Restoring an old airplane is a time consuming messy and labor intensive job. It is also rewarding (so I am told) Today I was able to see the light at the end of it all. I hope I am flying it by May.
The engine is done and "0" time, the interior is pretty much done. The fabric work on the fuselage is done, I have the wings about half way ready to paint. Tomorrow I will strip the old paint off the panel and send the instruments off to get refaced and tested. Still have to pull the gear apart and ovelhaul it.

I am hooked, and as long as I have one to fly in the future, I will also have one to work on. Next I need to find an unfinished Highlander, or Rans S7.

D.

Lets see some pictures.

I was thinking this was worthless without pictures after I posted. I need to take a few tomorrow to track the progress. I will share them here.

I don't know whats up with my Smugmug page, I can't link to an individual photo to imbed it here. I figure it out later, but for now check out http://dbandkjp.smugmug.com/ and click on http://dbandkjp.smugmug.com/Airplanes/N ... 1677_2GkXE to see my Champ. I am proud of the progress we have made. Nothing will get done next week though, I need to drive to Bend Oregon for business, and my partner get to ferry a Fairchild to Chicago. It sold recently and is pistured here:
http://lakeaero.net/

Well thanks. I just figured out that Smugmug tried to make thinks easier with the share button, and all the choices of types of links. It confused me because until today I always did it old school.

Before Sanding off the Stars and Bars



After Sanding. The fuselage is all sanded and filled and the control surfaces have all new fabric. The fabric was done 10 years ago but it suffed some hail damage. It has been stored indoors, apart ever since.

Got the fuselage mounted up so we can rotate it around and work on the bottom last night. We will be ready to paint it soon.

Progress. We got the paint on the fuselage this week. We are going to all the control surfaces and some little stuff, and then the wings. We also ordered new glass, tires, I have all the parts for the oileo struts getting here Friday and am gathering the supplies to make an interior. The plan is to fly it a whole bunch in a short period of time while it is for sale, sell it, and get a Maule. At least thats my current plan.

Excuse the low res. phone pictures. The paint really turned out well. I have tried to look at every Champ in the local area, and beyond, and this is by far the nicest looking one I have seen so far. I was a little against putting much interior in, but we are keeping it very simple and light. We have to, we only have 75 HP.

The engine has zero time since the previous owner had it overhauled, and we have reciepts for new cylinders (and the old ones) several new looking carbs, and a new exhaust. We are going to pull the engine apart in the next week or so since it was over 10 years ago that it was overhauled. Just for piece of mind, and we will be able to wash out all of what ever he preserved it with (cosmoline maybe?, turned waxy like AK47's come when imported)