Are those Burl's finger strainers still being manufactured?

In my continuous search for C-205 parts, BAS has turned into my main source for the best quality, fastest shipping and best prices. Their EBay store is my favorite way to shop for parts.

Yeah, they are just pricey

corefile wrote:This whole project turned into a pretty extensive rebuild - amazing how many things you can find when you really dig into your plane.

This is not the approved way to save on fuel burn - this is where the fuel line turns to run down the door post - both side were like this:

Thanks for posting that. While it obviously worked, it's a perfect example of the unknowns you buy into with older aircraft.

This is a big part of why I'll likely never own a different airplane. I've been through and through mine, and while I never found anything quite that dramatic, I've found a few things that weren't proper and a lot of things that could be better...though apparently they all still worked. Some of the things you just wouldn't believe could be like that, given the condition of everything else. But sixty years of repairs and modifications from dozens of people leaves a lot of room for abnormality.

Every time I set out to do one little thing I found another five things that could be better, so I did those too. And I started out with a nice airplane...not a project plane by any means. If someone offered to trade me straight across for an equal time/year/condition/equipment 180 or 185 or Super Cub...I'd pass. The thought of starting over with another sixty-year-old airplane is just too much.

Good luck with the rebuild!

Hammer wrote:Some of the things you just wouldn't believe could be like that, given the condition of everything else. But sixty years of repairs and modifications from dozens of people leaves a lot of room for abnormality.

Every time I set out to do one little thing I found another five things that could be better, so I did those too. And I started out with a nice airplane...not a project plane by any means.
Good luck with the rebuild!

Thanks Hammer - it's actually good to hear that, I've been kinda of down in the dumps about finding a bunch of this stuff, especially when I felt that I had a nice airplane - also not a project plane. I know that when it's all said and done - its going to be an awesome plane, but I thought it was awesome before I started this - I've been beating myself up... "well dummy, you should have bought a better plane - you should have caught more of this... etc, etc". I've been trying to remind myself that they are 60 year old planes... and a prebuy can only catch so much (I actually had two pre-buys on this plane - and 3 annuals just since I have owned it). So just trying to stay positive and remember this is all apart of owning these amazing aircraft - and how confident I can be in the future about the safety of this airplane.

Don't feel bad about it corefile...it's a bit of bad luck, but then not having the engine come apart in flight over inhospitable terrain was a bit of good luck, so I recon you're a little ahead.

These old airplanes have issues, each and every one of them. When it comes to ownership you pay your nickel and take the ride. There's only so much you can determine about a sixty-year-old airplane with inspections, and if you dig deep enough you'll find things that the past owner, or the past three or four or five five owners probably didn't even know about.

Concentrate on what you'll have when you finish the rebuild and don't figure you got screwed, because you probably didn't. You just never know what you're really getting, and the seller likely didn't, either.

Little update on the project - I've finalized the new engine purchase and sent in my deposits, this is what I have gone with:

Engine: Pponk - Now called Northpoint XP470 as Steve Knopp sold the STC , I'm having it built by Ly-Con in Visalia, Ca and I went with the option of doing 8.5:1 compression pistons and well as porting the cylinders.
Prop: MT 3 Blade prop - MTV-9-D I was able to find a good deal on this from someone doing the test work on the new Hartzell 3 blade
Engine Mount: Seaplanes West Engine Mount - Ok technically I didn't need this - my stock cessna mount is in great shape (for sale by the way) but after flying in a buddies plane I was shocked at how smooth it ran - when I asked he said upgrading to the Seaplanes west engine mount really smoothed it all out.
Seaplanes West Exhaust:- I probably could have gotten by with my old exhaust as well - was able to get this and the mount on the cyber monday deal. Saw the other post on seaplane west exhaust - got me thinking about this a bit - but after looking into it a bit more, its not an issue.

Ok now if I could just get someone to send me some $$ to pay for all of this I'll be good to go.

Going to be amazing! Don't get me wrong, I was a little peeved about the exhaust, but overall i don't regret it. It has beautiful workmanship. After a long talk and pics sent to Acorn. 3/8" gap is lots they said between flange and oil pan. There is a little bag with two screws and tinnerman's included with no mention in the instructions - these hold the heat muff to the muffler on the flange front/rear of the exhaust pipe to further prevent any chance of rotation. They said make sure you have plenty of room around the tail pipe exit through the cowl - The side to side shake during start and shutdown will break the collectors if the pipe is contacting the cowl. (stock collector clamps give before breaking the pipes, no give on the acorn) I will have to pencil grind my cowl hole slightly larger. Bit of a balancing act to get oil pan clearance and exhaust exit alignment decent.

corefile wrote:Little update on the project - I've finalized the new engine purchase and sent in my deposits, this is what I have gone with:

Engine: Pponk - Now called Northpoint XP470 as Steve Knopp sold the STC , I'm having it built by Ly-Con in Visalia, Ca and I went with the option of doing 8.5:1 compression pistons and well as porting the cylinders.
Prop: MT 3 Blade prop - MTV-9-D I was able to find a good deal on this from someone doing the test work on the new Hartzell 3 blade
Engine Mount: Seaplanes West Engine Mount - Ok technically I didn't need this - my stock cessna mount is in great shape (for sale by the way) but after flying in a buddies plane I was shocked at how smooth it ran - when I asked he said upgrading to the Seaplanes west engine mount really smoothed it all out.
Seaplanes West Exhaust:- I probably could have gotten by with my old exhaust as well - was able to get this and the mount on the cyber monday deal. Saw the other post on seaplane west exhaust - got me thinking about this a bit - but after looking into it a bit more, its not an issue.

