Installing j stiffeners in fuel tanks before inner ribs?

[RVFan671]

Anyone done it and can report if it was painful to go out of sequence? I just installed j channel after ribs, per plans, and ended up with rivets I'll need to drill out on the j channel.

Issue i see with doing j stiffener first is needing to twist ribs sideways upon install and possibly creating a proseal mess. Figured I'd see if anyone has gone out of order and can say "bad idea" or "worked out great".

 

[Richard Connell]

“Bad idea”
Best to follow the plans.
Interior ribs first. Starting from the inboard end moving outboard.
Then the J stiffener. Then the outboard ribs.
I can’t imagine how big a mess you’ll make trying to slide/twist the ribs down the stiffener.

 

[Walt D]

Well, I thought about doing the same thing. But I agree, it seems like a potential disaster, even if you could somehow get the ribs in given the canted openings in the ribs for the stiffeners. There would be proseal all over the place, and you'd likely have even more leaks.