Syd Cohen
I think when they talk about soldering the fuel tanks they are
referring
to the Terneplate tanks. Terneplate is steel coated with an alloy of lead
and tin. When I bought my 1946, Mod 415 D, more than two years ago all the
rivets in both wing tanks had been soldered. I have had absolutely no
seepage problems to date. There is a way to solder aluminum but it is very
difficult and probably not approved for our Coupes.
I should point out regarding the ten hours it took to remove and
re-install my (terneplate) fuselage tank for soldering, some people may
not
realize the tank has to be dropped down inside the canopy and removed
through the open sliding side windows, through the top of the cockpit. In
order to do this the tank has to be drained, all engine connections
disconnected, both yoke tubes have to be disconnected, both fuel lines
have
to be disconnected, my main fuel valve comes through the instrument panel,
so it had to be removed too. Any radios that extend under the tank have to
be disconnected and removed. When the tank has been repaired it has to
have
everything re-installed and reconnected in the reverse order of the above.
I'm sure I may have forgotten something but you can see it is a time
consuming job. In addition to all this I, myself spent at least ten hours
cleaning many layers of filler putty, fiberglass and who knows what else
that had previously been used in many attempts to repair the tank without
removing it.
I thank my lucky stars that so far the solder job seems to be
holding up.
I think you might agree it is best to us the most foolproof method to seal
a leaking tank so that it doesn't have to be removed again.Jack G. N103JF
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