Fuel Neck Fitted

And just when I said it was too hot to work, I felt like I couldn't let this keep on sliding and spent an afternoon on the patio - sweating like hell.

I started by covering the top of the tank after putting some cloth in there to catch inevitable drill chips. Then I maneuvered the tank into the fuselage and put it in its dedicated place.


Then the fuel neck flange had to get fitted to the curvature of the right turtle deck skin. That took surprisingly long as I had to bend it with the help of a vise as the aluminum is too thick to get bent by hand.


Also the aft AN-4 screw was a pain to get in. This time I did it through the not yet installed aft window which won't be possible when I do the final tank install. Or maybe I hold off on the window install until the tank is in place. That will get me by at least for the first year until the annual is due and I will have to remove the tank to remove the aft panels. What a joy to look forward to!
The fuel neck flange got match-drilled to the turtle deck skin and the position of the tank flange got marked on the top skin of the tank.



That was it. Tank got removed from the fuselage again and the top skin came off to do some more trimming on it. First the tank filler flange got match-drilled into the top skin - after marking with orientation the filler should have on the tank.


Then the interior outline of ring on the filler got marked onto the skin so the material could get removed. Before I did that I remembered that I wanted to have the Moeller fuel gauge installed. So I picked up on that task and marked the spot where to drill the pilot hole.


I found two different measurements for the 6" something part on the forum. One was 6 7/8" and one was 6 1/2" which was used by Joeri in the Netherlands. I went with the 6.5" and it worked out well. I also got myself an extra front tank cover T-1209 as it is a perfect template to create a reinforcement ring to put under the skin for the Moeller gauge to screw into. The drill pattern matches perfectly. I also made a temporary lid in case I go ELSA and don't put the gauge in before certification. The two holes you see in there are pre-punched holes and I will fill them with Pro-Seal.
I drilled the pilot hole and widened it with the step drill bit.


I used the nibbler to remove the rest of the material and them finished it off with a file and the 1" SB wheel. Perfect fit.


The next step happened on the interior side of the top skin. The reinforcement ring had to get match-drilled into the skin. Make sure you know what alignment you have with the gauge as you cant't just mount it arbitrarily. In my case the indented part of the ring shows where the bottom of the gauge scale is, which I want to have pointing at the forward edge of the tank.


I used these short half inch clamps for the first holes and clecoed #40 as I drilled them. Then I drilled the #12 holes without pilot holes. Worked well.


The last step on the skin was to countersink the nutplate attach holes on the ring and to dimple the corresponding holes in the top skin.
At that point the clock showed 6:30pm and I was getting tired so I called it a day. Now getting ready for the trip to 0O4 (Zero, letter O, four).
Still have to remove the material inside the tank filler neck and have to install the nutplates for the Moeller gauge. The latter will require Pro-Seal, so I might hold off on that until final assembly of the tank top to do it all at once.