March 02, 2003 ~6 hours
Started on the left tank this morning by cleaning up the "Z"
brackets. A little scotch brite wheel goes a long way. Again, this is not
the exact procedure outlined in the plans but it worked well for me. I
drilled the brackets to the baffle first. 
I clecoed the ribs to the baffle and "Z" brackets for a little trial
fitting. 
I then placed it on left spar and aligned everything. After assuring everything
was in place I drilled the "Z" brackets through the bottom of the
spar. I like being able to drill these things in place. 
I then attached the plate nuts on the "Z" brackets. Drill
press works well for this operation. 
Next up was placing the stiffeners on the skins. I had
previously fabricated these while working on the right tank. 
Next was attaching the ribs to the skin. Here it sits for one last
final check before final drilling everything. I also final drilled the
tank skin to the W-423 plate joint while everything was aligned. It all
looks good to me at this point. 
T
Tank final drilled. 
I machine countersunk the skin where it attaches to the baffle. I
wasn't sure of whether this was correct but posted the question to the user
group and found that this was the correct thing. 
I placed and final drilled the tank drain 
and the fuel cap. 
This sure went fast today. I had read somewhere that the second one went
faster than the first and fabricating all the parts for the left tank at the
same time as the right was the correct approach.
The Proseal, fuel gauge sender unit, flop tube and a couple other needed pieces will arrive early next week. I think I'll be ready to start sealing the tanks next weekend :-)
I decided to put a flop tube in the left tank. I worked on getting this
stuff together tonight. I drilled the hole through the end rib for the flop tube
to attach and pass through the rib. 
Here's what the flop tube looks like on the rib. 
Then made the flap door to cover the hole in the second rib. 
I also covered up the large hole in the second rib. The flap door will
allow fuel to pass into the most inboard but will slow down the flow going back
out. 
I wish that I could add this clamp to hold the fitting but it looks like it
would hit the angle of the 405. I may mess around with something else. The
plans do not call for this on the flop tube but it sure looks to me that this
would keep the flop tube from loosening the fitting. We'll
see. 
No pictures tonight. I went back through the plans and drawings to make sure that I hadn't forgotten anything on the left wing tank. I believe that I have everything covered. Then it was the de-burr ribs, stiffeners and tank skin; dimpled the ribs and stiffeners and finally started dimpling the left wing tank skin.
My wife, Linda, was spending the night with a group of young girls at church
tonight so I stayed busy later than usual tonight. The night started by
finishing up dimpling the left tank skin. I had completed one side on
Wednesday so this didn't take a lot of time. 
Then it was on to getting the right tank ready for sealing. Here's the
right tank back in the jig. The first thing was to countersink the skin to
baffle. (I actually found this called out on the drawings, if you remember
the question on the left tank as to whether countersink the skin or the
baffle.) 
Then is was the usual: Take everything apart & de-burr all the holes in the
ribs and skins. (I use this cordless drill with a de-burring bit to do all the
de-burring.)
After final de-burring I, I dimpled the ribs and stiffeners with the pneumatic
squeezer. I'm using the tank dimple dies from Cleveland tools. I
decided that I would "rough" up the skins on the right skin tank
before dimpling. I used a nylon bristle brush in the air die grinder and
then a scotch brite pad. I couldn't make myself use a steel brush on the
aluminum.
That was it for the night.
I started the day by dimpling the right skin. 
After finishing up the dimpling, all my excuses for not starting the pro-seal process were gone. I ran out to a local auto parts store that sells a lot of automotive paint to get some MEK. After talking to him, I decided that this stuff was too dangerous to bring into the house. I did buy some naptha to help with the cleanup. I decided to use the etching stuff that I've always used. It is a water based solution that smells like it has sulpheric acid and it seems to clean stuff very well.
Here's all the stuff lined up and ready to go. You've got your proseal,
your popsicle sticks, paper towels cut into little squares, a syringe and the
stiffeners and skin. Time to begin! 
No words can describe how sticky this stuff is. I believe that you've just
got to be in the mood to do this as it wasn't really that bad once you get
started. I had made a balance beam scale but it looked like I was using to
much catalyst. So I ran upstairs and borrowed a measuring cup and teaspoon
to check my balance beam. The balance beam was going to be close based upon volume of 10
- 1. I mixed it all together and shoved it into the syringe. I used
1/3 cup of sealant to 1 1/4 teaspoon of catalyst.
( I stole the above conversion from another web site without checking the calculations, but I think that the measure should be 1/4 cup sealant to 1 1/4 teaspoons of catalyst. I checked the Betty Crocker web site later :-) and found that 1/4 cup = 3 tablespoon = 12 teaspoons. Soooooo, a 10-1 should be 1/4 cup = 1.2 teaspoons or ~1 1/4. I'm not really sure of volume measurements but my wife tells me that this is correct for measuring shortening so should be correct for measuring the volume of this stuff as well. )
Here's how I used the syringe. I put a bead of sealant down both sides
and then took a popsicle stick to smooth it out. I don't know whether the
syringe is worth it or not. It probably does keep the proseal usable for a
longer period of time but it is hard to push out of the syringe. I'll have
to decide before the next time. 
I riveted all the stiffeners, the fuel cap filler neck 
and the tank drain. I did go back and put a dollop of sealer on top of
each rivet. This really isn't that bad. It is messy. If you
have one box of gloves, go get another. If you already have two, go get
the third one :-) Have plenty of rags and the little 3" inch squares
of paper towels come in handy dipped in some solvent to clean the rivet heads or
the rivet gun. Use once and throw away.
Played with the proseal again tonight and installed the stiffeners, fuel filler neck and the drain plug. I didn't use the syringe tonight and it was no more un-pleasant than with the syringe. The syringe may be more useful installing the ribs as they will not be laid out flat on the table.
I riveted two of the ribs in tonight. I had a couple of rivets that I could not do by myself so Linda came and helped with those and while she was there ran the rivet gun for me on one of the ribs. Man was this so much easier. Maybe I can get her to help with the rest of the tanks.
I only added the two ribs as that was all the proseal that I had mixed up and it was supper time :-) Again, this wasn't as bad as I was expecting. If you can find someone to help, it simplifies the process even more.