Cessna 140 Rebirth

Latches Finished

2011-12-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

The latches are finished and work great. I painted the steel parts an aluminum color over epoxy primer. Originally I worried about using clevis pins for the 2 pivots. By carefully folding the ends of the cotter pins tight to the clevis pins I don't think you could snag yourself very easily. I'm eager to finish the doors now.

The Fun is in the Doin'

2011-12-23T07:45:00.003-05:00

If you've read my postings for a while you've probably noticed I'm not very orderly in working through the project from start to finish. I tend to work on what ever I have parts, materials, tools ,or ideas for at the time. When I helped my dad build the Fly Baby back in the 60s we were very methodical. Pete Bowers wrote the plans/manual as a set of step by step instructions. You start on page one of a chapter and just check off each task as you go. When every item is checked off you have an airplane, actually a very cool airplane.

As much fun as it was working with my dad on the magic of building that plane you would think I would be more orderly in my current projects. I'm not because what I learned from that process was that each little item was a project in and of it's self. Each had it's own knowledge required, it's own materials, tools and methods. To some extent it didn't matter so much the order things were done as it did that each was done.

By focusing on each small task, enjoying it, and taking pride and satisfaction in it's completion building an airplane is very easy, a lot of fun, and rewarding. Finishing and flying the airplane was great but just one more little task or adventure just as each flight in it has been since.

By enjoying each saw cut, each hole drilled, each tool made, each little assembly, each flight for all the joy it contains, the Fun really is in the Doin' Not Just in Being Done.

Merry Christmas and a Fun New Year!

Window Latch Pivot Pin (Cessna 0413148)

2011-12-20T22:00:00.155-05:00

The trick to this latch mechanism is that it folds up like a jack knife when the window is closed. To do that, the steel link folds inside the aluminum link. It sounds simple but the pivot at the door end of the link, which moves in and out of the aluminum link, includes the brackets and the pin holding them all together. The parts manual calls this pin a rivet. It needs to be something with very thin heads on the ends. The inside of the aluminum link is 3/4" (0.750") and the inside of the steel link is 7/16" (0.438"). The brackets are each 0.040" thick and the link is made of 0.050" thick steel. Allowing a little (0.010") for clearance for the brackets and link to move, and about the same for the links to move in and out doesn't leave much to form the heads on this rivet. (.750-.438-(.050x2)-(.040x2)-.010-.010)/2=.056" for the rivet head height. They can call it a rivet all they want I have no way to form a head on a 3/16" rivet and still have all these parts move. As an alternative I looked at using an aluminum book binder screw (male and female parts which screw together). They are readily available but the shaft diameter is more like 7/32" than 3/16" and the aluminum seemed very soft and would wear out to quickly. I decided to make the same type connector with a piece of 3/16" x .035" 4130 steel tubing and an AN526C-632R6 in each end. The screws will be held secure with Loctite. The 6-32 version of the AN526C screw has a head height of 0.860" so it will need to be ground down to clear when folding. After grinding there is still enough of the Phillips slots left to easily install and remove the screws. The 6-32 screw is perfect since the inside diameter of the tubing is almost exactly the correct hole size for tapping the threads. The head on these screws are a large enough diameter that they will hold the parts securely even as the holes in the brackets wear out larger. Because of their size they can also be tapered nicely to more easily slide into the link during folding.

The process for making these parts is easy, thread a piece of tubing about 5/8" long and modify 2 screws. I have no easy way to hold this small piece of tubing while threading it. A collet would work nice but I don't have one. I chose to use my metal bending pliers with a piece of Scotchbrite to get a good grip without scratching or distorting the tubing, it worked well. Threading works best with some cutting oil. After the first couple threads are cut, small moves turning the tap in a little and back a little with very light force will prevent breaking the tap. They are very brittle. Because of the small size and fine threads I only went about 3/6" in and then removed the tap and washed off the chips in MEK, and then re-oiled the tap. This made it a little slow but the threads came out nice.

The piece was then cut off on the band saw and the end ground square with the belt sander. The trick to getting a nice clean square end is to roll the tube holding it against the miter fence as you move the fence across the face of the belt. By using a light pressure against the belt you can take off as little as .0005" in a pass. I ground the end down to make the length about .005" longer than the desired finished length. I counter bored the ends of the tube and this extra length left some metal for cleaning up the ends after drilling.

