Day 9

These fuel tanks are no joke. Today we got everything but the last tank skin scuffed and ready to go. We got one of the main tanks assembled and Cleco’ed so that we could clear drill, disassemble and de-bur all the holes. It takes quite a bit of work to get the skin to wrap over the tank structure without warping the material. We started by clecoing the bottom first, and then on the other side started at one end and slowly worked it on, sort of like a zipper. It’s a good practice run though for when we go to use the sealant.

There are a lot of pieces to these tanks. We had hoped to be finished with all the tanks today. We know that the extra time we take to make sure everything is properly prepared though will greatly lessen the possibility of leaks and improve the longevity of the tanks.

Bit with a few more hours tomorrow we’ll have the last tank skins scuffed and then be able to cleco it together and clear drill the holes. Then the tanks will be ready for sealing.