15 Nov 2025 - 4 hours
Slow but steady progress on the tanks. I got the outboard ribs installed. I started by attaching the doubler plate at the nose of the outboard rib. Just a smooth coating of sealant and then squeezing the rivets and it was done.
Here is a shot after I had the rib clecoed into place. Riveting then went really smoothly as these are all easily set with the squeezer, no gun and bucking bar required.
Moving onto the other tank, I stopped to take a picture of how I got the sealant on the inside of the rib only. I mixed the sealant on a full sheet of paper, then just rolled that paper into a cone shape and taped the seam. I cut off just a tiny bit of the tip to create a spout and then just rolled the end of the paper cone down to force the sealant out. I mixed up 20 grams in each funnel and that was more than enough to do one rib.
After setting all the rivets and doing an immense amount of cleanup, here is the finished product.
And another shot of the inside of the second tank.