The counter bore is done for 2 reasons. First it assures the screws will seat completely when tightened. The other reason is because the tap is not long enough to cut threads all the way to the end of piece of tubing. The first few threads on the tap are not full treads to make it easy starting the tap. The other end of the tap has a bit of a shoulder which limits the depth the tap can go. The counter bore allowed the tap to be run in just deep enough to run the tap in from both ends to clean up the threads at the far end.

The counter bore was only done about .020"-.030" deep so there would be as many good threads as possible.

Now the tap is just enough deeper.

The 3/8" long screws had to be shortened slightly so they would both bottom out against the tube ends. I probably could have used 1/4" screws but I used what I had. The heads were ground down by chucking the tube in the drill and spinning the screw while grinding it. You have to work on the side of the head which holds the screw tight or exciting things happen as the screw comes out at high speed. That's probably why I wear safety glasses at all times, not just when doing something dangerous.

After grinding I finished the screw heads with a fine mill file to smooth them up a little more. I don't want them to wear a notch in the sides of the aluminum link.

Except for painting the steel parts I've run out of things to do on this. Now I can install them and put the new glass in the doors. I didn't want to install the side glass until I was sure all this would fit and work correctly.

Aluminum Window Latch Bracket (Cessna 0411360)

2011-12-16T22:00:00.148-05:00

This part was originally made from an extrusion, cut to 5/8" wide and the holes added. I don't have any way to get the extrusion or to cut the shape from bar stock with a milling machine. Instead the plan is to use the hole saw to cut the concave curve at the rivet end and the belt sander to shape the rest of the pivot end. I decided to make 4 pieces to make it easier. The first step was to band saw 2 blocks 1-5/16" long from a bar of 1/2" x 1-1/4" 2024-T3 aluminum and square them up with the belt sander.

I'm going to clamp the 2 blocks together and use the hole saw to cut down the split between them 1/4" from the edge. Since the 3/4" hole saw will cut past the edge I need a pilot hole to assure it goes straight through the blocks. The easy way to assure the hole is straight and square is to cut it with the table saw with half the width into each block. The fence is set to center the cut 1/4" from the edge and the blade is set 1/16" deep.

The 2 blocks are clamped together with the bottom and side faces lined up. The square cut hole is drilled out to 7/32" diameter. The drill on the cutter is 1/4" so this will leave a little for the drill to assure it fits tight as the cutter saws down through the block. The teeth on the saw have set, so the body of the saw won't help pilot it through the hole.

The cut is started with the block setting on the metal table to assure it is as square as possible. Half way down a piece of smooth plywood is set under it to allow the drill and cutter to clear the end of the block. The adjustable wrench is there as a stop to prevent the block spinning, which would be a major disaster. This all worked perfect and turned out to be quicker than I dreamed possible. The gap helped clear the chips.

The points at the open end need to be removed to leave a flat area for the rivets which is also parallel to the bottom surface. Back to the table saw. I should have made a holding block for this cut. It didn't look this unsafe when I did it. The blade is 1/8" from the fence and 1/4" deep. it worked great.

The blocks were then band sawed in half and and squared up with the belt sander.

A piece of 1/16" aluminum angle was cut off to use as a jig for locating the rivet holes and the pivot hole. By clamping the block against the side, and with the end lined up with the edge both rivet holes can be center punched with the 1/8" punch.

The center punched holes are then punched with the 1/8" Whitney punch.

By clecoing the part back in the fixture, the center of the pivot hole can be punched with the 3/16" punch. Because this hole will be drilled I center punched the mark to improve the drill centering. We tend to call a spring loaded punch a center punch but they really are prick punches. The center punch has an included angle the same as a drill. The prick punch is a much sharper angle so it will make a more accurate mark. Because the center punch angle is the same as the drill it will keep the drill from wandering better than a prick punch.

Another help to an accurate hole is to use the center drill until the hole edge is about 1/16" deep. Then the standard twist drill can be used to drill through withe a good hole. Once the part is finished this hole will be drill out from 3/16" to 13/64" to give the pin some clearance to pivot easily.

To finish the shape the same method of pivoting on a bolt is used as in making the false rib tool for the Waco Nine project. The parts are all done. Clevis pins will be used for the outboard and center pivots. The inboard pivot was a rivet. The clevis pin won't fit so I still need to solve that and paint the steel parts. It all the parts fit and work as planned. I could have bought these assemblies from Univair for $286 each. Clearly this was more fun and may have even been cheaper even allowing for my labor because I Built 4 latches.

