I've been looking around for an accurate and easy to use scale for proseal. I wanted to find one that was small, preferably digital, not too expensive, and that would be able to accurately measure down to the 1 gram range, since at times I may not want a very large batch. (proseal is mixed at a 10 to 1 ratio by weight). Finally found a nice postal scale at Walmart aircraft supply.
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One of the nice features is a tare button. I plunk a piece of cardboard on top to mix with and zero it out and we're good to go. So far it's worked great.
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First thing is to clean everything with solvent (I used Acetone and MEK) to make sure everything is squeaky clean so the proseal will stick. Van even has you dump the rivets in solvent. The vinyl tape is an idea I got from Steve Solomon - worked great to keep things cleaner. Proseal is stringy and sticks like mad to anything it touches (and smears horribly...) (did i mention it's hard to clean???)
Mixed up the first batch of proseal and installed the stiffeners in the bottom of the tank. These can be back riveted, which leaves a much nicer finish (although cleaning the back riveting tool after is a pain.)
Getting ready to mix the goo.
After letting the stiffeners cure a couple of hours I decided to go ahead and start on the fuel filler and tank drain.
Fuel filler opening.
And the not nearly so nice back side of same:
(experienced builders will note something important missing... i forgot the vent line clip!!! argh! had to drill out a rivet and add it later)
Drain fitting:
And the incredibly ugly backside -
Kurt Franz (fellow member of EAA Chapter 339) came over Friday afternoon and was kind enough to help out fitting a couple of the ribs to the fuel tank (if he'd known it was a proseal party he might have called in sick...).
Some of the results.
Read on a blog that someone had built a tilting frame for the tank. Seemed like a good idea, so I did this version. This was a bit floppy. At Kurt's suggestion I reinforced the center with a crossbar which helped a lot. Much later I added a shim system to hold it rigid while riveting the backplate and Z bars.
