So I bought a nice looking 180 a few months ago after I sold my Supercub. After putting about 25 hours on I decided to start an Instrument Panel/Interior re-furb to get her looking a little more "backcountry style" inside. Well I didn't really "decide" to do it, it just sorta happened one day when I started cleaning up some of the old wiring under the panel...next thing I know, all the instruments are out and the wiring is gone!! So then the ole "while I'm at its" showed up, and next thing I know the entire interior has been removed and I've got a project on my hands

I've been at this for about two weeks now and I'm still taking things apart...Its almost like a treasure hunt...the more you dig, the more you find. The difference with airplanes is, whatever you find, must pay for!!!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you guys in the near future!!

Here she is, not a bad looking bird if I do say so myself! She flies nice and straight, and faster than at least one other 180 in the neighborhood (without cheating)


The dog LOVES all the room back there!!


After taking off the overlay. pretty hacked together, needs a new panel for sure. (sorry for crappy pic)


What have I done?!?!


Couple layers of primer on there, along with some glue. Even though it looks bad, the existing zinc primer is in pretty sood shape and I plan to leave most of it intact, and touch-up where necessary, then paint only the parts that will show once the selkirk foam insulation is on.


Starting to look a little cleaner inside, decide to replace the windshield with a new Great Lakes strapless tinted to more closely match my side windows...should look nice!


Lots of old gunk to clean up and new bearings to install are on order...


Looking better already...


Also got some new BAS shoulder harnesses to install, those were a MUST!

Here we go again. Great looking 180,is that a 58 or so?

The early Cessnas with float kits had an awesome job of zinc chromate corrosion proofing. It always amazes me to see how well that stuff has held up over time.

I'm with you--I'd leave it intact.

MTV

Nice work Aaron! Glad to see you joining us in our misery!

are you gonna change the spinner?

Sweet Ride man!!! Good luck on your build, looking forward to seein how she comes out

This is awesome! Another lunatic jumps off the ledge.

We are going to have a really cool fleet out in the hinterland this next season....

Congrats Aaron! Wilson looks like he's gonna enjoy that one for sure. Way more room than the super cub!

There are gonna be a bunch of nice 170/180's out there when all u nut jobs get done with them! (I'm actually jealous) I will build/or rebuild some day..... Gonna just fly for now, thanks. But I will be thinking of u guys, I promise!

Good luck Aaron

Awesome, the maddness continues to infect people.

Any mods planned? What are you looking at doing with the panel? Looks like a great 180, I look forward to more.

VT180 wrote:Here we go again. Great looking 180,is that a 58 or so?

Yep it's a '58 180A

18043A wrote:are you gonna change the spinner?

I dig the "longnose"

mountainmatt wrote:=D>

Awesome, the maddness continues to infect people.

Any mods planned? What are you looking at doing with the panel? Looks like a great 180, I look forward to more.

Just the windshield and the seat belts/shoulder harnesses for now. Maybe an extended baggage, but that's easy to install later if I need it. It already has a Sling/Hammock seat field approved long ago, but I don't have any cushions for it so I need to get those made. Of course now would be a great time to re-do the seats...so much to do...

The panel will remain mostly stock with the instruments moved around a little to maximize space. I'll probably add an AirGizmo mount for my 396 in the panel too. Still looking into options there, trying to keep costs reasonable The com and xpdr will be moved to the lower hole left of the engine controls...looking into trading the Ky-97 for a Garmin SL-40 too, I really liked the "monitor" function in that radio when I had the cub.

Question: Are there any options out there for different fuel gauges??? I'd really like to ditch the 4-in-1 gauge in favor of a EI Oil Temp/Press gauge, but don't know of a way to get different fuel gauges in there...to be honest, I'd love to put some older wing root mechanical gauges but don't know the legality of that.

Question 2: Has anybody gotten a field approval for a B&C Alternator??

Man oh man... I hope you guys are really ready for just how long it takes to put stuff back together. Soooo easy to pull it all apart. Kudos! I love it.

RE: fuel gauges. Rip out that stock Cessna cluster and replace with E.I. CGR-30P. (or even better the MVP-50) This will allow you to get rid of those crappy gauges and have some really good data. It will also let you get rid of a lot of other stuff like M/P, Oil Temp, Volts, RPM, as well as give you stuff like Carb Temp, fuel flow, etc... I also replaced my fuel floats with McFarlane so I know I have very accurate readings.

I love these 180 refurb threads! In a few weeks from now the panel is dropping on my J model. Get it done before spring (I hope)! I'm getting lots of help from the local avionics shop.

Good luck. I'll be watching this thread and all the other threads for ideas. I'm doing my plane in phases. I like to fly 1000x better than fix.

Time for an update, Aaron!

It all started while trying to remove a wire... Right on...

Love these threads!

You guys know it is much more fun to fly them, right?

If you want a project, fly what you got and build a Bearhawk like Zane.

robw56 wrote:Time for an update, Aaron!

Okay, okay. I know I've been lagging a bit, but since you asked so nicely Works been busy lately, but still putting in the late nights trying to get this project flying again....I'm pretty close now.

Don't have much time right now but I'll throw up some pics since that's what everybody likes anyways!

Working with the selkirk foam was time consuming but easy to work with. I found that I could use my scroll saw to cut the 1/2" foam with ease and speed. Also made up a couple "hole saws" to make clean cuts.



After some pain and foam in the front...


Some panel building...


After fabricating some panels for the lower instrument panel...


New Garmin GTR225 installed with the old Xpdr...


Put the seats in and turned on the juice to see how it would look...mostly for some motivation (no smoke escaped the during the process )


New front glass going in...strapless and tinted...


That's all for now, gotta get back to the hangar!!

Looking good! I appreciate you sharing some of your techniques.
-DP

Looking good! What is the carbon fiber material you used for an overlay?

robw56 wrote:Looking good! What is the carbon fiber material you used for an overlay?

3M makes it, called "Di-Noc", whatever that means. I hate painting and this stuff just sticks right on and bubbles are easy to work out. Conforms well around corners too with a little heat....

I get it on eBay, it's not that cheap but I've tried the cheaper stuff and , well, you know how that works...



Since I covered it a couple weeks ago the inside corners have started to peel away a bit. This was just an experiment though, and I didn't clean the door very well prior to application....I'll try it again after a better prep job.

What a beautiful transformation! Well done Bart.

Thanks for the update.