REFLECTOR: Jeffco Question.

[NMFlyer1 at aol.com]

Larry, 

My knowledge has to be tempered with the fact that I have not flown my V yet. 
I have leak tested the tanks and all is well. 

What I did was:

Grooved the foam out a bit on all sides of the baffles and bulkheads. Then 
packed them with Micro and Jeffco. then sanded them a bit (for bite) and glassed 
in per the plans. 

Made "cap strips" as many have talked about. Installed those. 

coated all of the inside of the tank, baffles, bulkheads and the inside of 
the top strake with Jeffco. Let it dry. 

   Note:  as it dries, some pinholes from popped bubbles will start to 
appear. I mixed up a little jeffco... and "dripped" it on those holes while the rest 
was still tacky. I did this with a toothpick. That took care of most of the 
pinholes. 

Once it had dried, I sanded all the Jeffco to get some "tooth" to it.. for my 
next coat. 

Once I was ready for the "closing"... I recoated the bottoms of the tank, and 
bulkheads with Jeffco.... so whatever falls off of the cap strips sticks into 
the fresh Jeffco. 

GET HELP.  You dont have enough hands to do this in a timely manner by your 
self. 

Then mix up Jeffco structural (not the sealant) with Micro. apply to the cap 
strips so you have a good sealing mound. 

put on the top... weigh it down.. and wait. 

Go do the other one. 

Like I said before.. I had a couple small leaks. They were hard to find with 
a single balloon on the tank line. So I put a big party balloon inside another 
one. Filled with a compressor.. and affixed to the fuel tube. That gave me 
enough extra pressure to find the leaks with soapy water. In both cases.. they 
were in the forward, outboard, upper strake to bulkhead area (where the radius 
is small). 

I mixed up some Jeffco and Cabbo... and hooked a long tube to the fuel line 
(previously used for leak testing).  drew a vacuum with the tube in my mouth 
and "painted" the leaky area with the mix. In essence.. pulling it into the 
leak. Once that was done.. I added a bit of Micro to the mix.. and put a small 
fillet over the area too. 

The next leak tests were a success. 

Hope that helps. 

 Kurt 







Question for the knowledgable,

Anyone have the difinative answer on these? 

Is it better to seal the tanks with the Jeffco right before you close the 
fuel Strake or is it ok to paint the Strake walls days even weeks before you plan 
on sealing the strake? Can you mix Jeffco with micro glass and use like 
EZ-poxy? Bonding abilities with aluminum?

I haven't used this stuff yet...Sure smells good though, the wife is love 
this stuff, ahh...the joys of building at home. Thanks in advance for your input 
all.

Larry Lambert.
XL/
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