Today’s session focused on fitting the Fuel Tank to the Left Wing and making any necessary modifications (filing, sanding, etc) prior to final installation. The “top skin” of the Fuel Tank fit perfectly to the Spar and Outboard Leading Edge and required no modifications for the desired fit.
However, the “bottom skin” required some sanding for the fit I was looking achieve. I had to install and remove, install and remove the Fuel Tank several times until I was happy with the fit. The effort resulted in very good results. The screws installed in the pictures below are temporary and are used solely to check the fit of the Fuel Tank. The plans state:
“The edges of the T-00001 Fuel Tank Skin must have a zero to 1/64 [0.4 mm] gap between the adjacent wing skin edges. A larger gap may be desirable if the aircraft is to be painted, while a zero gap may be desirable if the aircraft is to be left in natural aluminum”
I definitely plan on painting the airplane, so......
The picture below shows where the inboard section of the Fuel Tank joins the Left Wing. This area had to be sanded to achieve the fit described above.
This is the middle, aft section of the Fuel Tank where it joins to the Main Spar. This area also had to be modified.....
Lastly, here is the inboard section of the Fuel Tank....just forward of the wing walk area (on the top of the wing). Again, this section also had to be modified for the desired fit.
