gas tank replacement

[cap01]

i was able to get 40kf back in the air this week after installing a brand new 13 gal gas tank in the right wing , which i might add will actually hold 14 gal . needless to say if i should decide to replace the other one it will go a lot quicker , a lot was learned on this one . i do want to thank john and debra for helping to resolve some issues , it certainly is a pleasure to have people like them to deal with .

[Slyfox]

so go over what you did, how you did it, what you learned?

I may be doing the same in the future.

[cap01]

steve , for you it would be a walk in the park , with the 13 gal tanks already installed . i had two 6 gal tanks , so many more problems . i had to remove and relocate a brace a bay further out which you wont have to do . i had to remove a rib also and trim it down below the new tank . i was able to get by with just removing the fabric from the top of the wing one rib further out from the end of the tank . one tip on that , when you cut the old fabric off the wing , leave your self plenty to wrap around the leading edge and trailing edge to glue down before installing the new fabric on the top . also remove the origional paint and poly spray from the areas where you will be overlapping with the new fabric . that way i never lost any of the origional fabric tension after i cut it . i dont have rib stiching and the origional fabric stayed glued to the the rib where i cut it and i was able to wrap it under and glue it down . ofcourse the drains didnt match up and had to be patched and recut .
probably every one here knows more thatn me about poly-fiber so that was the big learning thing for me . i didnt cover the plane , it was already done when i acquired the kit . it was covered and painted back in the 90s so there wasnt a very good match as far as the color went . other than the color match , im really pleased with the way it turned out . i did get lots of good advice about the poly fiber from the local fabric guru .

[Slyfox]

probably the biggest thing for me will be removing the tank, it's glued in with the white silicon, looks like a bunch.

[cap01]

steve, actually the silicone wasnt a big deal . first of all the fishing line didnt work so well . wound up using .020 safty wire , worked great . a little trouble getting the wire under the tank with the lower fabric still in place . also i had the small tank with no false rib under the tank

[Slyfox]

Ya, I think I can visualize how to do the line trick. thanks.

[cap01]

steve, there are a few pictures of the tank job posted in one of my albums