Tank Preparations

The last three weeks I was cruising through the UK with the family in a motorhome, which obviously resulted in zero progress on the plane. But it wasn’t a plane-free holiday. Besides the sights such as: Stone Henge, Oxford, Loch Ness and Hadrian’s wall, we also visited the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.

Needless to say it was my contribution to the “Tour the UK”. We drove 3.625 km in 20 days. I can probably fly that in 15 hours in my RV-7.

It was a nice and easy day with not that many visitors, which allowed us to talk to the knowledgeable volunteers that give background information in the planes. The guys in the Concorde and Comet were excellent.

The US hanger was great with the SR-71, the B-52 and of course my personal favorite the Mustang.

Enough distraction: BACK TO BUILDING!

Right, I knew I had some unfinished business on the Tank Attach Angles, but instead of trying to remember, I decided to just carry on and I’ll probably notice later.
Cutting the Tank Stiffeners is the next task, again I do Left and Right in parallel.

Somehow all my pictures of tasks where I’m concentrated, look like I’m either in pain, agony or disgust, none of which are true. Apparently that’s how concentration looks (in my case).

After using the shears to snip the major parts, I use the belt grinder for the exact trimming. Finishing with the ScotchBrite to deburr and polish to get a smooth result.

Inserting the Stiffeners into the tanks, to check if they don’t interfere with the Ribs.

Aha!, that’s what I forgot, I needed to finish the platenuts of the Tank Attach Angels of the Right Wing. Good thing I didn’t spent more than 5 seconds to remember (waste).
Ok, let’s finish the Angles of the Right Tank.

After inserting the ribs in the tanks and clecoing it all together, I found that the fit between the Leading Edge and the Tank was perfect. This is the bottom side of the wing.

Here’s the top side.

And a close-up of the fit between the two leading edges. The little “space” between those is actually in the blue vinyl.

I spent two consecutive ways after my holiday to get back into the “groove” and I’m really satisfied with the result.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 72/2 (2018-08-11)
Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2018-08-12)

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