24/05/2008 - The Right hand fuel tank gets started

Its excitin !!  building the first fuel tank.  First job, cleco the base parts together in handy jig.  3 hours later, job done.  Yes it took a while, not quite as easy as it looks and plenty of rib manipulation to get it right.  Still its done, sigh of relief, and now I don't need to go the the gym !!!!!!!!

Next stage is the z brackets for the fuel tank to sit on.  I followed (as others have) the
Dan Checkoway method.  So I wont repeat what Dan has already said on this other than to say, put the inboard z bracket somewhere where you cant reach it while drilling as I managed to drill holes for plate nuts that are not required on the inboard one !!!!!!!  oh well never mind.

Next stage is to rivet on the plate nuts to the z brackets, I decided to use a little Duralac as the brackets had not been sprayed yet, to afford some corrosion protection.

They will get sprayed later with the surface that mates with the bottom of the fuel tank masked out so the mastic will get a good key onto the metal.