helitim Posted April 7, 2017 Report Posted April 7, 2017 Sometime in the past, somebody with the IQ of about 50 decided it would be a good idea to use some type of grinder/sanding unit inside the fuel tank during a previous leak repair. The following photos show how they ground the heads off of numerous rivets in several different areas of one of my tanks. Advanced in Troutdale estimates a total of about 50-60 rivets will have to be replaced at an additional 10-12 hours of labor cost. Just want to show others why it can be a bad idea to use the wrong tools and methods for a job.
kmyfm20s Posted April 7, 2017 Report Posted April 7, 2017 I'm surprised they only estimated 10-12 hours!
jetdriven Posted April 7, 2017 Report Posted April 7, 2017 Some people here were using auto parts store paint stripper inside the fuel in the wing. Even though it causes sandwich corrosion. There are a lot of bad ideas floating around. 2
gsxrpilot Posted April 7, 2017 Report Posted April 7, 2017 Pictures of structural issues inside fuel tanks gives me the cold sweats. Thankfully mine is nearly fully recovered. It can get very ugly and expensive. 1
Yetti Posted April 7, 2017 Report Posted April 7, 2017 (edited) I question the spar... seems like you would want to measure the depth of the grinding. Not different than gsrpilot's corrosion. If the last reseal is in the log books, you would be doing the community a favor by involving the governing bodies. Edited April 7, 2017 by Yetti 1
helitim Posted April 8, 2017 Author Report Posted April 8, 2017 I'm not the least bit happy about this, that's for dang sure. The plane is in Troutdale so I'm sure it will receive the proper assessment and repairs as needed to make things correct. Just can't for the life of me understand how someone could be this stupid and still breathe without mechanical assistance.
kortopates Posted April 8, 2017 Report Posted April 8, 2017 Of course I have no idea, but I'll guess you have nothing logged in the log book on this because it was done as unsupervised owner maintenance. Just can't imagine a certificated A&P doing that. But finger pointing at this stage does nothing to help your situation. But maybe your posting of this will prevent another occurrence. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1
helitim Posted April 8, 2017 Author Report Posted April 8, 2017 10 hours ago, kortopates said: Of course I have no idea, but I'll guess you have nothing logged in the log book on this because it was done as unsupervised owner maintenance. Just can't imagine a certificated A&P doing that. But finger pointing at this stage does nothing to help your situation. But maybe your posting of this will prevent another occurrence. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I agree. This was posted to hopefully help prevent this for someone else. After the tank reseal is complete, the last step in my refurb process is paint. I have an appointment for July but may delay that until September for better working temperatures. I'm a little concerned that the heat of July could cause some problems if the shop paints at the wrong time of day.
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