I don't have a lot of pictures to show for my efforts this weekend.  I started installing and sealing tank ribs which is a MESSY operation.  I have been dreading sealing my second AND last fuel tank.

I have been prepping my wife for a month or two about sealing the fuel tank as she doesn't like working on tanks either.  So the weekend arrived and I asked (I mean told her) that is was time to work on sealing the tank.  After a little groveling on HER part, she came out to the garage and grabbed the bucking bar.

No in-process pictures for the log.  Everything you touch (i mean look at) during a sealing session gets tank sealant all over it.  We were well on our way to finishing our second rib and Tami broke the relative silence of the garage air conditioner;

"You know, I hate to admit it, but sealing the fuel tank is more enjoyable than riveting the ailerons"   I shit you not!!!  That is what she said straight faced an all.  It was a good thing I was already sitting down on the garage floor when she said that.  I thought I was delirious and like a fool I asked her what she said and she repeated the statement over.  Maybe she is delirious.

Anyway, over the course of the weekend, I got 5 of the 7 tank ribs riveted and sealed.  So far, so good.  Tanks are an incredible amount of tedious work considering the brevity of this log entry.

Before I riveted the outboard end rib on and sealed it, I wanted to get my vent tube fabricated and routed through the tank.

WARNING:  An abbreviated version of tubing bending for dummies (me)...
I had ran the vent line through the tank (before I bent the offset) and measured the distance between the rib hole for the vent and where I drilled the hole in the inboard rib for the vent line ELL.  That distance (as best I could tell) was approximately 1 18/32".  Okay, now I need to bend the tubing such that it will actually line up with the Inboard rib ELL.  How did I do that on the last tank???  Ooh yeah, a little trigonometry.  One of the few times I have had to use what little math knowledge I have.  I figured that I would bend my tubing to provide a 60 degree offset.  Basically the tubing angle forms the hypotenuse of a right triangle and this is where it turns into a math problem.

Needing a finished offset distance of 1 18/32" (1.562"), I just took the cosine of angle 30 and solved for the hypotenuse (or actual tubing) length.  I came up with 1 26/32" (approximate is close enough).  So before I made any bends in the tubing, I made my first mark at the end of the vent line far enough away so that I could get my AN fitting on and make my tubing flare (Approx 3").  I then measured down the tubing 1 26/32" and made my second mark on the tubing.  This represents where the two bends will be started in the tubing to create my offset.

The two lines that were measured out on the tubing are where I started my bends.  I put the first line under the "0" on the tubing bender, bent to approx. 60 degrees.  Then move the tubing down to the second mark and place it under the "0".  It is important to properly orient the tubing here or end up with a shape that starts to approximate that of a STOP SIGN.

When I got done with my two bends for my offset, this is how it lined up.  Pretty darn good.....  If its not perfect, there is a little room to bend the tubing by hand over the width of the inboard bay.  By measuring out the bend, I didn't have to do any additional "tweaking".

I am really happy with my offset.  I couldn't have gotten it any closer if actually knew how to bend tubing.   Now I just need to put my AN fitting on the end and flare it.

Okay, what the heck is this?!?!??!?!?  Damn It !!!   I was routing my vent tube through the tank and as I fed the vent tube through the vent clip, I noticed that it moved fairly easy.  It isn't supposed to do that...  Uh oohh.  I briefly pondered whether or not to move the clip and just see how bad this was going to get.  Of course, I couldn't let something like this go.  It is easier to fix now than it will be to fix later.  I removed the vent tube and gave the clip a little tug.  It was clear that the only thing holding the vent clip in place was the tank sealant I gooped over it.  It was actually pretty tough to remove just being held in place by sealant.

I wonder how hard this will be to fix?

I used an x-acto knife to cut and remove tank sealant around the vent clip, drilled out the rivet and cleaned the area of tank sealant with the x-acto knife and a small rag soaked in MEK.  The clip area looks pretty good.  I should be able to re-apply tank sealant to the affected area, install a new vent clip, and have no problem getting a good seal.

The real trick, which I haven't figured out yet will be how to set a solid rivet in here.  My back rivet method isn't going to work as I can't open the tank skin enough to get the rivet hammer in here.  I am thinking that I may be able to use a 426 Cherrymax rivet here as they sit and look very close to the aesthetics of the solid rivet and the Cherrymax rivet is way overkill for this application.

To much to think about tonight.  I am going to take the rest of the night off, give this some thought, and fix it tomorrow.