The center aluminum tube in the photo to the left will be the rear brace you will be riveting the tank holder to. The photo to the right is a view of where you will need to place your tank holder.

Clamp the fuel tank holder parts together and check the alignment of all parts before drilling and riveting.

Once you have drilled your 1/8" rivet holes, you can either place clecos to hold it together for final inspection or go straight to riveting the holder together.

As you can see in these photos, the tank holder has been riveted together and ready for placement in the fuselage frame.

Now, remember the first photo on this page? You will drill and fasten the rear tank holder to the aluminum tube support. Refer to the second photo and you will note the "V" tube construction the tank holder bottom will rest on. It is this "V" tube construction you will drill and rivet the bottom of the tank holder to.

Once you have checked the tank holder alignment, you are now ready to rivet the holder permanently to the fuselage frame. The manual calls for an aluminum tube to be riveted into place on the longerons, just in front of the tank. Our builder has gone a step further, (see below).

According to the manual, you are finished with the stock fuel tank installation at this point.

For the forward fuel tank holder brace, our builder opted not to rivet the forward brace into place, but instead, bolt it into place in case it ever needs to be removed to allow tank removal. Here, a "two lug anchor nut (Aircraft Spruce PN- AN366F-1032A) was used. The outer diameter of the anchor nut is 3/8". Therefore, a 3/8" bolt hole was drilled, then enlarged slightly with a rat tail file to accommodatethe the anchor nut in the longerons.

Once the nut plate has been checked for alignment, countersunk rivets are used so the rivet heads would not be a problem under the aluminum brace when bolted down.

A 3/16" x 1/2" AN bolt (Aircraft Spruce PN- AN3-4A) was used for this installation.

Once you have bolted the tank brace into place, you are done.