Does the Del Aire STC actually cover the Cessna 170....that is not the 170 A or B....he's talking the C 170....a very different airplane than the others.

MTV

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think the ragwing 170 is covered.

Yes it is just like the 120 and 140

That's right never seen a 180 horse red wing

I to will be watching. Will it be flying this summer?

Cheers...Rob

I hope to be flying it to JC in June.

robw56 wrote:I hope to be flying it to JC in June.

June 2015?

bigrenna wrote:

robw56 wrote:I hope to be flying it to JC in June.

June 2015?

HA that's what it feels like right now.

I got some more work done today, mostly more stripping.

The flap tunnel has been the worst part so far. It was covered in a foam that was glued directly to the aluminum and is really hard to remove.


looking better but still a lot of work to be done


the exterior paint is stripping easier than I thought it would

Looking good Rob! I really like these project threads.

Holy crap. Will sure be nice to see that uneven coat of zinc chromate on the interior go bye bye.

Nice progress Rob. Keep on trucking!

Couple of things... Be real careful of using that stainless bristle brush. (kind of no-no) Dissimilar metals and all. Also, its so hard to do, but the better the prep, the better the paint. As have been said on another post, modern paints go on real thin. Any blemish that's under the paint will show right thru. Make sure you get EVERYTHING. You will be happy later.

I know you are replacing the seat rails... obviously remove them before you paint, then install the new ones after.... And lastly, on my 180, I didnt want to paint the interior and THEN strip the exterior as I was worried about stripper getting in the lap joints and ruining the interior so I waited to paint the interior until the fuse was stripped. This was a good move, but added TONS of time to the project. My advice is if you do want to make it to JC 2014 is to stay as focused as possible and do one job at a time. These jobs are SOOO huge in scope that its easy to get bored with one, then bounce to another in a super-ADD dance. The next thing you will be having is an anxiety attack and thinking "what have I done."

Keep it up!

I am curious how you folks who are stripping the interiors of these planes are preventing stripper from getting into nooks and crannies, and running down into the belly, where you won't be able to re coat these areas?

My 170 came from the factory with the float kit, which included full zinc chromate interior coating. Those airplanes had chromate BETWEEN skins before they were joined. My airplane still has good looking coating in the interior, except wear to exposed areas.

So, just curious how you are protecting inaccessible areas to avoid future corrosion issues?

MTV

Don't worry Greg, that's a nylon brush. I know better than to use stainless steel. I came to the conclusion also that it would be a good idea to strip the outside before I paint the inside. I already had some of the stripper bleed through from the inside out. MTV brings up a good question, what method have you found that works best cleaning up after the stripper?

robw56 wrote:Don't worry Greg, that's a nylon brush. I know better than to use stainless steel. I came to the conclusion also that it would be a good idea to strip the outside before I paint the inside. I already had some of the stripper bleed through from the inside out. MTV brings up a good question, what method have you found that works best cleaning up after the stripper?

rent a steam cleaner. it works wonders getting all the crap out of the belly and from the nooks and crannies.

Firstly, Im not sure all Cessnas are factory Zinc'd. Both my 170 and 180 were not.

Some arbitrary parts were treated, but it was hit or miss. Mostly I had to remove the infamous black goo. In some areas, lazy workers sprayed adhesive for the insulation directly to bare alum. RE: stripper, I tried to avoid using the stripper inside as much as possible. When I did, I stayed away from any lap joints or orifices where it might get in. If you use a really gloopy stripper, it is also pretty easy to control where it goes and where it doesn't. Most of the wok to get down to bare metal was done with MEK (some brain cells) and red scotch bright. Elbow grease seemed the safest. After all was done, I used a hot water pressure washer to give it a good cleaning. Once painted, I hit the laps with some Corrosion-X. Since there is no interior, it will be easy to keep up with that regime.

This was after I stripped the tail cone in prep for a coat of silver Imron. The water is super hot, but you can dial down the pressure on the washer as not to damage/deform the alum.

Never knew a stainless brush was a no-no on aluminum. I've seen it come out of the drawer many times along with the alumiprep to clean areas of corrosion on floats and control surfaces. Also, there are a lot of aluminum boat builders out there who better read up.

That's a ton of work you got going there. Did a C172 like that once. Let me say it again...once. . There was some sort of mustard yellow paint on part of it that would not come off with stripper, at least the stuff we had. Thankfully, the airplane was a collection of different parts after being repaired from a wreck and there was only that color on the horizontal.

bigrenna wrote:Firstly, Im not sure all Cessnas are factory Zinc'd. Both my 170 and 180 were not.

Some arbitrary parts were treated, but it was hit or miss. Mostly I had to remove the infamous black goo. In some areas, lazy workers sprayed adhesive for the insulation directly to bare alum. RE: stripper, I tried to avoid using the stripper inside as much as possible. When I did, I stayed away from any lap joints or orifices where it might get in. If you use a really gloopy stripper, it is also pretty easy to control where it goes and where it doesn't. Most of the wok to get down to bare metal was done with MEK (some brain cells) and red scotch bright. Elbow grease seemed the safest. After all was done, I used a hot water pressure washer to give it a good cleaning. Once painted, I hit the laps with some Corrosion-X. Since there is no interior, it will be easy to keep up with that regime.

The interiors of all the early Cessnas with a factory float kit were corrosion proofed with zinc chromate, and they did a great job on those. I was told by an old timer who worked the line who said they banged the rivets wet with chromate....I can't imagine what they looked like going home at night.

I understand what you're saying about being careful with stripper, but the moment you hit that interior with steam or hot water, you're washing stripper (albeit diluted) into the belly. Not sure I'd like that. ACF 50 is a great idea in any case, but that stuff weeps forever....so hopefully, you like that color

Good looking jobs in any case.

MTV

Stainless wire brush is OK on aluminum. The fear is using a carbon steel brush, that can potentially impregnate the aluminum and theoretically cause dissimilar metal corrosion. Stainless wire brush is the preferred method of prepping aluminum weld joints. My personal opinion is MEK and Scotchbrite. Stripper is caustic and will cause issues in the futures if not completely cleaned up.

Project looks great Rob!

Pressure is on Rob... We need more pics!