Sealing tanks

Joe Parish · Post by **Joe Parish** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:43 am

I am about to start sealing my tanks and read a thread about not allowing a possible path to the rivets. On the interior ribs I was not planning on sealing up towards the leading edge. I was just going to go passed the last rivet by an inch or so. It sounds like I should seal every rib all the way around and fill in the gaps in the fingers at the leading edge of each rib to attempt to eliminate any possible pathway for the fuel. Wondering what others did? I have also clecoed some of the ribs in the skin after dimpling everything and noticed a small gap between the skin and rib. I am wondering if that will be closed up once I shoot the rivets? Some have more of a gap then others. It seems to even vary from the bottom and top of the same rib. I was able to slide a .020 shim in between some of the ribs and the skin. I used tank dimple dies on the skin and ribs. I did do the skins on the drdt-2 and did some of the ribs with the pnuematic squeezer. Any thoughts?

Post by **Spike** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:04 am

I ran a bead of sealant around the rivet holes on the edges of the stiffners, etc. I would say don't do it around the forward ends of the ribs because the fit is so tight there that you dont want the extra sealant getting in the way.

I'd be afraid that the sealant wouldn't allow you to get those ribs sitting in the leading edge correctly.

Spike

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:06 pm

I pretty well documented how I did it, Joe, with lots of pictures and discussion. You can check it out in my log if you like: www.BrucesRV7A.com

Joe Parish · Post by **Joe Parish** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:53 pm

Thanks Bruce a few of your pics answered a few questions. I now need to find out if the gaps I am seeing between the rib and skin is "normal" I do not remember having that big of a gap in any previous parts? I have been reading up on sealing the tanks and was just seeing a lot of different methods and theories.