March 13, 2002 2.5 hours
Installed two more ribs and sealed the tooling hole and riveted the rib tip brace of the outboard rib. I tried a little different process tonight. I smeared the proseal for both ribs, then clecoed both ribs in place, stuck all the rivets in where there weren't clecos and then finally riveted the ribs in place. This didn't take long.
I spent more time in sealing the tooling hole than anything else. I ran into a problem, I assumed that I could take a 1/8 #6 rivet and slowly squeeze it to fill up the hole. Wrong.... The rivet bent over. So I had to stop and make a little small plate to cover it up. Of course this required drilling 4 holes, deburring, scoring both the plate and the rib and cleaning it up. Then I could finally apply the proseal and rivet the plate in place. Of course everything was, how do I say it, STICKY!!
March 15, 2002 1.5 hours
Two more ribs installed.
I finished the right tank today. This consisted of installing the
inboard rib, installing the fuel gauge sending unit, installing the vent line
and fittings, installing the fuel pickup and fittings, the baffle and the
"Z" brackets. Before closing the tank up, I went back and dabbed
a little proseal over all the shop heads. Chris came home this
afternoon so I had some help with getting this stuff done. Here's the
outboard bay. You can see the vent line has been installed at this point.
Here's the inboard bay with the fuel sender and the fuel pickup installed.
This was the last bay/rib to complete before installing the baffle and closing
up the tank. 
And finally, ready for the baffle. 
Couple of interesting things: The pop rivet gun broke just as we put the first blind rivet in the baffle. So I went running to the hardware store to grab one quick before the proseal started setting up. Also, I must be using way to much proseal as I will not have enough to do the other tank. I think this can be attributed to a couple of things: 1) doing a couple ribs at a time I always have a little left over and just using to much.
Nothing out of the ordinary as for as my setup on the fuel tanks. I'm using the old fashioned float sending units as I don't trust fuel gauges anyway, so why buy the expensive ones.
I'll wait a few days before testing the tank to let it cure. I'll order some more proseal Monday as well.
I stopped at lunch and picked up a couple pieces of tubing to make a U tube manometer to use in testing the seal of the tank. Of course, I couldn't wait to see how many leaks I had so I hooked the tubing up, added a little water to one tube and blew in the other. (You attach one piece of tubing to the fuel pickup fitting and the other to the vent line fitting. Hang one end high from a 2x4. Fill this tube with ~18 - 24 inches of water. Then blow air in the other tube, the pressure will move the water up in the tube. I'm not really sure how much you should move the water up the tube but once you clamp off the tube that you are blowing into, allow everything to stabilize for a couple minutes and mark where the water is in the other tube. If you don't have any leaks, the water will stay at the same point. ) I found what I didn't want to find. A leak at both ends where the baffle joins the end ribs. In hindsight, I realize that I didn't apply enough proseal between the ribs and baffle. The plans warn to spread a "thin" layer of proseal here and I evidently carried that warning to far.
The inboard end will be no big deal to correct. I'll take the access plate off (I've only used the cork gasket at this point) and seal the inside of the rib - baffle joint and this should take care of the problem. The out board end is a little tougher. The only access to the inside is through the fuel filler neck. I'm going to mix up a little proseal and come up with some sort of dowel rod or something that will hopefully allow me to smear a bead of proseal up against the outboard rib-baffle joint as well.
Came home tonight and mixed up a small batch of proseal. I used a piece of spar stiffener flattened to reach through the fuel filler neck and smeared some proseal along the outboard rib-baffle. Then I removed the access plate on the inboard rib and using a Popsicle stick and finally a finger in a glove to put proseal along the inboard rib to baffle joint. I probably should have waited a little while but I hooked the hoses back up and put pressure on the tank. It looked good the first 15 minutes. I'll go back down and check on things in a bit.
Tank seal looks good. I still haven't put any proseal around the access plate. There doesn't appear to be any leaks but just in case, I'll cover the gasket with proseal and I've seen a couple of places where builders have used hex head screws in the access plate so that it would be easier to remove later. I think I'll look for some of these and use them.
ONE TANK COMPLETE, ONE TO GO!
March 20, 2002
I've ordered some more proseal. I do not have enough to finish the other tank and I'm waiting to start until I have enough proseal to finish. I'll work on other stuff while waiting on the proseal.
March 24, 2002 ~1 hour on tank
I'm bouncing back and forth between the wings and tanks. Today most of the time was spend permanently installing the left leading edge today. It took me a couple of hours to get everything in place and rivet the ribs to the spar and then about an hour to squeeze the skin to spar.
I finished up by "roughing" up the ribs that go into the tank in
preparation of prosealing them into the tank. I used a nylon brush on the die
grinder instead of the stainless steel brush. I also made a clip to
hold the fitting that goes through the inboard rib and attaches to the flop
tube. The plans do not call for this but in playing with the flop tube, it
seemed that the movement of the flop tube could easily cause the fitting to work
loose. 
