I'd swap that engine and go fly. If I knew more about the engine I might even fly that one after some inspection.

That rudder is ugly, but I'd fly it. Didn't read the rest of that post because I'm going to go work on one of my neverending projects.

Airline pilots get themselves in the weeds on what they "HAVE" to have, and then they don't finish stuff. I know, cuz and I am one and I work with a bunch. I've even been guilty of it once or twice.

I bet if you want to fly it, and had a little help, you could fly it in a couple of days and be reasonably safe, a week if you're risk averse.

This weekend, I managed to get down to Louisiana to load up my 170 and truck it home finally! The plane overall is in better shape than I originally thought from what I could see once the wings were off. We did have one casualty in the loading process, where the tail of the fuselage slipped and hit the wing while loading it in. This should be a non issue though as I plan to send both wings out to be professionally rebuild in jigs and brought back to like-new condition.

The to-do list is as follows:

-Finish my 140 first, since that is close to being done (believe it or not)
-Completely strip the fuselage down to clean metal and repair/replace any skins needing it
-Prime/Paint the interior and install selkirk foam, keeping it simple inside
-Remove older panel, install later style panel pictured below and upgrade avionics
-Send wings out to be professionally rebuilt to like-new condition
-Sportsman cuff
-180 gear and desser 8.50 tires
-Repair/rebuild all control surfaces as needed
-Engine TBD depending on the O300 high hp STC in the works, or lycoming IO-360. time will tell (and I cant afford either right now anyways)
-tons of other small stuff

Looking forward to diving in as soon as my 140 is flying again!

Joe I'll buy the all the old panel stuff off you except for the main structural panel since you'll be pulling it out.

jlacharite wrote:....The to-do list is as follows: .....180 gear and desser 8.50 tires .....

Looking forward to seeing your progress,
I owned a C170 for about 11 years & still have a soft spot for them.

Something to consider re 180 gear--
my 170 had the 1955-and-up "wheels-forward" 180 gear,
and it was noticeably tail-heavy.
I would suggest that you get the 1953-54 "wheels-aft" gear, p/n 0741001-1 & -2
more appropriate IMHO for a 170 not only because of the wheel position,
but because they are more softly sprung than the later gear.
A lot of 1953-54 180's have been fitted with the later wheels-forward gear, like my 53,
so there should be a fair number of early gear legs available.
Tom Anderson at TLGW in Renton WA is the acknowledged Cessna gear leg expert,
and often has used / reconditioned gear for sale.

Nice panel. Question: Why still have the cutout for the yokes? It’s only two bolts and the yokes are gone and it looks 100000x’s better. It’s not like you are trying to retain authenticity.

Tell us about the 140, too. What have you been doing to it?

hotrod180 wrote:

jlacharite wrote:....The to-do list is as follows: .....180 gear and desser 8.50 tires .....

Looking forward to seeing your progress,
I owned a C170 for about 11 years & still have a soft spot for them.

Something to consider re 180 gear--
my 170 had the 1955-and-up "wheels-forward" 180 gear,
and it was noticeably tail-heavy.
I would suggest that you get the 1953-54 "wheels-aft" gear, p/n 0741001-1 & -2
more appropriate IMHO for a 170 not only because of the wheel position,
but because they are more softly sprung than the later gear.
A lot of 1953-54 180's have been fitted with the later wheels-forward gear, like my 53,
so there should be a fair number of early gear legs available.
Tom Anderson at TLGW in Renton WA is the acknowledged Cessna gear leg expert,
and often has used / reconditioned gear for sale.

Thanks for the tip! I hadnt dug into the STC yet to find out the details, but ill keep that in mind. Its going to be a long time until i hit that step anyways.

akgreg wrote:Nice panel. Question: Why still have the cutout for the yokes? It’s only two bolts and the yokes are gone and it looks 100000x’s better. It’s not like you are trying to retain authenticity.

Honestly, no particular reason. I likes the original panel shape and vintage look, just wanted to add some modern convenience to it.

asa wrote:Tell us about the 140, too. What have you been doing to it?

Im finishing repairing and rebuilding the 140.. in september of 2020, I hit a nasty gopher hole on takeoff which resulted in the aircraft being pulled off the runway and through a fence with lots of damage. I bought a new engine which im overhauling, and recovering the wings. The goal is to have the 140 up for Oshkosh, which I may or may not be able to actually get done

Spent a few hours in the hangar tinkering yesterday. Pulled off the trim tab to clean it up, and use as a test piece to gauge the difficulty of this project. It will be very time consuming, however very rewarding I think. This one component alone took around 8 hours to complete. I removed every rivet, disassembled every component, cleaned, etched, primed inside and out, and reassembled. I plan on tackling the entire plane this way (within reason, I dont think im going to drill every rivet out of the entire airplane...), one bite at a time!

Got some more work done today. Finished disassembly of the right elevator, cleaned up some light corrosion on the internal structure, etched, and primed the internals. Most of it could be salvaged just fine, however I chose to not re-use the corrugated skins. They might have been able to be saved, but there were some dents and rippling I didnt want to keep, so I'll be replacing them with the skin kit from McFarlane. I went ahead and temporarily clecoed the old skins on for the pictures to show the before and after. Pictures below!

Like everything else, one bite at a time! Tailwheel bracket and springs cleaned, inspected, etched, and primed. Tailwheel springs painted as well in dark grey.

Removed the tailcone assembly today. The inside of the fuselage is in great shape and only needed one small portion of corrosion addressed. While I had the easy access, I cleaned up the inside skins behind this pictured bulkhead, etched, and primed. This is hopefully the last time I'll ever need this much access back here, so might as well do it right while I'm in there.

