19 Jul 2025 - 4 hours

I had the tank skins clecoed to the baffles, spars, and leading edge joining plate and the fit looks really good. These skins are big so it was a bit of a wrestling match to get these on so it was a little frustrating when the next step is to take them off again.

So took them off and then removed the blue vinyl from the inside of the skins. Then I put the tank ribs on the baffles and match drilled them to the baffles. I used the 12" long #30 to get at the holes. The most outboard tank rib was pretty finicky to get at because it was so close to the leading edge.

Next, I clecoed the tank skins to the ribs and baffles. This is pretty tough to do as the fit is very precise around the ribs and the skins are pretty thick so bending them around the ribs and getting the holes lined up isn't trivial. I also ran out of clecos because I left the tank stiffeners installed on the skins which used up like 50 clecos that I needed... Anyway, I got the skins clecoed on and then unbolted the left tank from the spar so I could match drill the baffles and ribs to the skin.

I got all the open holes on the left tank drilled but didn't do the cleco shuffle on it to get the rest or any on the right tank. That will be for next time!