Fuel tank prep

I took a slight detour from the plans and did a little work on the fuel tanks.  I already had all of the fuel tank ribs deburred and straightened, and I wanted to attach them to the skins.  I hit the nose of each rib briefly with the Scotchbrite wheel to remove any bumps around the notches, which allowed the skin to fit well.  As many builders have discussed on their build logs, it's pretty challenging to attach the skin to the ribs for the first time.  I found a good description of what sounded like a practical method on Jason Beaver's RV-7 builder's log, which I modified slightly.  Here are the steps I used to cleco the skin to the tank ribs:

• Cleco the entire upper surface of each rib to the skin
• Place two 2x4s stacked on top of one another on the floor, and place the back of the ribs on top of the 2x4s.  This keeps the skin off the floor
• By pressing down on the leading edge of the skin, it becomes easier to align the holes between the ribs and the skin.  Place clecoes from the leading to the trailing edge
• A pick can be used to align the holes before clecoes are inserted

Once both sides of the tank were clecoed to the ribs, the tank was placed in the tank cradle and all holes were match drilled.  The rib locations will now be marked for future reference (which rib goes where), and everything will be disassembled.

Tank ribs clecoed to upper surface of skin

Tank in cradle prior to match drilling

Skin match drilled to ribs

First portion of tank assembly complete