Preparing to install left side fuselage skin.

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I made fun progress yesterday. For weeks you work on prepping and making parts and visably you don't see any progress. Once you begin to install these parts, you really feel like you have made progress. Yesterday was one of those days. I pulled some rivets to replace the clecos holding the bottom skin in place and the cross bars I installed to keep the sides of the bottom skin from flexing outward. Then I drilled and cleco'd the forward side skin into place. It's starting to look like something!

Filing! And I don't mean my taxes!

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When you build a fiberglass airplane you do a lot of sanding, with metal airplanes, you file! I used the paper patterns to cut my side panels out. Now I'm just filing them down to final size.

Now making side skin patterns.

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I started making patterns for my side skins by using construction paper. This should allow me to get the bottom to line up properly. The panel between bulkhead F10 & F12 is per plans. The panels between the F6 seat back and F10 can be done as one, two or three pieces. I will be doing mine using 2 pieces of skin.

Bottom skin attachment continues

I have been working on my project, but it is slow going. Here are a couple of photos which shows my progress.

I had a gap at the bottom of bulkhead F9 & F10 that I didn't think I could "squeeze out" with rivets, so I created spacers to fill those gaps. Here are some photos of the spacers. Notice that I am holding them in place with hot glue until I can turn the fuselage over and install rivets in F9 and the tail spring bolt in F10.

I found trying to get the bottom skin to stay in place at the flange was a challenge. I could not install a cleco or a rivet near the flange because I want to place the side skin on top of the bottom skin and attach the rivet through both pieces. The natural "memory" of the aluminum would flex the skin outward. You can not hold it in place with straps when you have to attach the side skins. I finally decided to attach an aluminum angle to the flange that spans the width of the fuselage at each bulkhead in addition to the angle in between the bulkheads (as called out in the manual) to keep it in place until I can attach the side skins. These angles will remain and don't add very much weight.

I will be cutting and trimming the sides skins in the near future. Progress is being made even if at a slow pace.

Work continues on skinning the fuselage belly.

I haven't posted in a while, but I'm still working on skinning the belly of my CX4. I had to remake the middle skin that goes between F8 and F9 for the same reason I had to remake the forward bottom skin. It was too short when you rolled it up the sides of the F9 bulkhead. The scrapped piece of forward bottom skin was large enough to re-cut the middle piece, so I didn't have to order more material (yet).  It appears the rear piece of bottom skin will be long enough that I won't have to remake it. No photos this time. Work is going slow, but sure.

Sealing My Fuel Tank - Part 2

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Finally finished sealing up my fuel tank by gluing on the top. I did this with out the help of a friend. I had no problems or issues with this. I am quite pleased with the outcome. Before putting on the top I plugged the drains and filled it with water and observed no leaks!

Since the tank was basically finished, I did work on attaching the bottom skin of the fuselage on Sunday. I'm making progress but it is slow going for me.

Sealing My Fuel Tank - Part 1

Yes Paul, I have been working on my project...

My friend Larry Geiger came over yesterday to help me seal my tank with ProSeal. Larry had completed an RV12 not too long ago and he had some experience with ProSeal on his RV12 fuel tank. Over the last several weeks I worked on preparing the tank for sealing. I cut both holes for the filler cap and the fuel sender. Attached the corresponding nut plates and prepared the fuel sender for final installation.

I made a few changes to how the top attaches also. While using the EAA chapter metal break to bend the end flanges on my tank top, I decided it might be easier to mount 1/16"x3/4" aluminum angles to the inside side walls at the top and use them as a mounting surface for the tank top. I think it turned out well. Bending the flanges to the sides of the top would have been possible (just like I did for the bottom), but not nearly as easy to construct.

I purchased solid pull rivets from Hanson Rivet & Supply Co. (800-777-4838). I needed 3 different grip sizes to complete the project. These rivets are on the pricey side, so be warned. You don't have to use this style of rivets, but they don't have to have their centers sealed like regular rivets do.

Here are several photos of the tank after part one of the sealing. I don't think I'll have to add sealant to anything I have done, but I will do a leak test with water before I put on the tank top (Part 2).

I found that working with ProSeal wasn't tough, but I was glad to have some experienced hands around to help. Larry applied ProSeal to the stem of each rivet before placing it in its' hole. I placed a bead of sealant on each surface and then flattened it out with a popsicle stick. Towards the end of the project, the ProSeal was not as pliable as it was when we first mixed the batch, but it was still manageable. I used acetone as a solvent and was able to clean up spots yet a day later with no problem. Just make sure the room is ventilated when using this stuff. After the ProSeal is squeezed out of the seems, just use a popsicle stick(s) to smooth out and scrape off the excess sealant.

I have added many photos to my project album, so don't forget to take a look at it if you want to see more than what I posted here. Just click on the slide show in the right hand column of this page to be linked to the album.