Section 18 Fuel Tank Repair

RV14 Build September & October   

Fuel Tank

Just to recap, I dropped the wing and damaged the fuel tank and is caused a leak.

Luckily for me the tank was just repaired and the repair patch was right above this, so i drilled it out so i could remove sealant on the inside to reseal. This allowed me to inspect for damage as well and I found what looks like 2 tears in the metal down in that same corner.

I decided I am going to replace the part and possible the aft inboard tank rib as well. First things first, time to drill out the parts, CARFEULLY so I dont mess up the skin.

After drilling out the parts and getting a much better look at the support bracket It doesn't look town afterall and that was surface scratching possible from the plastic scraper I used to dig out the sealant. The skin in the corner where that rivet I drilled out was however was cracked in the dimple so I'm going to drill that up a size and put in an oops rivet.

Primed the new brace, only on the side outside of the tank.

New brace is riveting pro-sealed in and about to get riveted. I didn't need to use the oops rivets after all. But now I have them for the future if needed.

Made sure to tighten the vent line and added pro-seal around the fitting just to make sure incase the rotation loosened the old seal.

I forgot to get sealant between the nose rib and the new brace so I loaded the seam on the inside and outside of the tank to compensate.

Adding sealant to every possible place it could leak.

Sealant is done, just need to cure so I can test it.

Looks like I FINALLY have leak free tank again.

Installing the tank back into the wing. This time I'm not going to worry about the screws on the top of the wing until the wings come out of the cradle for install.

Reinstalled the torque tube and aileron pushrods.

Other end of the aileron push rod.

Fuel Tank Repair 15.0 Hours