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Joa, when I was looking at the Coupe before buying it, I decided to run it up and down the runway as it had been sitting for 8 years. All fuel tanks were empty so I added five gallons of fuel to the left wing tank and three gallons to the header tank added a battery and cranked it up. Was able to get two strokes on the primer before it locked up to where you could not push the primer in. It started on the second turn of the prop and off I went, up and down the runway but only once. The engine quit and would not restart. What I found was an almost solid brown liquid in the gascolator. The brown color turned out to be the remains of a sloshing compound. Both main tanks had been sloshed. I inspected the tanks and found that the sloshing compound had started to flake off. Glad we didn't try to fly it that day. I removed the tanks and rebuilt them myself. Here is a list of times: 1. Remove all rivets, 205 in one tank and 204 in the other. About 1.5 hours per tank. I used a automatic center punch and an air hand drill using a drill bit one size larger than the rivet. You only drill off the head, do not drill through the rivet. Punch out the body with a pin punch. 2. Separate the tank halves with a sharp knife. 10 minutes 3. I used paint remover to get the sloshing compound off. MEK works also but evaporated too fast to be really efficient and Paint removers usually have MEK in them as an active ingredient. 1.5 hours per tank. 4. I removed all fittings because I found that the outlet flange had one rivet missing that was replaced with a PoP rivet, not a cherry but a commercial pop rivet. Nice leaker. Several others had no tails left. The only corrosion in the tank was to the rivets holding the fittings to the tank. 1 hour per tank. 5. I used PRC fuel tank sealant (from Aircraft Spruce) and reinstalled the tank fittings. 1 hour. PRC is very messy and must be worn off anything that it dries on. Hands included. Wear gloves and old clothes. 6. Assembled the tank with PRC between mating surfaces. I used three people, one to squeeze the rivets. (Easier than bucking them.) One person to hold and position the tank and one to put a little PRC on each side of the hole and insert the rivet. It took a little bit over two hours for the three of us per tank, so call it 6 hours. 7. After the tank was assembled, I spent an hour cleaning the squeezed out PRC and smears with MEK. 1 hour. So all told it took me about 12-13 hours per tank. There is some wait time built in so it may be less. My IA who signed off the repair (He was the tank holder) charges $35.00/hour if he did it, so it turned out to be a big savings over buying new tanks if you can find them or having someone else rebuild them. I WILL NOT reslosh the tanks. In addition, I have found the sloshing residue in every item of the fuel system from the tanks to the carb. I have over 40 hours invested in removing it. I replaced all fuel lines from the tanks to the carb instead of cleaning them. Cheaper and faster and guarantees that they are clean. There is an article in an older Coupe Capers on rebuilding fuel tanks that I used as a guide to rebuild mine. Have not rebuilt the carb yet. On this forum it has been recommended by some that Reynolds makes a alcohol resistant sloshing compound. Maybe so, but I called them and asked about it's use in an airplane and not only did they tell me NO but the President of the company sent me an E-mail advising me that NO Reynolds sloshing products were approved for aviation use and they did not recommend it. I did use it in my MGB but it has a steel fuel tank that was rusty and so far no problems. If your handy with tools, have a expert nearby to rescue you and like projects, dive in. Remember I would call it a major repair and as such needs to be blessed when done. If you would like to see the inside of the tank before you start, I took a series of pictures and will send them to you. Best of fun Rich Blair N99997 4J6 St. Marys, Ga __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________ T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
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