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RV-7 Construction Log
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Date:  7-29-2012
Number of Hours:  5.80
Manual Reference:  p 7-7
Brief Description:  Left Fuel Tank Stiffeners

The first proseal session for the RV-7 went reasonably well. On the HRII project, it was November/December when I was working on the one tank I completed, and temperature was always in 40's and 50's. Today the temp was probably in the low 80's and the sealant was MUCH easier to work with, though it did set up more quickly. I worked around that by just working with smaller batches, doing only two stiffeners at a time for most of the session.

I used a stainless steel brush to scuff all of the rivet lines on the bottom half of the skin, and cleaned them up with laquer thinner. For the fhe first two stiffeners I used 10g of part A and 1g of part B, and had enough to butter up the stiffeners, but not enough to make the fillets or encapsulate the rivet heads. I made the next three batches 16g part A and 1.6 part B, and had enough to do the stiffeners, fillets and rivet heads with a bit left over. On the next to last batch I had enough left over to butter up the outboard stiffeners. The last batch was 13g part A and 1.3 g part B and was enough to butter up the 5th bay stiffeners and fillets with enough left over to encapsulate the 5th and 6th bay rivet heads.

I used vinyl electrical tape to mask off the long edges of the stiffeners, and with minor cleanup the job came out reasonably neat. The instructions mention using rivet tape, but with the sealant oozing through the holes, and the little bit I added to the outside of the holes, tape wasn't required. For the ribs I will use Rick Galati's "McDonnell Douglas" method and 100% cleco after applying sealant, then rivet the next day. With the stiffeners, it was just too easy to go ahead and backrivet.

Rivets Today:78
Rivets Total: 2895
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Bottom inside rivet lines on the left tank skin have been scuffed with a stainless steel brush.

Bottom inside rivet lines on the left tank skin have been scuffed with a stainless steel brush.

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I cleaned the outside of the skin as I went.

I cleaned the outside of the skin as I went.

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Left tank stiffeners completed and cleaned.

Left tank stiffeners completed and cleaned.

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