bigrenna wrote:Indeed. Geroge's C185GM was the inspiration for all this nonesense. I saw it when it was being built at Beegles. Got me bit. Going to do pretty much the same scheme.

What color are you going to use? And small n numbers I hope.

Haven't got that far... Many more miles to walk yet.

Tom wrote:



I have always loved this 185

"Fireball" is probably the nicest 185 on the planet...

And to think George has 5 more planes and 2 helicopters

And there is this 180 out there running around as well...


AKT

Not nearly as good looking as the 185 but if it had a polished spinner and no red stripes it would be kinda cool.





This is what I had planned on my Luscombe looking like but with blue stripes.



I never made it that far and decided I'd rather fly than polish. This is about how it looks these days.



I've polished the fuselage a couple times in the last 8 years but I haven't done anything the wings since they went back on the plane; I tried once but polishing the underside was a PITA. I love the look of a polished plane but unless it is a hangar queen they are tons of work to keep looking like a mirror. If you can be happy with a almost mirror look then they aren't too bad.

Our 140 was polished. It takes forever to get it to shine like a mirror. I loved that plane, but all I could think about when polishing it was selling it or getting in painted! I did the polishing with the Cylco polisher and Nuvite. Looked great when it was finished, though. But like Whee said, it's a giant pain. Even the little 140 has a ton of aluminum to polish. I did the underside of the wings once. Once. Never did the tops.

But it looks pretty dang sweet!

I sometimes wish we didn't sell it, but we couldn't justify two planes. My wife really liked the 140 over the 170 because it looked so cool.

Nuther pic Whee..

Damb that's a nice pic. Damn I want a 180!!

Look into "California Customs Purple" to keep your bird nice and shiny once you have used the various grits to get it how you want it. They also have some green corrosion remover and is only for removing corrosion and not necessary to maintain. A google search will get you to their website. Also, the stuff is really cheap compared to many of the other options out there.

I tried a bunch of different products and they all worked fine but would not hold up well. California Customs has a polymer in the "purple", which is all you need to use to keep it up when it starts getting hazy (1-2 times a year if you have a good hangar). Even after getting really dirty, greasy, and dusty all I gotta do is wash down with water, dry with towel, and it comes back to the mirror finish. You have to have put in alot of hours polishing to appreciate that

Also if you don't know the trick about using regular white baking flour to remove the polish, it is the only way to go. It's amazing how the polish comes off so easily with the flour, just put a little on your rag or electric buffer and wipe until there is resistance, then time for more flour.

bigrenna, a friend of mine is building a Storch and using similar seat frames to yours.
Question, what is the cloth used to stretch across the seat back and base?
Thank you , Jeremy (maules.com)

Its some kind of nylon. I don't know the exact material as I had Ron Matta of Aviation Creations do it down in AZ. He is a wizard!

http://www.aviationscreations.com/

Greg-

maules.com wrote:bigrenna, a friend of mine is building a Storch and using similar seat frames to yours.
Question, what is the cloth used to stretch across the seat back and base?
Thank you , Jeremy (maules.com)

Jeremy,

Don't know about what that material is, but I know a number of folks who've successfully used aircraft fabric covering materials for this purpose, and it works fine. Polyfiber, etc is some tough stuff, and is more than up to the task. And, the stuff is readily available most places.

MTV

bigrenna thankyou, I'll hand that on.
mtv, apparently the material used is breathable. The Atlee Dodge jump seats are often done in Ceconite but it doesnt breathe

Apparently it gets put on, then heat shrunk so it gets super tight.

Shit, Jeremy, you want BREATHABLE seats???? Having some gas symptoms lately?

Sorry, couldn't resist. How's the world treating you these days?

MTV

Life's good Mike. These seats are a radical new experiment. With the incredible landing approach angle of a Fieseler Storch it has been noted that many passenger seats have gone missing causing slowdown in the supply and demand passages and so a vacuum free cloth is required to avert further blockage and loss.

Great to see all these 180 projects. An inspiration and a great resource, I'll post some of my own pics and learnings on my project when I get ambitious.

I've installed Atlee Dodge seats, now ready for interior, and looking back through this great thread. Would like to decide between Aerofloor and SCS and order my vinyl flooring (also eyeing the upholstery posts...). I'm going for light weight wherever I can. I saw these two examples, seems like a big difference in weight but is this a direct compare? Squash did you have foam backing? Other differences? I am guessing a 170 floor and an early 180 floor should be similar area.

bigrenna:

On my C170 I ordered a couple of yards of Aerofloor DOT http://www.aipsource.com/prodcat.aspx?Id=14&page=8024

I cut it custom and it was super light. I think it was just under 2lbs for the entire floor. Not very thick at all, but light indeed.

Squash:

I put that exact SCS interior vinyl in my wagon. I needed to do a small bit of trimming, but overall, I'm satisfied with the product. Interestingly, the carpet that I removed weighed about 7 lbs. The vinyl I put back in weighed 7 lbs.

No, that weight is just the plain vinyl. It doesn't look that heavy. When you looked at the pile of carpet versus the vinyl you would swear that the carpet was heavier. But it wasn't.

Thanks Squash. I guess it makes sense since it is denser than the carpet. But that leaves me more curious about bigrenna's comment about 2 lbs for the Aerofloor? I think that stuff is pretty heavy duty so I would think similar weight.