Proseal

Hi to you all! I have used yesterday Proseal on the tanks and today 24 hours after it is still soft. Is this right? On the other hand I received the Proseal from Vans already expired (expiring date august 2005). Does this matter?
I would hate to do all the tanks once again!

Proseal's set time is affected by ambient temperature. Are you in an area where the temps are low? Cooler basement? Outside garage that is not heated?

Give it time. It will set, assuming you used the proper 10:1 ratio. That expiration date is not that long ago. Should be fine.

Oh....Duhhhh. I see you are in Germany. The colder temps will make your proseal set time a bit longer.

Regards,

When I did my tanks, the sealant was always soft 24 hours later. I tend to give it a good week of cure time. It was also quite cool when I was doing the tanks. If you want to try to speed things up, drop a worklight into the tank bay and suspend it there...then cover the baffle area with plastic.

Proseal setting

First time I used proseal I didn't mix it enough. I didn't read the instructions carefully. It never set. The second time, I really mixed the heck out of it, and it took several days to set. My workshop is very cool, ranging from about 3c now, to all the way up to 19c in the summer.

http://www.rv8.ch/article.php?story=20040726220023545

As a side comment - the proseal I got from Van's, even when set, is no where near as hard as the proseal on my QB tanks. I'd really love to know what those guys use down in the Philippines. It's much better, IMHO.

detlef lili said:

Hi to you all! I have used yesterday Proseal on the tanks and today 24 hours after it is still soft. Is this right? On the other hand I received the Proseal from Vans already expired (expiring date august 2005). Does this matter?I would hate to do all the tanks once again!

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My guess is your proseal is just fine. Like others have commented, ambient temperature has much to do with how long it takes for it to set up. In a production environment, differences in set up time are useful. There, proseal is mixed as A1/2, A4, B1/2, B2, B4, etc. Each mix has a different cure rate and characteristic viscosity. Often a shop foreman would make you point a heat lamp at a specific area of an assembly at a defined temperature to accelerate the cure so you couldn't use the excuse that you were "waiting for the sealer to dry!"
Even poorly mixed proseal will eventually set up but it is virtually impossible to determine exactly when since there are many variables such as manufacturer, batch, shelf life, temperature, and mix ratio.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"

I agree that it can take a while to cure. In the past, I've mixed Proseal in paper cups, and when I'm done with that batch, I write a date and time on the cup, and leave a popsicle stick in it. You can then poke, and prod at the stuff in the cup to see if it's cured, rather than what's on your tank.

proseal

Thanks guys, it was a great relief to read all this. And by the way, it is snowing but our workshop is heated, if not it would take maybe still longer for the Proseal to cure and my patience would drop below cero!! Happy Christmas to you all!!

The proseal that the QB tanks use is probably the structural stuff that Cessna uses of it's tanks. Difference is the part one is pink, and the hardener is the same. It comes in the tubes that can be mixed with a machine and squeezed out like a tube of sillycone. Awesome stuff that.