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I've decided to jump into the deep end rebuilding my new-to-me M7, making a better plane and making progress towards my A&P. Figured I'd start a thread to document the project for fun and to maybe serve as a reference for others in the future.
It's a 1984, third M7 ever produced, with 1600 original hours on airframe and engine. It's in rough condition but I got it because it's desirable - long wing, no rudder tab, IO540. It spent some years on floats in Alaska, had it's time owned by Jeremy, and then spent 20 years in a New Jersey hangar flying 1 hour per year... if that.
As I picked it up on December 28:
After I decided I wanted to rebuild it, I spotted the M6 fuselage for sale on maulepilots.org and thought maybe I could tie that in. The end result of Mod Kit 57 is an M6 with M7 long wings and big rudder. My proposed end result would be exactly the same, but the path to get there would be the inverse. After talking to Shirley at Maule a bit, they agreed that it should be easy to get approved, so she wrote up a new mod kit for me. So I bought the fuselage. It has nearly all the factory mod options installed since it was rebuilt by Maule. Large left side patroller window in back seat, steel stringers instead of wood, stainless belly stringer, super skylight, rear seat shoulder harness and individual lap belt attachments, dual rear seat positions (fore and aft options), all seaplane mods and welded on mounts. Only thing to weld is some rear grab handles and maybe a mount for hydraulic parking brake if I decide to go that route.
Fuselage in my garage after James' harrowing delivery trip from Seattle:
I fly in Alaska during the summers so that adds a bit of complexity to the situation. I've decided to get as much done on the new fuse before heading north, so when I get back I'll have a higher probability of success in a shorter timeframe. The biggest thing would of course be the fabric.
The fuselage didn't come with doors and my M7 cargo doors won't fit so I bought some used doors off ebay. As everyone knows or has heard, doors indeed take lots of time to fit. I lucked out in that the frames fit great and it's only the hinges that need work. Easy welding project.
I ran the power and ground (in case of future tail-based ADS-B or something) for the rear nav light, installed cable fairleads, elevator and rudder cables, finished fitting rear doors.
Painted vbrace, hinges, cabin steps..
That's where I'm at now. A couple more small things to do then it'll get Oratex in a couple weeks. Will try to keep this thread moderately updated. I lucked out by having a few very key people locally that make this possible, most notably Andy Young. Also, Kasey at Maules has been immensely helpful and communicative getting me what I need.
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Planning on rotating the fuse around and painting the tail strut mounts and hinges black on the next set of warm days. Don’t have any antennas to go in the tail but am mounting a plate for the ELT at the top center of fuselage, just behind the cargo area. After 2 months of waiting on a estimated 1 week lead time, I got my extended gear in the mail today. Looks very well made.
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Great wx on the front range this weekend so I got to fly the M7 and work on the M6 outside. Met more neighbors the 2 days I had this in the driveway than the past year I've lived here.
Finished all the incidental pre-fabric painting as well as refurbing the rear doors. Had sloshed coroseal through the tubes to stop any rust that may have been happening in there. Prepped and painted them, reassembled all the latching hardware after refurbing it. They turned out pretty well, only thing left on them is to skin them but I'll do that down the road when I make a sheet metal and plexi order.
Fabricated and installed ELT mounting shelf at the top of the fuselage per a Maule drawing option. ELT will be attached to bottom of this, antenna mounted to it pointed straight down inside fuselage. After some reading I grounded the shelf to the fuselage so the whole airframe is the ground plane rather than just the small shelf. This was how my Scout was done as well. Artex 345 ELT should arrive in a couple days so I can install tray and route the remote switch and GPS interconnect harness up to the panel.
Made the mounting bracket for hydraulic parking brake installation (Maule dwg 9117E). I'll have my friend TIG it onto the fuselage when he does the rear grab handles. I have a MIG setup but welding to my fuselage is still intimidating and above my pay grade so I'll leave it to him. I ordered the valve off ebay a few weeks ago, I think it'll be a solid upgrade from the stock parking brake setup which is a tab that locks onto the shaft of the master cylinder, known for getting stuck in the on position.
Also, the oratex is on it's way from Germany!
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Right after I posted that yesterday I got a crate from Maule with the rear fuel lines that have to be installed prior to fabric, so I installed those last night as well. They come straight with a bend and bulb at the upper end, and the fire/chafe sleeve along the length. You have to feed them down through the B pillar and bend them as you go.
Crate also contained my new lower instrument panel. Was planning to reuse the old one but there’s be so many blanked out holes I decided to splurge for a new one. Will be a completely new panel along with the upper modular panels Maule offers.
-Asa
