Steve
I feel like I just wote your letter. I just last week completed
installing a new tank. My old tank was leaking in almost the same
location. I had a crack about one and a half inches long at the edge of
the fiberglass layup in the center of the saddle section. I had planed
to take pictures on the replacement, but simply got involved in the
teardown for replacement that I forgot. This happened at 702 hours on
the Hobbs.
You will need to remove the upholstery from the seat back and top.The
entire top of the seatback needs to be cut loose. make the cut about 2
inches below top of the seatback.(you will need room to refiberglass the
top back on.)
My tank would not release itself from the layups that was done to hold
in place in the build process. I had to cut the tank out in small
pieces, what a pig of a job that was.
Once the tank is installed, you need to cut about, a one inch wide
recess in the seat module and about the same in the top that you removed
to get at the tank. Leave the inside layer of fiberglass on both the
top and the seat module, when you cut the recess.
Then place the top back on the module, layup one layer of fiberglass in
the recess, and let cure.
Once you return lay up at least two more layers in the recess. Then I
laid up 3 more layer of glass that I had cut 5 inches wide. This is a
structural part of the cockpit. Once this cured I mixed up some epoxy
filler to fill in some of the low places, then I reinstalled the
upholstery.
If you need to talk. Cell 352-250-0712
Jim and Augustene Brown
N398JB
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