Title: Plugging fuel tank hydroforming holes
This session marked my first chance to use tank sealant in this build and a test to see how smelly it would be to use in my indoors workshop. I have a feeling that this Chemseal brand of tank sealant might have less off-gassing than other brands, since it seemed quite reasonable. In any case, the task at hand was to close up the two large holes in each of the inboard and outboard ribs that had been a result of the hydroforming process used by the factory. This mean installing large diameter (#6, 3/16") rivets while "wet" with tank sealant. I had to buy a larger rivet set for my air rivet gun, since this was also my first time working with this size of rivet. Unfortunately, my first attempt installing one of these #6-5 rivets resulted in a toppled over shop head, so after removing it I decided to try using my rivet cutter and reducing the shank length a little. All of the remaining rivets went in successfully on the first try. I think another trick to success was clamping each of the ribs to the worktable and turning the air pressure on my rivet gun to 90 psi. After all of the rivets had been wet-installed, I also encapsulated both sides of the rivet with another layer of tank sealant for extra measure. I suppose I probably only needed to cover the inside rivet head (the side I had chosen to put the shop head on) since the goal is only to prevent the fuel from escaping the interior, but it seemed prudent to do both sides. I did also get plenty of opportunities to confirm that Acetone works well enough to clean up the tank sealant while it is still wet. I had been concerned about needing to locate a local source of real M.E.K. (not the "M.E.K. substitute" that is commonly sold these days) for cleanup, but that now seems unnecessary. What's next? I have more Alodine arriving today, so hopefully I should be able to try treating the tank skins with the full-strength stuff successfully.


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