I’m getting burned out on proseal and the mess and cleanup that accompany it. So I’ve been pushing pretty hard to get the inboard ribs riveted into both tanks. The only ‘gotcha’ on these ribs is fitting the T-410 reinforcement plates and the T-405 attach angles to the rib. The plans don’t specify an exact location for the angle, it just fits as far as possible into the leading edge of the rib.

Some builders get into trouble by riveting both the angle and the plate in place before the rib is riveted; they then find out that there’s no room to squeeze those rib-to-skin rivets that lie between the angle and the rib. Take a look at the picture below and you’ll see how everything fits together.

For me, the best way to put this assembly together was to rivet the inboard rib in place with a minimum amount of sealant around the front of the rib. I held the T-405 angle in place and match-drilled through the top and bottom pilot holes into the rib, clecoing as I went. Then I removed the angle, taped the reinforcement plate in place inside the rib and match-drilled it through the holes just drilled in the rib. Finally, I clecoed both the plate and angle to the rib and match-drilled the remaining holes. For the left tank, the center hole also became the pilot for a 3/8″ hole which will accomodate the flop tube bulkhead fitting.