Great stuff, and thanks a million. I was using heat and getting the wavy look, I will try the cold bend over a corner.

Absolutely keep posting as much as you can! All the technique, safety, and equipment threads are great but I come here for the BUILDS!! Seeing people get creative with planes is awesome, especially when they do it with as many planes as you are

Well, the project (and my life) is about 90% moved across the country from Colorado to Kentucky. Rented a 26' Uhaul ($$$$), loaded everything up, and drove 20 hours east this past weekend. Everything went smoothly, no shipping damage. Only thing that was unexpected, but makes sense, is that my bushwheels totally collapsed going from 5000' to sea level. I was towing my Tercel (the real MVP) so it was a pretty big rig.




Getting the new shop all set up and organized takes a while. Spent the time cleaning it really good prior to bringing anything in. It's not the white-floored corporate hangar I had been using, but I also don't have to pay rent..



The 'donor' M6 also arrived in Kentucky. Wings, engine, cowling, controls, N number, etc etc. It's in good shape except the fabric. Sorta funny how the paint on the fabric is terrible but the paint on the hard pieces is excellent. I'm thinking someone didn't quite do the fabric job correctly? Either way, perfect for me.



A picture of my new beginnings.. That's the M6 landing at the local airport and the house on the hill in the background surrounded by trees is my new house. The land butts up to airport, but no access.

Super nice, gotta like that spot next to the airport, bummer no access, but it's close!

You got any more of them 31s? [/chappell]

gdflys wrote:You got any more of them 31s? [/chappell]

I do have 2 nice sets now since the M6 came on them... Not sure if I'll sell one set or save both to have a lower48 set and an AK set...

Looks like you don't need access to the paved strip, a nice grassy hill right beside the house to use...

Has been a visually slow couple weeks as I get my shop set up and running but major progress has happened. Over the past week I've been prepping for pulling the wings on the M6 to get it in the shop. Pickled the engine, drained fuel, disconnected everything, built a wing stand/cart, etc. Everything went pretty well today when we pulled them. Had the wings pulled and the fuselage/wings into the shop in a couple hours. Supposed to have a lot of rain tomorrow so glad we got it done.

No work on the new fuselage. Next step will be pulling the control system ot of the M6, do a little rehab if needed and install into the new fuselage. Would've been nice to do this before fabric of course but that's not how life worked out this time. Then will start getting some longer lead items going - avionics ordering, getting stuff painted, etc etc.

My homemade wing stand. 6" carpet strips but the load bearing comes from 2" straps underneath. All materials were found for free, love it.


Draining gas. Ended up being about 25 gallons. The dual drains on the Maule make this a breeze. I had enough clean metal cans and a metal funnel trying to reduce any chance of static but I also did it outside so I didn't feel there was any risk at all.


Everything stripped off the wings - control surfaces, tips, fairings, etc. Waiting to crew to arrive to pull them.


Wings off, stand around and talk about life.

Nice work! Sorry to not see you round the patch, Asa. Where in Kentucky are you? Anywhere near the Red River Gorge? Bronson and I might be out that way this fall for a climbing trip at the Red. Take care and keep posting your progress.

asa wrote:
My homemade wing stand. 6" carpet strips but the load bearing comes from 2" straps underneath. All materials were found for free, love it.

That's a good idea. I built that exact same stand with the carpet strips but didn't think to use some wide webbing. Now my carpet is all stretched out and the leading edges are kissing the 2x4s.

asa wrote:Has been a visually slow couple weeks as I get my shop set up and running but major progress has happened. Over the past week I've been prepping for pulling the wings on the M6 to get it in the shop. Pickled the engine, drained fuel, disconnected everything, built a wing stand/cart, etc. Everything went pretty well today when we pulled them. Had the wings pulled and the fuselage/wings into the shop in a couple hours. Supposed to have a lot of rain tomorrow so glad we got it done.

No work on the new fuselage. Next step will be pulling the control system ot of the M6, do a little rehab if needed and install into the new fuselage. Would've been nice to do this before fabric of course but that's not how life worked out this time. Then will start getting some longer lead items going - avionics ordering, getting stuff painted, etc etc.

My homemade wing stand. 6" carpet strips but the load bearing comes from 2" straps underneath. All materials were found for free, love it.


Draining gas. Ended up being about 25 gallons. The dual drains on the Maule make this a breeze. I had enough clean metal cans and a metal funnel trying to reduce any chance of static but I also did it outside so I didn't feel there was any risk at all.


Everything stripped off the wings - control surfaces, tips, fairings, etc. Waiting to crew to arrive to pull them.


Wings off, stand around and talk about life.

Things I would add when draining fuel like that are 1). Keep the drop distance of the fuel absolute minimum, use blocks or? to raise the receptacle.

And 2). Use a piece of safety wire between the drain and the funnel/bucket.

A friend did this, outdoors, but was draining into an open bucket. Said he looked down at the bucket and there was this pretty blue glow. Then, the bucket exploded and he was burned bad. A real pretty Cessna 170B burned to the ground. He spent a few weeks in hospital.