The extra shipment of Proseal arrived today so I started on the last tank
tonight. The lovely stuff ready to be mixed together. 
I installed 4 of the 5 interior ribs. I tried a little different approach
tonight with where I put the Proseal. On the other tank, I would smear the
Proseal on the skin itself and then insert the rib. Tonight, I smeared the
Proseal onto the flanges of the rib instead and then carefully slid them into
place on the tank skin. The Proseal sure goes a lot further this way than
placing it on the skin. You never know exactly where the edge of the rib
will be when placing the Proseal on the skin so you end up painting a wider path
of the stuff than necessary. The first tank didn't leak around any of the
ribs and I sure hope this method works as well. I'll update this page if I
see any problems with placing the Proseal directly on the rib. As a matter
of fact, that may be the preferred method that everyone else uses?
Installed the last two outboard ribs and started "dabbing" the rivet heads.
Installed the vent line, inboard rib and finished "dabbing" the rivet heads. One more session with the Proseal to install the baffle and the sealing process will be complete (if no leaks).
I installed all the plumbing connections inside the tank using fuel lube on
all fittings for sealant.
Here is the vent line with fuel lube sealant on the threads ready to be put
together.
The flop tube end ready to be assembled.
The inboard bay with all the "stuff".
A little closer view of the flop tube and vent assemble.
And
finally, the outboard bay with the vent line in place. (Boy, I sure was messy
with the proseal (-: )
I also had to cut a hole in the baffle for the float type sending unit as
I'm using the flop tube in this tank. You have to move it to the second
bay to get it out of the way of the flop tube.
I used the end access plate as a template for the holes.
Everything is ready, now to close up the tank by installing the baffle. I applied the proseal fairly heavy on the skin, just above the rivet line. The baffle will (or should) push the proseal ahead and leave a nice bead on the inside of the tank. I also made sure that I had heavily doped the inside edges of the two outside ribs as I had leaks there on the first tank.
Drop the baffle in place and begin riveting by installing the blind rivets in the most outer holes through the ribs and baffle.
I saw this on another web site and thought it was a great idea. After getting everything lined up and held with cleco's, I used some bar clamps and a couple straight pieces of 2 by's and gently squeezed the skin to the baffle. This should eliminate any bulges in the skin where the proseal might be more heavily applied. I then riveted the skin to the baffle, then the "Z" brackets to the baffle with blind rivets.
I don't know whether you can really see it in this picture or not but I stuck
the camera in the access hole and took a shot towards the baffle. It looks
like I got a really good bead of sealant all along the attach points. I
hope it looks this way throughout the length of the baffle.
The finished product!
Finally it was clean up time. The clean up is time consuming and always takes longer than you think that it should. I used MEK to clean up the rivet line on the skin and all the tools and clecos. Hope and pray for no leaks and I'll be finished with the proseal!
NO LEAKS! I installed the cover for the access plate, the fuel gauge sending unit and the tank drain fitting today. I used fuel lube on all of these. Next step was to test my work. Again, I attached a piece of tube to both the fuel pickup and to the vent line. Filled the larger one with about 24 inches of water and blew in the other to put pressure on the tank. I went an looked up how a manometer really works and I'm not using a manometer in the true sense of a manometer. I'm just using a tube with water to hold pressure against the tank. I move the water up about 2 feet and make a mark and hope that it holds constant. IT DID! NO LEAKS! Of course you always get the little scare when it leaks down a little around the fuel cap. I placed a rubber glove on the inside of the fuel cap and stopped that and the pressure stayed constant all night! NO LEAKS!
I didn't have the camera downstairs as I was closing up the tank but here are some after the fact pictures.
The inboard portion of the tank. You can see the fuel lube squished out
around the access plate. I placed a film of fuel lube on both sides of the
cork gasket. I also used the fuel lube on the threads of the screws.
These screws are not the ones that came with the kit. They are stainless
steel screws with an allen head instead of the standard phillips head.
I've read/been told to use these as there is not enough room later on use a
phillips head screw driver if you need to take the access plate off.
Here is the fuel gauge sending unit located in the second bay. This is
through the baffle.
A couple of pictures of the tank in place on the spar. The fit where the
tank meets the leading edge looks great! I haven't permanently attached
the tank yet as I realized that I need to install the wire for the fuel gauge
sending unit first. I've got to get some wire before doing this.
I'm
scanning the web and reading the AeroElectric Connection to find out what wire I
need and how to connect before assembling the tank to the spar. I guess
that's the educational piece (:- .
Just as a follow up, I did get the tank mounted the first couple weeks of April. (4-25-02)
I replaced the Phillip's head screws that hold the access plate with stainless steel screws that have Allen head's on the right tank. When re-installing, I covered the cork gasket and the screws with fuel lube to help seal the tanks. I put the tank back under pressure and all looks good. I'm going to officially call the tanks complete.