Wings part #3!

 Working on the front and rear wing spars and hinges.

Front spars are prepped.

Cleaned up the rear spar doublers.

Cut out the tip attach angles.

And prepped all the hinge brackets.

Wings part #2!

After priming all the wing main wing spar parts, I riveted them to the main spars.

Another thousand rivets bites the dust!

Just follow the KAI's  and the rivets called out.  

Wings part #1

Got started on the wing kit!

Cutting the wing tip attach angles apart.

Cutting all the wing spar to rib attach brackets apart,

After deburring. There are a ton of these!

Match drilled these per the KAI's.

Fuselage center section #92 - Fuel Tank part 4!

 Today I declared the tank leak free....  Here is how I pressure tested my tank.

I found this plug that is intended to be used for pressure testing household plumbing and it fits the fuel tank filler port perfectly.  It was $8 at Lowes.

The only problem is that it leaks like a screen door around the center bolt.  I tried everything to stop the leak.  Put grease on the seals and everything else I could think of.  Nothing helped!

Then I had an idea....

I cut a balloon like this.....

And stretched it over the fuel filler neck.  Ensured there were no wrinkles or creases.

Then shoved the plug into the port and tightened. This worked perfectly!  Stopped the leak path up thru the center of the plug.  The balloon conforms to the shape of the inside of the plug and forms an air tight membrane.

I used an old fashioned U tube water manometer and a digital manometer to monitor the pressure in the tank.

After three days of watching the pressure, I declared it leak free.  The ambient temp and baro does cause the pressure to rise and fall but on consecutive days I checked it at around the same temp and corrected for the minor changes in baro and the pressure remained constant.

I also soaked the tank in soapy water several times looking for any signs of bubbles and found none.

Success!

Fuselage center section #91 - Fuel Tank part 3!

 From 11/16 till 11/21, I worked on finishing and sealing up the fuel tank.  I then waited a week to pressure test the tank.  Here is a video that I put together detailing the process of assembly and sealing.  Later will come the process of pressure testing.

Fuselage center section #90 - Fuel Tank part 2!

Continued the prep for the fuel tank assembly.

They have you cleco all the ribs into the top skin.  Then cleco the bottom skin onto the assy.

Then match drill these two outboard holes in the outboard ribs.

Then the fuel inlet is match drilled to the assy.  At first I cleco'ed the unit to the skin but it left a huge gap. So I removed the clecos and just held it into place while match drilling up to #30.  This virtually eliminated the gap :)

There is one hole that must be drilled and cleco'ed from the inside.

Next they have you test the fit of the fuel level indicator,

And then you bend the fuel level sender per the directions.  The sender I received was not made like the one in the KAI's.  Therefore I just made it look as close as possible to the full size template in the directions.

Next I had to countersink the nutplate attach rivet holes in the inspection cover.   Make sure the little notch is on the left of the large notch at the bottom.

Then they have you rivet the nutplates to the cover.  I only have a 2.5" yoke so two of the rivets could not be squeezed.  So instead I just back riveted those two with the rivet gun and back rivet set that I have used for prior projects.

Temporarily screwed the inspection cover onto the tank.  Also have the sender screwed to the cover.

Tweaked the sender float arm to ensure accuracy on the low end.

Fuselage center section #89 - Fuel Tank!

Since the fuel tank comes in the fuse kit, the fuse kit is not done until the fuel tank is done!

The KAI's have you dimple some holes that are not dimpled at the factory.  Who knows why but most of the dimples are already done by the factory.

Then they have you machine countersink the nutplate attach holes for both the fuel level indicator and the access plate which holds the fuel level sender.

These get the flush pulled rivets.  They are not as robust as the regular pulled rivets as the stem gets pulled out.

Then the access plate nutplates get riveted on with solid rivets.

Next the directions have you dimple the ribs so they mate with the skins.

Next is a whole lot of countersinking!  Make sure you make two mirror images otherwise you will be ordering new parts!

This mount tab needs a couple countersunk holes.

Then this angle piece gets riveted on.  The center hole ends up getting match drilled for a bolt.