Window Latch Knob (Cessna 0413169)

2011-12-15T22:00:00.181-05:00

I don't have an actual knob so the best I can do is work from pictures. There are pictures on pages 21 & 24 of the owners manual and the drawing in figure 30 of the IPC. I'm making these from aluminum which will be riveted to the aluminum link and have holes for the center pivot pin to hold it securely. There are 2 parts to make this knob (handle seems more correct). One is a folded piece of .025" 5052-H32 aluminum sheet and the other is a piece of the .040" I used for the aluminum link.

The folded piece is 1" x 3-1/4" and the flat piece 1" x 1-3/8". The flat piece is just a stiffener to distribute the loads into the bent piece without it cracking from fatigue to quickly. The bend lines are 5/8" from the center and 5/8" from the ends. I used 5052 because I need to bend a tighter radius than 2024-T3 could handle without cracking.

For small parts like this the easiest tool to use is a pair of Vise-grip sheet metal pliers. I put as much radius on the blade edges as I could (+1/32"), they come with a sharp corner. It took a couple pieces to work out the dimensions to form the parts. I just line up the bend line with the edge of the blade and bend it over by hand, pushing the aluminum right at the bend to keep the radius tight.

There are 2 bends to make so I just bent them to about 45 degrees. The ends are close to forming a triangle.

Then the pliers are used to make the reverse bends. Line it up and bend while pushing the pliers in to finish each of the first bends. The bend angle isn't critical at this point because the stiffener needs to be inserted and the end bends squeezed tight. At that point the tab bends can be squared up.

With the stiffener inserted,The link is positioned to leave the knob overhanging the link about 1/16". There isn't room to get the Whitney punch in the channel so the stiffener need to be center punched and the removed and the hole punched. Then that hole enter punch is transferred to the knob. Again the punch won't fit in so in this case the hole must be drilled. Before riveting these 3 parts together the hole will need to be reamed with a #30 drill to get the rivet to fit.

To make the holes in the sides, the center of the hole on the inside part needs to be transferred to the outside of the knob sides. They sell a tool for this but it's such a simple tool to make I've never bought one. First I cut 2 strips of the scarp .040" aluminum about 1/2" wide and about 4" long. Three holes were laid out on one piece 1/4" from each end and 3/4" from one end along the center line. The holes were punched and then transferred to the second part.

An AN470-4-3 rivet will be squeezed in one of the ends with only one hole, but first the 2 strips need to be clecoed together and the edges at that end filed to the same width. I did this to assure the 2 holes, the with the rivet and the one without are lined up after riveting the other end together. The 2 holes at the other end are close enough together that the 2 strips can be misaligned while riveting. We're going to plug one of the holes at the other end so the only way to easily keep them aligned is just to make them the same width. The hole locator rivet needs to be squeezed so the worked end just snugly fits in the 3/16" holes in the link. The worked end of the rivet needs to be on the inside of the 2 strips.

With the handle end riveted together the 1/8" punch can be used to mark the center of the new hole. The holes that get riveted need to be reamed with a #30 drill. Don't drill the hole for the punch and it will fit so nice and snug you won't need extra hands to use this tool. With the knob clecoed to the link the locator rivet is fit into the pivot hole in the link and the punch lightly tapped to make a center mark. You need some kind of backing block to hammer against but you don't need much of a mark. You can re-punch it with a spring loaded punch if it helps to find the hole when punching the 3/16" holes.

The holes are perfectly aligned on both sides.

The last step is to round the corners on the knob. I soften all corners and edged. Sharp corners do not add any strength. They do add weight, I know it's not much but it all adds up. They also add safety hazards. I carry band-aids with me at all times but they are a pain to use when you are bouncing around the sky because some slacker didn't soften all edges and corners.

Ready to rivet and it all aligns perfectly. An AN470-4-4.5 rivet and the job is done. One more part and it will be ready to install.

Making The Window Latch Steel Link

2011-12-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

This part is the dog legged link which is attached to the 2 brackets on the door. The only reason I can see for it being made of steel is the bend in it which allows it to clear the top of the door when the window is open. This part is made from .050" steel. To get the same strength from aluminum it would have needed to be much thicker. Thicker aluminum would have been much harder to form even without the dog leg bend. It is probably mild steel but I have some .050" 4130 steel so that's what I'll use.

To form this part I need something stronger than hardwood. Instead I'll use a piece of mild steel. The inside of the channel shape is 7/16" wide and Tractor Supply only sells 1" x 1/2" bar stock. The easy solution would be to mill a piece to thickness but I don't own a mill so I used the band saw to cut off about 1/16" and used the belt sander to finish it to thickness. The 2 pivot holes were than drilled and tapped to use 3/16 fine thread bolts to hold the blank in place while forming.

