I thought the primer smelled toxic… wow. This tank sealant stuff is the real deal. It is a cross between fresh asphalt smell, glue, and rancid meat. It is truly one of the most offensive odors I’ve come across (including college roommates). What it lacks in pleasant aroma it more than makes up for in effectiveness. I can see how this will work quite well in accomplishing the job it is asked to do. The tube I purchased was few dollars more but I’m glad I bought the caulk gun shaped dispenser amount. It was easy to mix and dispense. I spread it with a set of rubber gloves on and wiped it up with paper towels. Overall, it wasn’t easy, but it was truly terrible.
In reference to a previous post, I did end up using the Tim Olson/Ed Kranz method of drilling into angle iron and clecoing every other hole of the trailing edge down to the steel. I think this will end up giving me a pretty spectacular shape on my trailing edge. Looking forward to seeing how it all sets up in a day or two.
My tank sealant expert! This is our mark in time to let some physician years from now know exactly why we got the exact same kind of cancer on the exact same day… TOXIC stuff. But I think you are starting to get my point. And yes – foul on both of us for forgetting our respirators. They were on before the picture I swear. Anne also helped peel back the skin (as recommended by Van’s) so I could rivet the ribs in place one at a time. Super helpful – can’t image doing this solo.
All finished up and clecoed down to the steel bar that I bolted to my workbench. From this angle you can also see how good the back rivets look in the skin.
A different angle to see the steel bar bolted to my workbench as well as the trailing edge clecoed in at every hole that I drilled through the steel. I did my best to mop up the tank sealant because I know it will only increase in difficulty as it cures.
It seems like every day I have to have my “confession” time where I notice something that isn’t perfect. I guess I’m just being hard on myself because I know a lot of builders post about replacing skins and some major issues. Rather than mar the skin this close to having it complete, I settled with two pop rivets at the trailing edge instead of just the one it called for. Van’s was okay with this and I’ve seen a number of other builders use the same technique. At any any rate, I think it was a good decision and one that saved me from causing serious damage trying to make something heroic happen with a riveting gun.
Total time today = 2 hours
Total time empennage = 37.5 hours
Total time aircraft = 37.5 hours