MTV

Looks like a worn spot on the tire in the fuel can picture. Bummer.

Kurt

G44 wrote:Looks like a worn spot on the tire in the fuel can picture. Bummer.

Kurt

Shhhhhhh no one saw anything...

Looks like a great project!

I've been making progress deconstructing the plane to swap everything over to the new fuselage. Engine/prop are off. Tailfeathers are off with fabric removed, ready to head to media blast and powdercoat along with some other parts. Control cables are all out. All of them are good condition but I still plan to make new ones from scratch. Haven't touched the panel yet. It's about time to order the avionics though. GTR225 and EDM900 are the main ones. Waiting on the Tailbeacon X to be approved to use as my transponder.

Pulling the Engine. At this point the propeller is already a display piece in my living room for the next year.


This plane came with an awesome field approved exhaust. Many improvements over stock but likely the most value-added one is the spherical joint rather than a slip joint which is prone to cracking mufflers. Also improvements in tailpipe-to-firewall attachment, header design, and cabin heat exchanger design. Love it. According to logs, its been on the plane for 800 hours and zero signs of current or previous cracking anywhere.


Engine storage. My grandfather had this cart leftover from when our family machine shop sold. It's about too heavy for common uses but perfect for holding an IO540 - perfect size, super heavy duty, and has a lockout foot to keep it from moving. A nice petina to boot. In this pic you can see the heat exchanger studs on the muffler - extra surface area to improve cabin heating.


Tailfeathers came off easy and the steel was good. I think it's perfect timing, the paint is starting to show signs of light surface rust in spots but nothing that needs to be repaired. Notice the excellent lighting inside the fuselage.. I took the time to hang a 4ft LED shop light in there. Game changer.


I am taking lots of pictures and notes like this one when I take apart things to make sure I get them back together correctly later. I am lucky to have the maule drawings on my computer as well but it's nice to know how it actually was.


The copilot seat needed a fiberglass repair as I purchased it. I knew this ahead of time. I took off the upholstery to see what all was wrong and man the horrors of maule seat design are real. They are not a great design, lacking structure where it's needed most, fiberglass pan is glassed to the steel tubes (what??), and for some reason the steel tubes stop about 3" below the top of the fiberglass so that top section is just asking to be broken off. Luckily, they are a very simple design so fixing them is trivial. I do like the shape of the fiberglass pan they use, they got that right. This steel frame has been repaired before. I think part of the issue is that the upholstery is drilled/riveted to the steel tubes meaning theres a ton of 1/8" holes in a structural tube. Leads to cracks and bending.




That's all for now.

Interesting seeing those seats dis assembled. My back hated Maule seats. Maybe for good reason.

Nice project….keep it coming!

MTV

I'm sure you've already made up your mind on the EDM900, but man their technical support is absolutely brutal. He won't take time to work any issues through, only goes on about how the installer(me) pinned it wrong and aren't following instructions (which I did) and when told that all the pins are proper and it still won't work just says "yank it out and send it back to the factory" then click and hangs up... I don't think I'll ever purchase another JPI unit if I have the choice.

A1Skinner wrote:I'm sure you've already made up your mind on the EDM900, but man their technical support is absolutely brutal. He won't take time to work any issues through, only goes on about how the installer(me) pinned it wrong and aren't following instructions (which I did) and when told that all the pins are proper and it still won't work just says "yank it out and send it back to the factory" then click and hangs up... I don't think I'll ever purchase another JPI unit if I have the choice.

Wow, sorry to hear that! I’ve had their engine analyzers in four airplanes, and loved every one. Never had complaints from installers, and only one failure-a fuel flow transducer with well over 1000 hours on it. Called the company and they had a replacement to us within a couple days….no charge.
Unfortunately, company personnel changes can have negative results.

Hang in there!

MTV

mtv wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:I'm sure you've already made up your mind on the EDM900, but man their technical support is absolutely brutal. He won't take time to work any issues through, only goes on about how the installer(me) pinned it wrong and aren't following instructions (which I did) and when told that all the pins are proper and it still won't work just says "yank it out and send it back to the factory" then click and hangs up... I don't think I'll ever purchase another JPI unit if I have the choice.

Wow, sorry to hear that! I’ve had their engine analyzers in four airplanes, and loved every one. Never had complaints from installers, and only one failure-a fuel flow transducer with well over 1000 hours on it. Called the company and they had a replacement to us within a couple days….no charge.
Unfortunately, company personnel changes can have negative results.

Hang in there!

MTV

Ya im waiting for a call from the supervisor and hopefully they'll get a new unit out ASAP. Customers plane has been down for 2 months now. I can hardly believe that a company like JPI only had one tech support guy, but they do. So far everyone else has been pleasant to deal with, but he is a jerk. In my explanation to the sales ladies they seemed to understand and agree as if this isn't the first time they've heard of this issue. Hopefully they can fix it and move on.