As the firewall is completed, all the rivets which penetrate it must receive a blob of special sealant. Apparently what used to be ProSeal (fuel tank sealant) is now CS1900 FlameMaster. I had used the
smallest available amount earlier (~1 oz) when attaching the firewall shelf, but opted for for the next larger size (~17 oz) for this task since it allows use of a caulk gun. This worked well, but it ain't purty, as my friends used to say growing up in rural South Carolina. As long as it masters any potential flames, I don't care about appearance. In addition to rivet heads, there are various tooling holes and seams that must be covered, but this size was more than enough. Rather than the CS1900, many builders are opting to use 3M Firebarrier 2000+ which doesn't have to be mixed, and is similar in application to silicone seal. With the CS1900, the catalyst is mixed while entirely enclosed within the main tube (50 strokes of a plunger), reducing the chance of getting it on skin. I started out using gloves with several hundred ice cream sticks at the ready (they don't sell them in small batches), but quickly discovered that I didn't need either. I may have used a total of 5 sticks to smear the stuff around in a few spots, but a dabbing motion with the tip of the tube seemed to work well.
Making the substitution of Firebarrier 2000+ for the FlameMaster my constitute a violation of the E-LSA
edict to build exactly, rivet-by-rivet like the ASTM conforming prototype. Don't know.
The combination battery box/oil tank holder, including the service bulletin stiffener kit, went smoothly. I pulled all the rivets by hand (though a few could have been done with the pneumatic puller) and was initially convinced that some of them would be impossible to reach, but happily I was wrong. Absent any guidance from the build manual, I usually try to pull all the rivets on a particular surface in the same direction, simply for appearance. That was impossible here.
Much of my lack of progress lately can be blamed on my antique car. Simply rigging a throttle cable to operate a throttle body at the front of the engine rather than a carburetor in the middle of the engine is an incredible PITA. Seems that it should be simple.
