So I built the wing fuel tank a while back but for some reason I never got this posted. I built it out of .040 aluminum. I was going to initially weld it but after doing some practice on some scraps I determined that I as was not to proficient at welding that thin of aluminum with my current welder that does not support pulses. That being the case I ended up gluing and riveting the tank as some others have done. I purchased the recommended two part sealant for this which works well but is messy crap. I also made the mistake of trying to weld my filler cap since I did not have a bolt on one and did not want to spend the money and time waiting for one. Welding was ok but did a lot of warping to metal and I ended up having a pin hole that I had to deal with. I also welded in fuel sensor float ring – that was also a mistake cause even worse warping. Should have just glued in in place for temporary assembly and been done with it. Also had leaking issue because of warping. Anyway, after assembling I did to a 2 or 3 pressure tests until it was good!

Now, I am still not very satisfied with this and am concerned with the filler cap not being tall enough to clear fabric – it will be close. I went with a boxy design including a flat top – should have built is curved to match wing top – of course that would have been issues with installing fueling cap since it is flat and what not.

I think the next time I will just build a fiberglass tank but not sure what to build it out of mold wise – Leonard suggest some material in his plans that I could not source.

Oh, and I ended up with a lot of scrap with this one. I think this darn tank was the hardest part of the build – at least the part that gave me the most issues!

Lots of scrap

2 Replies to “Built the fuel wing tank

    1. I would have loved to take that approach but I was unable to find a source for it. It may be under a different name so not sure. I did look around for it. I think if I was going to do again I would just use the tank from mini-max. The only reason I did not do so was that the tank would not fit between the ribs. If I had had the tank initially while building I would have ensured the room I needed.

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