5/30/2006
Sealant day is finally here! What's all the fuss about? I actually found this sort of enjoyable. Sick, I know...
I started by setting a pile of rivets in MEK to soak for a bit. While those were soaking, I roughed up the mating surfaces of the skins and the stiffeners and got the sealant ready by mixing it and setting up the sealant gun with the tube in it.
Then, it was off to work! I squeezed out a bead in a slalom fashion around the rivet holes and spread it out with a popsicle stick.
With it spread nice and evenly, I installed the rivets and taped 'em in place. Then the stiffeners were set in place firmly over the sealant, and I backriveted the rivets. I'm not sure how much time one actually has to work with this stuff, but depending on temperature, it's around 45 minutes to an hour. Less if hot, longer if cool. It's warm here so I worked fairly quickly, though I never looked at the clock, so I have no idea how fast or slow I did this. It worked great, and I thought this stuff was easy to work with. I used PR-1440 instead of name brand Proseal. We use this stuff at work to seal all fuel tanks, including the tanks on our Lear 35 that is being resealed this week. If it's good enough for a Learjet going 500 miles per hour at 40,000 feet, it's good enough for my RV-7! After the rivets were set, I put a bead of sealant around each stiffener and used the stick to "fillet" the goo. Then each rivet shop head is covered over. Simple enough. I didn't even get any on me!! I'll repeat this process tomorrow night. Here's some pics-
2.0 hours