Ron's RV7 Aircraft Factory


Welcome to my personal blog. This site was created as an informal description of my build progress in the construction of a Van's RV7 aircraft. A place where family/friends/builders/curiosity seekers can follow along. It is not intended to be a detailed description of every step in the building process as that would be much too time consuming. There are plenty of sites that do a great job in that arena, that is not my intention with this site. My intention is for this to be a philisophical/motivational/inspirational account of the emotional ups and downs of the life changing journey...and it will change your life. I hope this will give you an idea, through my eyes, of what its like to make this transformation. A note to other builders, I am not an expert so do not put your safety at risk by attempting anything you see on this site until you have done your own research, or send me an email so we can discuss it. Any deviations from the plans are not approved, nor endorsed by Van's Aircraft or myself. Thanks for visiting.



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Left Tank Closed Up HOBBS 385.5 hrs

Over the weekend I tackled those fuel tanks once again. I was determined to get at least one of them closed up and ready for a pressure test. I was successful, finishing off the left tank and starting the finish-up work on the right.

The last steps were screwing the access cover in place and sealing it up followed by the rear baffle and tank attach brackets. All went pretty well, its pretty straightforward but it was still a fair amount of work to do those tasks. I then came back later and added ProSeal to all of the shop heads on the baffle and the pull rivets on the tank brackets.

I have been letting the ProSeal cure for the last couple days so it is now ready for a pressure test. Unfortunately I am leaving town tomorrow to visit the folks out in WA and eat some of dear ol' Mom's good cookin'! So, the pressure test will have to wait 'til after turkey day.

All together now, lets chant..."no leaks...no leaks...no leaks!" We shall see...

Have a safe Thanksgiving, and as one of my builder friends, Sean told me the other day..."we've got much to be thankful for...don't we?" He's definitely right on about that.


Here is a shot of the left tank mounted on the wing (looks cool eh?). I wanted to do a fit check after I got it sealed up just to give me a warm fuzzy because there is not much I could do at this point if it didnt fit. I will tell ya I was nervous for a minute as it was a pretty tight fit. The buildup of primer on the attach brackets along with the ProSeal most likely contributed to this. So, my advice is keep it to a minimum if you are doing it like I am. But, tight is good...as my old construction boss, Buster used to say, "tight is right". :) I attached the tank and let the ProSeal dry like this overnight. Not sure if that made any difference...but thats the way I did it.

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