I have been working on prepping the fuel tanks this week. Getting the skins fitted to the ribs and updrilled went very well once I figured out how to keep the skin from shifting. Bob Woolley and I followed Tony’s lead and fabricated a cross member to keep the skin pushed down and lined up. We also weighted the skins nose with a piece of lead wrapped in a towel. Next time I will use two bags of aquarium sand.
Then I took the tank back apart and wiped all of the ribs and the skins down with Acetone. The reason we do this is so when we scuff we aren’t digging any residue on the skins down into the metal. Everything will get another two wipes with this stuff before I start gooping.
All areas that get pro-sealed get a good scuffing with a coarse pad.
Then all the edges and rivet holes get de-burred. This edge debur tool works great on long runs, but not so good on short ones.
All of the edges of the ribs and the attach plates and rib surfaces where the attach plates touch get scuffed up too.
The fuel tank prep is a time consuming task, but nothing difficult. I even pulled in Luke to help with the scuffing. I love this picture. He is such his father’s son. You can see Dan in the background under the Panther….
