New skins from McFarlane arrived in the mail the other day. Found a few hours before flying to Chicago to sit on reserve to drill them. Still have to drill the trailing edge rivet holes on the outboard and inboard part of the skins, then ill be ready to trim to fit, deburr, and pound in some rivets. These new skins look great!

jlacharite wrote:New skins from McFarlane arrived in the mail the other day. Found a few hours before flying to Chicago to sit on reserve to drill them. Still have to drill the trailing edge rivet holes on the outboard and inboard part of the skins, then ill be ready to trim to fit, deburr, and pound in some rivets. These new skins look great!]

I found a Roper whitney hand punch is fantastic for doing the trailing edge rivet holes and not having any movement in the skins.

jlacharite wrote:
When looking down the tail, I saw .....

There's your problem...stop looking and go fly

AEROPOD wrote:

jlacharite wrote:
When looking down the tail, I saw .....

There's your problem...stop looking and go fly

I mean, youre not wrong... However, now that my 140 is up and flying again, i have plenty of flying available while i am also fixing!

Got the new skins etched and primed, and began the final riveting and closing out of the skins. Slowly noodling along. Took a small break this weekend to get married! The 140 makes a good back drop for a wedding ceremony.

jlacharite wrote:Took a small break this weekend to get married! The 140 makes a good back drop for a wedding ceremony.

Wow! Congrats, man!

jlacharite wrote: Took a small break this weekend to get married! The 140 makes a good back drop for a wedding ceremony.

A small but life changing break - congrats and all the best!

Congrats, I reckon that is a worthwhile break

Last week, I got the final riveting complete on the right hand elevator as well as re-attaching the trim tab. One control surface down, many to go.



Today, I got the tail cone components fully cleaned up, etched, and primed. I should hopefully be able to get it all riveted back together tomorrow. Bit by bit, this 170 is coming back to life.

Some rivets done, some left to go. Weather today was too nice to be stuck pounding rivets all day. Some progress is always good at least

Finally got the tail back on the 170. My wife wasnt a fan of going down the tail with the bucking bar, but we got it accomplished. Also re-attached the tailwheel spring bracket and tailwheel itself. The old scott 3200 is junk sadly, but I put it on for now to facilitate easy movement on the ground. Also, for anyone considering removing that tailwheel spring bracket, those #6 solid rivets are no joke and not for the faint of heart! Either way, good as new tailcone.

Also, tested some chemicals for the infamous black cessna goo in the tail. Funny enough, the eco friendly and non-corrosive stuff stewarts systems makes works beautifully! Paint it on lightly with a brush, let it sit for 5 minutes, and scrapes right off with a plastic scraper. A little water and a scotchbrite pad finish it off nicely. Lots of work to get the inside of the tail cleaned and primed, but at least i have a good starting place.

Well, now we have a tail pull handle. Nice simple and easy installation. Temporarily ran some thread through the old pullies to make sure it would clear the control cables in the future. Plenty of clearance if you install it in the location called for in the installation instructions. Anyone who doesnt have this handle in their tailwheel cessna, you definitely should! Inexpensive and makes moving the plane around so much easier.

https://stewartsystems.aero/product/ekostrip/

This is the stuff you are talking about to remove that interior black coating? I'll have to pick some up, as I have some removal of that stuff in my near future....

cd36 wrote:https://stewartsystems.aero/product/ekostrip/

This is the stuff you are talking about to remove that interior black coating? I'll have to pick some up, as I have some removal of that stuff in my near future....

Yep! Turns the black crap into a thin goo, and then a plastic scraper takes off 95% of it. The remaining 5% comes off with a second light application of stripper and a scotchbrite pad. And the added perk is the stewarts stripper has no odor or chemical burn hazard, totally friendly stuff. Id buy a small sample size of it before committing to a larger tub to make sure it actually works for your purposes. Results may vary haha

Congrats on getting hitched!

You're doing wonderful work on that 170B. That plane won the lottery when you showed up and trucked it away.

Aryana wrote:Congrats on getting hitched!

You're doing wonderful work on that 170B. That plane won the lottery when you showed up and trucked it away.

Your back Aryana, coooooooool

The Scott tailwheel does not look that bad. Actually pretty easy to rebuild unless major internal issues. DENNY

Aryana wrote:Congrats on getting hitched!

You're doing wonderful work on that 170B. That plane won the lottery when you showed up and trucked it away.

Thank you! Just going little by little until I have to drop the big money (engine and avionics).

DENNY wrote:The Scott tailwheel does not look that bad. Actually pretty easy to rebuild unless major internal issues. DENNY

Ive disassembled it, cleaned it, greased it, and reassembled. Like you said, its probably fine, however the plan is to replace it with a new airframes alaska tailwheel. This one will eventually be listed for sale cheap.

170 update: the project is on a very short month or two pause since i just bought a house. Bad news is that means I will be busy moving for a bit. Other bad news is that the house is much further from the airport which will slow progress on the larger components. Good news is that the new house has a small garage (not big enough for the whole project, however definitely big enough for all the control surfaces), and I can get those rebuilt over the next few months! The fuselage might fit this summer, but i dont know for sure, havent measured yet. The garage should speed up my progress since I can work on it at home while sitting on reserve for the airlines.

Joe,
Thanks for rescuing that airplane. For years I've assumed it was a goner. You're a braver man than I.

Before you do anything with the rudder, check the balance. I know of a few 170B rudders that are out of spec, tail-heavy. Fixing that is kind of a PIA, so be careful about adding more weight with paint, ADSB tail beacons, trailing edge stiffeners, etc.


Dave

I see this is now up for sale….