This all started one day back in November 2018 on this site with a thread which discussed differences between the C-182 and the C-205. I mentioned in the thread, that although my 182 has, and continues to serve me extremely well, I'd like to find a 205 or 206 project plane. Later that day I was discussing the thread with a couple of friends, when one of them said they knew of a C-205 which was disassembled and stored in someones garage in Southern Cal.

I made contact with the 88 yr old former Navy Pilot / owner that evening. After a discussion and reviewing over a hundred detailed photos of the plane, I was pretty sure this would be a good fit for an empty hangar which I recently acquired. We struck a gentleman's agreement on the phone, I sent him a deposit, and made plans for a trip to CA.

The plane has a low time airframe of 1177 hrs, has no damage history, and is mostly free of corrosion. It spent its life in a desert climate. It was disassembled back in the mid 80's and placed in a large steel crate with plans of having it restored at a later time. The original IO-470S was overhauled in 2011 along with the prop. Although some parts are missing, many new parts had been purchased in the last 5 years.

The trip to California wasn't to happen till January. Two friends accompanied me on the trip. John, a 90yr old Marine and former North Country bush pilot / adventurer, and David, and aspiring bush pilot, both of whom have a lot of enthusiasm for anything related to aviation. It was more of a vacation than a business trip. The owners were very hospitable. They put us up in their beautiful home in the California desert and prepared 3 meals per day for us while helping us gather and wrap 205 parts for 3 days. On the fourth day, we drove 2.5 hours north to check out my sons progress at a flight school in Van Nuys.

The plane arrived here in New England a few days ago. We were challenged in the unloading process by cold temps and icy conditions. We used a roll-off car hauler to transfer the crate with the fuselage and wings from the tractor trailer, to the hangar.

I started by sorting parts and power washing years of desert sand and grit out of the fuselage and wings. New parts are ordered, I'm in contact with finkle and faeth, and work has begun. I'll post the updates.

Ron

Unloaded and finally in my hangar.

Hopefully I'm better at turning wrenches than uploading pics.

I saw that listing and was supremely intrigued by it. I think you got a great deal, judging by the asking price back when it was listed. Will be a fun project, hopefully no hidden demons. Good luck and make sure to keep us updated!

-Asa

I'm looking forward to seeing this. I'd invite you to join the Facebook 205 group as well. It's a great resource for us owners.

Love these threads. Looking forward to it.

AWesome! The 205 is an amazing plane. And Rich is a great guy. Looking forward to watching the assembly.

Well done. I am nearly at the end of our 206 project.



There are different high points along the way, like getting the gear on, turning on the master for the first time, the first start and I the one I am waiting for the first flight. You will be amazed at how many little bits you need to complete it. I have 3000 parts in the hangar from aircraft I parted out, so it was great to be able to find a trim tab, or pedal shields or a pulley from another 200 series Cessna. Having access to good labour makes all the difference. It can be hard going on your own. If you take a short cut you will always see it, so enjoy the process!

Thanks for the encouragement.
Spent the last few days getting the (new to me) hangar ready. Added some electrical outlets, hung some new LED's and built some work benches.
I removed the old glass and ordered some new tinted stuff from Great Lakes Aero. I ordered the copilot door glass with the 6"x9" photo port. Wondering how well it will seal and hold up. I bet it will suck some sunglasses over time. I should probably placard it. I think one of my biggest challenges will be finding some of the smaller intricate, specific to 205 parts which are missing.

Looks great!

On The Fly wrote:….. I ordered the copilot door glass with the 6"x9" photo port. Wondering how well it will seal and hold up. I bet it will suck some sunglasses over time. I should probably placard it......

Plan on someone losing at least iPhone out of it.

great airplane! You'll have lots of work ahead but it'll all pay off in the end!

Here's an update on my progress with the 205. There seems to be an imbalance in the amount of time I spend in my hangar and how far I've progressed. I'm enjoying this rebuild very much however.

I've gutted the plane completely and am in the process of addressing each and every part. The Control columns and their associated parts were all cleaned and repacked with grease (all 18 needle bearing sets). Some parts, such as the flap and aileron drive pulleys, wheels, brake parts etc., needed to be media blasted before I could paint them. The aircraft has only 1170 TT so the parts are not worn however, there are a lot of parts missing. I spend evenings with the parts catalog in my lap, typing part numbers into Ebay. There has been a steady stream of UPS boxes for the last month or so. I think I pretty much cleaned out rfinkle's hangar.

Here's a few pics of the project.

Post a list of the bits your short, I know I have 200-300 Cessna 206 parts left from my project.

I like what you've done stripping out the control columns and all. Good work.

Most of the things I'm missing are small parts, and I don't find out till after I start a certain task on some corner of the plane. I already acquired most of the big stuff for the airframe. A few additional things which come to mind are, (2) motor mount spacers, (1) outboard right side rear seat track, and aft seats.

I was wondering if anyone has a C-205 currently going through annual inspection with the tail cone removed, and would send me a photo of their elevator bell crank assembly (arm assembly).

My 205 project plane was missing this part so i purchased one on Ebay in accordance to the parts manual which called for a 1234029-1. This part does not seem to work however. A week or so after discovering this I was ordering some other missing stuff on Ebay, when I noticed a pic of a bell crank from a P-210 which looked like it might work. I bought it, and sure enough it seems perfect. A pic of someones bell crank assembly installed in their 205 might confirm weather the parts manual is incorrect, or if I'm missing something? Another possibility would be a revision to my manual which I'm missing.

Here's some photos of the correct Elevator Arm Assy according to the manual, and the one which seems to fit.

Thanks,
Ron

My service manual for the early 205/206 shows them all having the straight arm. But my 206 has the bent one. I'm curious if the parts/service manual didnt get reprinted to show the variations between the early 210/205/206. It's pretty thorough in showing all the variations, so maybe mine was swapped at some point with no paperwork as well...

I've been busy with my 205 restoration and thought I'd post some pics of my progress. It's been almost a year (11months) since I started this. I recently finished painting all the parts, a task that took me around 300 hours to complete, working mostly nights and weekends. I started this by building a paint booth big enough to do the smaller parts like ailerons, flaps, horizontal, rudder, elevators etc. For the fuselage and wings, I turned most of my hangar into a spray booth. I've had mixed results with my paint jobs in the past, however aside from a few nibs here and there, I was pretty happy with this one. One note: I used small pickup mounted orchard sprayer to spray the hangar roof, outside walls, ramp, grass areas, and inside floor with organic Pyrethrin about once per week during the painting process. There were no bugs for two months.

The fuselage controls and mechanical components are mostly completed, including the tail section. I still need to fabricate and install the fuel lines, and I haven't done anything electrical. I'm currently working on the wings. The flap motor and bell cranks are installed, and I have another week of evenings left on installing fuel bladders, then I can begin mounting the wings to the fuselage.

I'm by no means fast at this, but so many missing parts slows the process even more. This project reminds me of the old Johnny Cash song where he works at a Cadillac factory and smuggles home one part per day in his lunch box to build his dream car.

Yow, that pops. I like orange.

MTV

That is going to be one fine looking bird! Love the paint scheme!