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Removing fuel tank baffle

rsr3

Well Known Member
Has anybody removed the whole fuel tank rear baffle once riveted on? Any pros or cons for this? I am concerned I did not use enough sealant between the baffle and the end ribs.

Thanks in advance!
 
If it were me I’d try a leak test and see what you find. There are less drastic approaches depending on what you discover.
 
Just me

When i built my tanks i had a leak in the baffle seam from too little proseal.. i fixed it without removing the baffle. I would not remove the baffle unless it is really a bad leaker. If it isnt really bad, there is probably too much proseal to make it easy. JMHO
 
I removed both rear panels on my RV6 tanks. Drilled out all the rivets and since my tanks had gas in them previously I could not use a torch or heat gun to soften the Proseal. I heated a thick piece of steel pretty hot maybe almost turning blue with my torch (Away from the tank) and set it on the tank skin let sit for a bit. Then used a blade, like a butter knife and worked my way across the tank between the skin and the panel flange. Worked great. Use some thin wood wedges as you move across to lift the skin up a little. My tanks had the paint stripped off so that wasn’t a concern. Took about 20 minutes per tank.
 
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Cut holes in the rear baffle

I had that concern on one of my -6A tanks.

I cut circles out of the rear baffles and fixed the sparse points. Vans sells a repair kit with closed end rivets to fix the big holes...:)
 
Well, I put some water in the tank and it leaked. Not big time, but enough to confirm I needed to take it off again. I will try using heat. It is coming off, but slowly!

Thanks for the replies, everyone.
 
I removed the rear bulkhead on a set of RV-4 tanks to get the slosh out. I destroyed both bulkheads beyond repair and had to order new ones. Just make access panels to fix the leaks.
 
Cut access holes as previously noted. Vans has cover plates, or just make some. Much better chance of sealing these plates, as compared to resealing the entire bulkhead, and no rivet drill out.

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Rv hub

I thought Vans made hub caps the same size, but dished. These would give a little extra volume to the tank! Just a stupid thought.
 
Thanks everyone, really appreciate the replies. In the end, I did get the baffle off. Was not too difficult but after running a blade down the skin-to-baffle joint (following deriveting) I then made a tool from a strip of thin aluminium that I could slide under the baffle and lift it from each rib flange individually, rather than pulling from the end of the baffle where I'd have had a large moment. It came off ok. Obviously I did not use enough proseal first time round, just as I suspected!

If I have a leak after this, or on the next tank, I shall be using the access plate method I've now learnt about! To be honest, I can't really understand why we don't put them on as standard.

Thanks again!
 
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