Ok now if I could just get someone to send me some $$ to pay for all of this I'll be good to go.

Wow, what a NICE NICE set up! You are going to be able to enjoy your airplane for many years to come. Like Hammer said above, lots of things to catch when you go thru it and it looks as if you have caught many and fixed them. Look at this as an opportunity to create an airplane you can rely on. Good job!

Kurt

And I continue my trip down the rabbit hole:

I was somewhat in your position a few years ago (basically all-new everything, firewall forward on a 170B). In my case it made no sense to hang all that new stuff on a 60 year-old, beat up, ugly, drilled and patched firewall, so I sourced a new stainless steel firewall and have been glad I did ever since. Not sure if that's an option for you or not. Best of luck with the total project.

-DP

denalipilot wrote:I was somewhat in your position a few years ago (basically all-new everything, firewall forward on a 170B). In my case it made no sense to hang all that new stuff on a 60 year-old, beat up, ugly, drilled and patched firewall, so I sourced a new stainless steel firewall and have been glad I did ever since. Not sure if that's an option for you or not. Best of luck with the total project.

-DP

Looks like I may be going down this route, I have a few smoked rivets around the cowling/firewall and one that the head popped off from some corrosion - so the right way to fix it is drill it out and address any corrosion - then prep the cowling for disimular metal touching (Aluminum & SS) and then it just seems silly not to replace the old patched up firewall at that point.

Where did you get your SS firewall?

corefile wrote:

denalipilot wrote:I was somewhat in your position a few years ago (basically all-new everything, firewall forward on a 170B). In my case it made no sense to hang all that new stuff on a 60 year-old, beat up, ugly, drilled and patched firewall, so I sourced a new stainless steel firewall and have been glad I did ever since. Not sure if that's an option for you or not. Best of luck with the total project.

-DP

Looks like I may be going down this route, I have a few smoked rivets around the cowling/firewall and one that the head popped off from some corrosion - so the right way to fix it is drill it out and address any corrosion - then prep the cowling for disimular metal touching (Aluminum & SS) and then it just seems silly not to replace the old patched up firewall at that point.

Where did you get your SS firewall?

Well, after the initial hurt, it will please you every single time you look inside your cowl- that's been my experience anyway, and it hasn't gotten old yet. Mine came from Del-Air, which produced (still produces?) a SS 170 firewall. I think I was lucky to get it- It was around a year after Harry died, and it was the last one on the shelf at the time, IIRC. I'm afraid I'm no help on sourcing one for your bird. Maybe someone else on here has a lead. Good luck,
-DP

That's what happens when you don't properly prep the metal when different type if metals come together, Aluminum sheet metal, stainless steel firewall...

Positive thoughts - this is the best time possible to find this as my engine and engine mount are out, as well as my windsheild and entire panel. so access is no problem.

I hope the mechanic that did all this crap work - was all the same guy after it nosed over back in the 80's - I hope he gets four flat tires... and his spare is flat too.

So you already had a stainless firewall?

asa wrote:So you already had a stainless firewall?

Yes - nosed over on its back in the past and had the firewall replaced with stainless - and I've been uncovering some bad repairs through this process most of it small annoying stuff - but some more like this firewall, over bent fuel lines, cracked in half rudder spar repaired with a doubler, bracket holding mixture cable was to big so they wrapped safety wire around that cable to make it thicker for the bracket to fit and a few other things have been surprising. I bought it from 3 mechanics that owned a cessna repair station - they owned it for 11 years and were the mechanics on it for 15 years before they bought it (the repairs (nose over) were done before they worked on it and then bought it) I had it checked by two different shops before I bought it (one was an annual, one was a flight and visual check of the plane by Beegles and it flew wonderful - and was fast. Great ground handling.

But I can say that after this is done - NOTHING in that plane will have not been gone through, and everything I have found thats need to be - I've fixed or replaced. Its my forever plane - especially now

Could you take a picture of the firewall corners. Curious how they made the flange where the rivets are shrink. It's not fluted and I don't think notched. I'm thinking it's just pressed and probably just gathered to be flat. Thanks in advance.

With all you're doing on your forever plane, seems like an upgrade to titanium for the firewall may be in order.

marcusofcotton wrote:With all you're doing on your forever plane, seems like an upgrade to titanium for the firewall may be in order.

Don't forget the titanium gear legs and axels!

Hammer wrote:

marcusofcotton wrote:With all you're doing on your forever plane, seems like an upgrade to titanium for the firewall may be in order.

Don't forget the titanium gear legs and axels!

and don’t forget the tail spring either!