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Possible fuel color Around Rivets

B

Bart

Well Known Member
I'm just starting to notice some discoloartion around two rivets on left fuel tank. The plane has been flying for two years now and I suspect the coloration is fuel starting to leak. Has anyone else had somethign like this happen? If so, how have you handled this?
 
Rivet Weep

This is actually a pretty common problem. here is what I did to fix it.
Make sure your fuel level is somewhat low in the tank to be repaired. Take some Pro-seal and moosh it on over the rivet. Take your thumb and try to squeeze as much as you can into the rivet seams. Then, use laquer thinner or mineral spirits to clean up all of the excess. Let dry overnight and go flying.
 
my wing is painted to I guess I'll need to sand back to the metal and attempt the pro-seal squish? sounds easy enough....
 
Search the archives for the green Loctite solution to leaking rivets. It might save you having to damage your paint.

Jim Berry
RV-10
 
Hello Bart
Seems we are both having minor trouble since Oshkosh. I read about your flap, easy to have happen. We also have something going on with our tanks. We noticed the wing walk spewing glue on our return flight back from Oshkosh and didn't think much about it. The other day after putting the RV back in the hangar I noticed a big bubble under the wing walk material about the size of a childs hand. I desided to remove the wing walk material ( we installed the ww material in sections) covering the fuel tank. There was a gooey material with the consistancy of tire patch glue, and I had to catch it before it would run out onto the clean wing. There is no way this was just the wing walk glue desolving by itself, (too much gooe). It had a blue tinge.
I have cleaned up the wing in the wing walk area and filled the tank. With one flight and full tanks I've yet to see any evidence of fuel.
Anyone have suggestions as to what is happening?
Sorry Bart, I have no experience repairing leaky rivetes yet.
Thanks Ron
 
I don't think my leak is quite to the gooey stage. In fact it's something that is very hard to notice unless you know the wing. It's more of a seepage under the clear coat barely larger than the rivet. Is your wing painted?
 
Yes they are painted, we were camped at Oshkosh just across from you (Nova Scotians). Now that the wing walk material is removed I see no sign of a fuel leak, so we are not talking much of a leak.
And I built the wings myself, can't blame anyone else.
Ron
 
Mine are QB wings as well. The right wing is fine but the top inboard section on the left has two rivets that might be leaking on. Its still early as far as I can tell. I'll reseach the loctite solution someone mentioned.
 
Both my left and right QB RV-10 fuel tanks had weeping rivets on the top of the wing at the first two front top rivets of the first rib next to the fuselage. Same two rivets on both tanks. The weeping rivits did not start until over 100 hours flying time and the airplane had been painted. I tried the green locktight without success and finally pulled the right tank off, after flying it empty.

I ordered a wingtank access cover and nutplate ring, cut an access hole in the right tank, vacumned out all the cut filing from cutting the access hole, installed the nutplate ring, and then added proseal to the two weeping rivets from the inside of the tank, installed the access cover, prosealed the access cover seam line and screws so it wouldn't leak, let set upside down for a week, reinstalled on the airplane and waited another two weeks to make sure the proseal had set up really good before adding fuel. No more weeping rivets on the right tank since.

After having the RV-10 down so long for the right wing fix, I decided to fly until the next winter before pulling the left fuel tank. One thing after another and I have yet to fix the left fuel tank weeping rivets and the weeping has gotten progressivelly worse. The left tank repair is Winter 2011-2012 repair time.
 
Fuel leaks

It seems the message for all those with QB wings is to expect leaks from the top rivets, after flying for a while.

As one planning to purchase QB wings:

1. Is this problem likely from the Proseal not being properly applied? Perhaps they should let the tanks sit upside down after applying proseal to the top rivets??

2. Does this problem usually only involve the top rivets or can I expect problems with the bottom, as well?

3. With new QB wings, should I plan to put some additional Proseal on the top rivets to avoid this problem??

I'd appreciate any comments from those who have gone through this problem.

Thank you.
 
fixing leak

You don't have to remove any paint using my method to seal pinhole leaks. Just moosh in the proseal, wipe clean and let sit overnight. if necessary, just touch up the pinhole or rivet weam with matching paint.
 
I think I might be missing part of your process....the mooshing you are talking about must be occurring from the inside not the outside...right? So you are opeing up the tank at the fuel sender hole and reaching in? Sorry for the confusion...just trying to get my brain around this.
 
From the outside

Bart,
I did it from the top surface right on top of the paint. I just force in as much as I could into a pinhole and wipe the surface clean with mineral spirits before the Pro-seal set up. Let it sit overnight to cure and have never had a weep or fuel color since.
 
Fortunately, I haven't had any weeping rivets. Here's what we do with steel motorcycle tanks:

1) Drain fuel and rinse with water.
2) Slosh with Marine Clean for a while.
3) Slosh with Metal Prep for a while.
4) Pour PUR-15 sealent into tank, rotate until it is evenly coated, then pour out excess.

Unfortunately, sloshing an entire tank probably isn't a good idea for the RV-10. It would be heavy and I'm not aware of a suitable sealant for this. If you can reach the leak through an access hole, that would probably be best.

For a difficult to reach leak, I wonder if it would be possible to drill out the weeping rivet. Then, inject a little thinned proseal with a syringe and replace the rivet with a suitable blind rivet.
 
Is it such a problem that it has to be repaired??

Maybe, just watch it for a while. If its not pouring fuel out, then maybe its just an acceptable tolerance.

I have several discolored rivets on the top of the tanks also. It still flys as if it didn't.
 
I'm not ready to fix it yet....just curious what's gonna have to be done. Unlike wine leaks never get better with age.
 
I was thinking about this today...we used something like the attached tool to repair the F/A-18 stabilators that had small areas of inter-ply delamination. We added a puddle of resin to the surface near the disbond and placed the tool over the top of the damaged area. We connected vacuum first then air pressure to the tool. The internal cavity of the tool was pressurized while the area between the seals was evacuated to hold the part in place against the surface. We added a small heat lamp to the area to lower the resin viscosity and improve flow. The resin was usually forced into the right cavities and the entire inter-ply delam was cured. I was thinking that something like this could be used with pro-seal to cure weeping/leaking rivets. Other than high curvature areas, I think this might be useful. Any thoughts?

 
Looks like it might work. The two rivets I see the blue circles on look like I might be able to pull the sender and stick my hand in the tank and smear some pro-seal from the inside. With that said, a previous submission mentioned smearing from the outside and pushing it through. I may try that first but I'm still a little skeptical I'll actually push it all the way through the paint and around the rivet. Your device looks like it has the mechnical strenghth to push!
 
Please see post #5 for details on my problem. Today with the RV not being in use for a few months I noticed the paint arround one rivet was cracked half way round. It's exactly in the center of where the wing walk material was letting go. There is no sign of fuel but something ate into the wing walk glue and now I see a crack in the paint.
I can remove the wing and remove the fuel level sending unit to access the bad rivet and apply Proseal. Or, I could sand the paint on the outside of the tank and apply Proseal to the exterior as a new wing walk material would hide over the problem rivet repair. The later repair would be much simpler but would it be as good and lasting?
Thanks Ron
 
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