I cleaned out mine with a variety of chemicals....Mineral spirits, Goo-Gone, Goof-Off, etc. What helped me was stealing my wife's PAN SCRAPERS from Pampered Chef...little hard plastic round edged disks...just enough give not to scratch, but would do pretty good to get the softened material up. I lived in that damn respirator...but it was worth it for sure. Karl

amacbean wrote:

8GCBC wrote:BTW I like your shows.

Thanks!

I'll find the paperwork I need through the 170 Association probably, I was just hoping someone here had it.

What year is your 170? Mine was a 52 and the stock Cessna battery location that year (and I thought all years) was in a box on the firewall. I would think that since this was a standard battery location, your mechanic SHOULD be able to relocate the battery to another standard location, as a minor alteration.

Mine had the AvCon STC as well. There's no way I'd leave the battery aft. If you go to the 170 Assn this, George will shout you down for even considering altering the masterful design created by Cessna.

AvCon never did answer their phone. My understanding is that for a number of reasons, the FAA rescinded their STC issuing authority.

MTV

I got the installation instructions for the Avcon 180hp conversion from the 170 site. The instructions say to move the battery on the firewall to avoid the new engine mount. Ours ended up in the back where the extended baggage will go, but we'll be moving it back up to the firewall. Our mechanic just wanted to be sure that the engine STC didn't state specifically that the battery had to be in the back.

AOTF will return! We have big plans that require some big planning and some big sponsors. It will be big. But still small enough that we have the final say. I'll keep you posted.

Progress - like Greg said the worst stuff to remove is the adhesive. I hope whoever invented that stuff got a big raise, because it's fantastic! I finally found some paint stripper that works on it today, just have to be careful to clean in up afterward very well. Also, today we painted all the interior trim parts that can come out of the plane. There is a shot of a few of them.

Good progress, Allen!

I was inspired by Rob getting his 170 back in the air, so I got some more progress on our interior today.



Paint and foam rubber on the right side door:

It's looking really clean, nice work.

mtv wrote:Just a thought: you might keep the aft panel that covers your new extended baggage.
I did, and found it handy to keep in place to turn that extended baggage into a kind of hidden compartment while parked. Out of sight, out of mind. People look into a parked plane and see an aft bulkhead and an empty baggage area.....no problemo......

That seems like a pretty good idea to me. My old ragwing C170 had a rectangular piece of naugahyde held in place by snaps at the aft end of the baggage compartment, instead of an alum panel. Something like that would work great to cover an ext baggage.
Relocating the battery-- I'd do some math first and crunch the numbers for having an Odyssey battery on the firewall in one of their simple hold-down brackets, vs a G25 in a standard battery box in the back. My Odyssey SBS-J16 weighs 14.4 pounds, and they claim the bracket comes in at about a pound and a half. You'll have to take a guess at the difference in weight and arm for the cables.
Having a far-forward empty CG allows for maximum loading capacity, but keep in mind that it may not fly it's best that way. Forward-CG translates to a nose-heavy feel, and it can be hard to flare without a big load in the back. It seems like an aft CG makes for a faster cruise speed and a lower stall speed too.

Don't worry about forward CG. That's a good "problem" to have, frankly. As noted, this offers you maximum loading flexibility. My 170 was outside the forward limit when empty, with me in the seat and full mains fuel, it was right at the fwd limit . But, I always carried a survival kit in the back anyway, which put me inside the forward limit. That was with an Odyssey battery on the firewall in the original box and a constant speed prop.

Granted, we do fly these airplanes empty at times, but more often, you're flying with SOMEthing which is going to move the CG aft.

Finally, I would much rather have a forward CG airplane than an aft CG airplane. Within both limits, of course.

MTV

I've run the numbers off of the current weight and balance and moving the battery up to the firewall will move the cg forward, but we'll still be within cg. Our tail is heavy I think. So I'll loose weight in the back by pulling out the battery, box and cables. But I'll be putting in the odyssey battery and new lighter box with much shorter cables so the overall weight will be less than putting the original box and battery back up on the firewall. Also, we're putting in the extended baggage kit, and the elt and the strobe control box will stay back there. It will be interesting to weigh it and see where the cg really is when we're finished.

Carrying a small generator is becoming a trend with backcountry pilots and it helps as a ballast. Lived with these little wonders for years.

I consider a small generator a survival and luxury item (or when not in use a [forward CG counter] ballast)

Random video drying the bilge in Kona...

amacbean wrote:....... It will be interesting to weigh it and see where the cg really is when we're finished.

I'm sure it will. In my experience, W&B is one of the things most often goofed up on GA airplanes. Even a lot of mechanics don't seem to understand how to do it properly-- they don't level the airplane per the TCDS, use the wrong datum (firewall instead of leading edge, for example), fail to allow for gasoline in the tanks, or just plain do the math wrong.

hotrod150 wrote:

amacbean wrote:....... It will be interesting to weigh it and see where the cg really is when we're finished.

I'm sure it will. In my experience, W&B is one of the things most often goofed up on GA airplanes. Even a lot of mechanics don't seem to understand how to do it properly-- they don't level the airplane per the TCDS, use the wrong datum (firewall instead of leading edge, for example), fail to allow for gasoline in the tanks, or just plain do the math wrong.

Here here.... So many mistakes on W&B. (Not sure what you are talking about RE: leading edge...) but the TCDS on the C170 along with the C180 etc... calls for the front face of the firewall as the datum.

The C170 & 180 both use the firewall for a datum, correct. Piper Pacer uses the wing leading edge as a datum....but I've seen W&B revisions where the mechanic (or whoever) used the firewall instead. Wrong! I believe the Cessna 120/140 uses the leading edge, and the Luscombe uses some point out in space ahead of the spinner. As I recall, for the Super Cub Piper actually uses a point-in-space on some things but the wing leading edge on others. Easy to get things goofed up.

Lots of progress lately, but not many pictures. Most of the interior is stripped, and about 2/3rds has primer. We moved the battery today to its new home on the firewall. The old wiring is temporary while we make new cables.

The old battery, box, and cables weighed in at 30lbs. The new box and battery together are 16lbs, plus the cables which I'll weigh when we have the new ones made. Progress!

The back is all taped and masked for paint. Looks good so far.

Nice work Allen! You're making great progress.

Seriously. You've motored through some terrific productivity. The interior of this puppy's gonna look nice on the TV.

Brett

Thanks! It is a ton of work, and we're not doing anywhere near what Rob and Greg did. I don't know how you guys did all the work you did without going crazy. Here's the first coat of final paint:

Horrible phone pictures, but the insulation is finally going in. We're doing the hard stuff first - the firewall. It would be much easier if everything was pulled, but it isn't.