together a little easier. Once you are knee deep in proseal, you won't remember this step being so bad at all.

As far as the scratches go, just sand them out with emery cloth and then a scotch brite pad. A local builder alodined all the internal parts of his tank, which I thought was a good idea, since you can't prime them. However, since your scratches are where the ribs are, all of that gets scuffed up and prosealed, so there's your corrosion protection for the areas where the alclad gets scuffed.

 

[FlyerJumper]

Pull the skin out of the cradle

Here's what we did on or -10 tanks: Pulled the skin out of the cradle, clecoed the first 3 holes at the nose of the ribs on the upper surface for all ribs, flipped the skin over (clecoes hanging off the edge of the table) and clecoed the first 3 holes at the nose on the lower surface. We then put it in the cradles for the rest. Much less of a hassle with 2 people as well.

Good Luck!

 

[AltonD]

Almost exactly what I did, except I stood the skins up and then cleco'd the ribs in . Stuck them in the cradle and worked my way toward the rear evenly on all ribs.