I went to collect the welded fuel tank today so it was time to install it and hope that it still fitted! The tank was initially supported using tie down straps whilst the stainless steel supports were pulled tight under the tank and match drilled to the rear supporting tabs to take 1/4" bolts. Then the tank was filled with water to "soak" test it and weight it down into the supports. The pictures show the four 1" diameter tubes installed through the tank which will be used to route the throttle, mixture and other controls and cables from the cockpit through the firewall. This thing is heavy when full so I think that I will install a pair of demountable angles bolted to plates welded onto the forward fuelage side diagonals to support the bottom outside edges of the tank just in case! Once the tank was installed and filled a 68mm hole was drilled in a piece of scrap aluminium. This was positioned symmetrically around the tank filler spout which had been deliberately left long. Then using a home made strap duplicator, the plate was match drilled onto the windscreen support tabs. The plate can then be clecoed onto the windscreen through the matching holes to provide the position for the cut out for the tank filler plate and tank cap
I went to collect the welded fuel tank today so it was time to install it and hope that it still fitted! The tank was initially supported using tie down straps whilst the stainless steel supports were pulled tight under the tank and match drilled to the rear supporting tabs to take 1/4" bolts. Then the tank was filled with water to "soak" test it and weight it down into the supports. The pictures show the four 1" diameter tubes installed through the tank which will be used to route the throttle, mixture and other controls and cables from the cockpit through the firewall. This thing is heavy when full so I think that I will install a pair of demountable angles bolted to plates welded onto the forward fuelage side diagonals to support the bottom outside edges of the tank just in case! Once the tank was installed and filled a 68mm hole was drilled in a piece of scrap aluminium. This was positioned symmetrically around the tank filler spout which had been deliberately left long. Then using a home made strap duplicator, the plate was match drilled onto the windscreen support tabs. The plate can then be clecoed onto the windscreen through the matching holes to provide the position for the cut out for the tank filler plate and tank cap
