Brief Description: Bonding NACA Vents With ProSeal - Part 1
There are three NACA air vents on the this RV-8. One on each side of the fuselage right behind the firewall that feed two 2" eyeball vents on the instrument panel, and a third vent mounted about 2 feet outboard on the underside of the right wing. This vent feeds a third eyeball vent near the passenger stick. I opted to add four #6 screws/washers/nuts to the vents to hold them up securely in addition to the ample application of ProSeal (gray goo normally used to seal the fuel tanks). Overall the installation went very well. Working with ProSeal is always a giant pain because its soooooo gooey and super sticky. You can't just wipe it off really with a paper towel. You can kind of just mush it around and get some of it up. On top of that pressure, you only have about 30 minutes once you've mixed it to get it applied where ever you're going to bond something. After that, its just sticky and messy, but won't spread like you want. Fortunately, I lucked out this time around and worked quickly and pretty neatly and got all three vents bonded with a single batch of the ProSeal. I found that you can kind of clean it up with a 10/90 mix of Acetone/LacquerThinner. Mind you, it doesn't dissolve it, it just kind of mobilizes it so that you can wipe it up easier. Lots of paper towels required.
Anyway, one more job I've been dreading is now complete. I have one more application of ProSeal, and that will be to the various components mounted to the firewall like the heater vent and plugging up some of the wiring holes.
NACA Vents Ready For Bonding - Wing/Left/Right
NACA Vent - Underside Right Wing
NACA Vent - Underside Right Wing #6 Screw Holes Added
