June 14, 2020
With the tech inspection complete, we were finally ready to seal up both of the fuel tanks. Since the sealant is only good for a couple of hours once it’s mixed we had to have everything sorted and planned to make the most of our time.
First up, to permanently install the barn door and anti-hangup brackets in the left tank. I was working on that when I did something dumb. The access panel for the tank is every so slightly narrower than the total spread of the pop riveter. So while I was able to get the first squeeze on the first rivet, I wasn’t able to open the handles wide enough to let go of the rivet and reset. Unable to let go of the rivet, with no room to turn the pop riveter, the tool was now fully stuck in the fuel tank.
Paul took the die grinder too it, and so we lost a couple hours of our day dismembering the tool and pulling it out piece by piece. This also disfigured the barn door so that we had to make up another one. Obviously, we needed a new pop riveter before we could re-attempt so we dropped another $12 at Harbor Freight.
Now it was mid-day and we had accomplished nothing, but we got back to it. This time around, we used the swivel head on the pop riveter to use the tool inside the tank instead of through the access panel. Finally, all of the parts were inside the left tank.
Before 
After 
Flop Tube Installed
Everything that was left needed to be dipped in sealant prior to installation. We took a solid couple of hours to count out all of the rivets and bolts of each size and write out the order in which we would close up everything. It was tedious, but everything went a lot more smoothly for it.
The sealant is crazy messy. I’m so glad we didn’t have to seal the entire tank because this stuff gets everywhere. Even with MEK to clean it up, it’s still a disaster. All of the components that got sealant were cleaned with MEK first and then it was finally time to seal.
It’s an organized mess
It definitely helped to have four hands for this project, one of us to apply the sealant and the other to hold the parts. I didn’t think we’d get it all done after the slow start of the morning, but eventually both tanks were sealed.
Right Tank 
Left Tank
With all the sealant applied, we cleaned all the tools in MEK and called it a night. Hopefully nothing leaks, but we’ll have to wait a few days to find out.
Cheers,
-Kacy
(Total Build Time: 296.5 hrs)