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today. The inside of the fuselage is in great shape and only needed one small portion of corrosion addressed. While I had the easy access, I cleaned up the inside skins behind this pictured bulkhead, etched, and primed. This is hopefully the last time I'll ever need this much access back here, so might as well do it right while I'm in there.

I'd 100% install the BAS tail-pull handles now while you've got that kind of access.

-DP

denalipilot wrote:

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today. The inside of the fuselage is in great shape and only needed one small portion of corrosion addressed. While I had the easy access, I cleaned up the inside skins behind this pictured bulkhead, etched, and primed. This is hopefully the last time I'll ever need this much access back here, so might as well do it right while I'm in there.

I'd 100% install the BAS tail-pull handles now while you've got that kind of access.

-DP

Probably a good idea. I was planning on waiting till later to add one, but now that you mention it, it would be rather silly to wait. My wife knows how to use a bucking bar so my original plan was to let her crawl down the tail but she may thank you for suggesting this route instead.

jlacharite wrote:

denalipilot wrote: I'd 100% install the BAS tail-pull handles now while you've got that kind of access. -DP

Probably a good idea. I was planning on waiting till later to add one, but now that you mention it, it would be rather silly to wait. My wife knows how to use a bucking bar so my original plan was to let her crawl down the tail but she may thank you for suggesting this route instead.

The advantage to installing the pull handles later is that the routing of the control cables will be more apparent.
You don't want to "pre-install" the pull handles & then find out later that it's interfering with the cables.

hotrod180 wrote:

jlacharite wrote:

denalipilot wrote: I'd 100% install the BAS tail-pull handles now while you've got that kind of access. -DP

Probably a good idea. I was planning on waiting till later to add one, but now that you mention it, it would be rather silly to wait. My wife knows how to use a bucking bar so my original plan was to let her crawl down the tail but she may thank you for suggesting this route instead.

The advantage to installing the pull handles later is that the routing of the control cables will be more apparent.
You don't want to "pre-install" the pull handles & then find out later that it's interfering with the cables.

Also good info. The cables are all still in the fuselage, just tucked ahead of the primed bulkhead in the picture. I was thinking I'd cleco the aft bulkhead in place that holds the elevator bellcrank in place, and temporarily route the cables before handle installation. Either this, or ill take some string and run it through the cable pullies as a placeholder for the cables so I can remember routing. Once I have the cable runs figured out, ill un-cleco the bulkhead and use the extra room for bucking rivets from outside the tail from the back. The control cables are all getting replaced anyways, but I left them in the fuselage so I can have an easier time remembering the proper way to route them once I install the new cables and pullies.

I appreciate the feedback everyone! It really helps to have the group to remind me of little things like this that could potentially be overlooked.

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today...

oh geeze... why did you do that? if you were just after cleanup, why not just climb in there???

Bigrenna wrote:

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today...

oh geeze... why did you do that? if you were just after cleanup, why not just climb in there???

It's a disease I have suffered from for many years called "while I'm in here...I'll never have this kind of access againitis"

It's how I took a flying Pacer mostly down to the fuselage.

If you’re installing new control cables you will spend many unfortunate hours in the tailcone, with a bag of tools and a hardware store, there’s no avoiding it. Do as much as possible before installing the tail pull, that takes another level of gymnastics to bend your torso around. Build a gang plank with cushion around the bulkheads, and go on a diet.
I did everything your doing from the inside, good luck, once it’s done you will be proud and then you get to cover up all your hard work.

Bigrenna wrote:

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today...

oh geeze... why did you do that? if you were just after cleanup, why not just climb in there???

When looking down the tail, I saw there was some relatively nasty corrosion between some of the stringers and the skin in the tailcone compartment, as well as the joint between the skin and the aft bulkhead. Crawling down the tail wasnt going to be good enough to properly address the issue, and I didnt want to have to down the plane in a few years to fix it after painting it and making it pretty. Luckily in my digging, this is the only skin bad enough to justify this level of removal I think. Its certainly repairable with some of the lightest grade scotchbrite on a die grinder, however I may go so far as to replace this particular aft skin. When you called, you were concerned I wasnt going deep enough, so hopefully this will alleviate some of those concerns If im gonna do it, might as well do it right!

-Also, in the future, I may pull the long flat side skins just to make sure theres no corrosion under those lap joints as well. Those are easy to rivet back on with a qualified helper, and its probably going to be worth the peace of mind of knowing its done right as well as priming between the skin joints to hopefully prevent the next guy from having to worry about it. we will see how crazy i decide to go...

Zzz wrote:

Bigrenna wrote:

jlacharite wrote:Removed the tailcone assembly today...

oh geeze... why did you do that? if you were just after cleanup, why not just climb in there???

It's a disease I have suffered from for many years called "while I'm in here...I'll never have this kind of access againitis"

It's how I took a flying Pacer mostly down to the fuselage.

Exactly!

seatothepants wrote:If you’re installing new control cables you will spend many unfortunate hours in the tailcone, with a bag of tools and a hardware store, there’s no avoiding it. Do as much as possible before installing the tail pull, that takes another level of gymnastics to bend your torso around. Build a gang plank with cushion around the bulkheads, and go on a diet.
I did everything your doing from the inside, good luck, once it’s done you will be proud and then you get to cover up all your hard work.

Good thing my wife is smaller than I am, and good thing she knows how to use a bucking bar and a wrench I may do the cutting and drilling of the holes for the pull handle and leave it clecoed for now. I want to do the fitment and drilling while I have the easy access. I can always get the rivets bucked later.

The thing I keep thinking is that ACF-50 will creep into all the nooks and crannies and you don't have to take things apart. My 54 180 had some corrosion when I got it in 1988. I did scotch brite, acid etch, and alodyned where I could like the tail cone.