I made two-part anti-hangup guides to prevent the flop tubes from getting hung up on the nutplates surrounding the access plates.  The plans call for a single piece guide that rivets across the opening.  The problem with this is that it severely impedes access to the interior of the tank if I ever need to open it up for some reason.  Most of this two-part guide is attached to the access plate and comes off with the plate, providing unimpeded access to the interior of the tank.

I also riveted covers over the large holes in the second ribs to keep fuel in the inboard bays during knife edge flight.

I fabricated a two-piece anti-hangup guide to prevent the flop tube from catching on the nutplates that hold on the tank access plate.  Most of the guide is attached to the access plate so that both come off together (this keeps the guide from blocking access to the interior of the tank if I ever have to get in there).

Here is the rib in place in the tank.  The guide moves the pickup out an inch or so from the bottom corner of the tank, but that shouldn’t have a significant impact on the amount of unusable fuel in the tank.

I riveted a cover plate on the large hole in the second rib.

This prevents the flop tube from catching on that hole (and also helps hold fuel in this bay in knife edge flight).

I drilled the tank attach angles for the 3/8″ fuel fitting and six 1/8″ rivets.

The reverse side has a reinforcement plate that stiffens the nose of the rib since there are no rivets along the leading edge.

Per the plans, I modified the inboard ribs in each tank so that the inside of the tank can be accessed if the need ever arises.  First up is to cut out the largest stiffener ring.  I used this piece of shit fly cutter from Harbor Freight.  It eventually worked, but this thing sucks and is going in the trash as soon as I buy a quality replacement.

After the hole is cut out and deburred, the access plate is positioned and match drilled to the rib.  Since I’m going with the capacitive fuel sender and flop tubes, this plate won’t have any holes through it.

After the holes are drilled in the rib, the stiffener ring is clecoed to the rib…

…and the nutplate rivet holes are all match drilled in the rib.

The rib is dimpled using the tank dies for the rivets that will hold the stiffener ring and nutplates in place.

The stiffener ring is countersunk for the dimples in the rib.  These will be set aside and riveted later when I start sealing the tank.