Today was a busy day! Even though I’m logging all the time today as on the fuel tanks, I did spend just a couple minutes on the leading edge.
First thing, I deburred and dimpled the inboard leading edge rib, then fit it back in place on the leading edge, this time WITH the joint plate.
Looking good.
Oh, while I was in autozone today, I grabbed a tubing bender and mini tubing cutter.
These should work.
After much reading, deliberating, gnashing of teeth, and hand wringing, I decided to bite the bullet and add a fuel return line.
Not very many fuel injection systems require it, and if I got with the ECI injection (which is supposedly very nice), they say you can just add a bulkhead fitting to the inboard bay, but I think I’m going to run a -6 line to the second bay.
As of a week ago, I had decided I was not going to add any injection system that required return lines, so we’ll see how I feel in another week.
Anyway, I was milling about the parts under my workbench when I came accross the standard rigid pickup tube that Van’s provides. Since I’m using flop tubes, this is scrap, so I held it up against the tank, and figured out it would just make it over to the second bay. Wuhoo!
I guess with the normal pickup, they crimp the end and you make saw cuts in the side of the tube as the actual pickup.
First, let’s get this thing cut in half.
Not bad. Needs deburring, though.
Then, let’s uncrimp the other side so the thing will fit into the cutter (I want a fresh cut on both ends).
Yikes.
Of course, I made a fresh cut on this end too, then deburred both sides, and promptly put the tubes away before taking any more pictures. Sorry.
On to some tank ribs.
After the usual cleaning and preparations, I buttered up rib #5 and clecoed it in place. Here are some undriven rivets with tape on the heads, ready to be set.
Ready for riveting.
I went light on the pictures today, sorry. Here’s rib #5 and #6.
I still don't like the proseal on the outside of the skins, but I'm trying not to have any leaks. I hope the razor blade trick works.
Then, I repeated the whole process for rib #3.
...and my trusty rivet gun.
A picture of the top side.
Nice, except for the very last rivet I shot, which is on the lower right corner. Ding city.
Starting from the (invisible) rib all the way to the left, I did ribs 2 and 5 today.
Still need some rivet encapsulation, but overall, a really good day. 34 rivets times 2, none drilled out.
Oh, and 3 hours. (It really only took me one hour per rib, but I was messing around with the leading edge and the fuel tube stuff.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 