fitting fuel tanks

So I tried to follow Van?s instructions on fitting the fuel tanks and ran into some issues with alignment on the Z brackets. I guess I need to figure out how to drill an ?exact? hole Now I am trying a different method.

I manufactured a small plate with the same hole locations as the outboard aft corner of the fuel tank skin by back drilling the fuel tank skin. I bolted the Z brackets to the spar, clecoed the plate to the baffle and screwed the plate to the spar. You can see this in the picture. Things seem to align pretty well.

I will now use the baffle to back drill the 1/8? holes into the brackets. I hope this works better than relying on my measuring and drilling skills

I like it. I just fit my first baffle and it sucked.

That is a really nice way to do it. I've done similar small template pieces like that when trying to get the little angle clips match drilled on the upper rear fuselage skin and forward fuselage skins where the center ribs attach to the bulkheads and firewall. Trying to use the big skin makes it impossible to get in there with the drill, but a small template makes it easy.