The taper was then cut on the end to form the dog leg. The original part was bent in forming the dog leg. I'll form it by welding the edges from the start of the bend to the end of the short leg. The bend corners on the block were then filed to a 1/16" radius. If I were more ambitious I would have put about a 1 degree over bend on both sides to square up the bends a little better. For just a couple parts and the small amount of spring back it's easier to adjust the bends a little in the finished parts.

As with the aluminum link I start by making a template for the flat blank. Again I made a test bend with a piece about 2" square to figure out bend allowances.
In this case the 2 holes on one side are made from the template. The 2 holes on the other side will be drilled after forming the part.

My punch is old and a 3/16" hole in .050" 4130N is pushing it so I drilled the holes. The first hole is drilled, then the template is used to locate the second hole. I used the punch with a nib to mark the center of the second hole. A washer under the template allows clearance for the nib while keeping the punch in the template. In such thin stock I always use a center drill. They wander less and just make great holes.

With both holes drilled the cut line can now be scribed from the template. I like to use a blue permanent marker to ink where lines will be scribed.

With the blank cutout and filed it is bolted to the form block with 2 AN3 bolts to assure it does not move during forming. The other block of steel (to the left) is used to back the bend so it forms a tight bend. The little scrap of .050" steel is to shim the backing block so it sets flat and tight against the part to be formed.

In the vise the backing block needs to be positioned so the top edge is close to the bend line.

I used a wood block to hammer on to form the bend.

The second bend was started at this point but can only go a few degrees with the block in this position.

With the block rolled 90 degrees the bend can be finished.

The finished part is then clamped in the vise and the top edge lightly tapped with the finishing hammer to tighten up the bend.

The top of the dog leg was then lightly hammered to the form block. The sides of the bend area were a little above the top after the bend and I ground them down to make a neater job of welding.

The original, the form, and the bent part ready for welding.

Before welding I made a couple more parts.

Before welding I needed the holes drilled in the second side. I couldn't use the form block and 3/16 punch to mark the hole because the holes are threaded. The tap hole size for 10-32 threads is a #21 drill, slightly larger than 5/32". I took a cheap 5/32" drill and cut it off shot to get rid of most of the flutes so it would be shorter and not wander much and not wear out the threads in the block. I didn't want the hole to open up much and allow the drill to wander or it wouldn't make an accurate center mark.

I re-sharpened the drill with my Drill Doctor. I then bolted the part to the block, removed the bolt for the hole I was marking, and drilled just enough to make a center mark . The hole was drilled through with the center drill as done on the aluminum link.

My first method for holding the spacing on the welded end was to use a 6-32 screw through a piece of tubing ground to .438" long with the belt sander. This worked fine but on the second part the screw would not come apart.

For the other 2 parts (for my homebuilt project) I just used some vice grips to hold the tube snug. OK, so I'm a slow learner, I'll use the pliers in the future.

The finished parts came out great. Now I need to paint thee steel parts, make the knobs and the block that mounts to the window frame. The knobs are next while I wait for the material for the block and all the hardware to assemble everything.

Window Latch Aluminum Link

2011-11-28T22:00:00.154-05:00

The Aluminum Link is made from .040" aluminum. In order to form the shape needed it will be made from 5052-H32 aluminum. To form the channel shape and the curved end I made a hardwood form block. The first step was to locate and drill the 2 holes for the pivot pins. The holes won't be drilled in the sides of the link until each side is bent. The sloped end was then cut for shaping the bend in the top of the link. A 3/32" radius was then filed on the 2 corners where the bends are formed.

Except for dead soft aluminum there is always some spring back when you make a bend. As a result the form block needs to be tapered so the bend will spring back to 90 degrees. The simple way to figure out how much to overbend the part is to just take a sample piece and bend it 90 degrees. The sample can be used to set the angle on the sander to taper the form block and check the finished block to make sure the angle is correct.

With the form block ready a template was made for the part. The pivot hole will not be punched in the blanks. It helped me to understand the part. The small hole is for attaching the knob. On the original part this was done with a 3/32" rivet. I made the hole 1/8" so I could use it as an alignment hole to position the blank more easily for bending. And Locating The Pivot Holes.

A 1/8" hole was drilled in the edge of the wood form block where the rivet will later be installed in the part to attach the knob. A hardwood backing block was made from 1/4" stock with a hole in it for a 1/8" steel rivet to serve as a dowel pin. The hole was counter bored to allow the rivet head to be flush with the edge of the wood when everything is clamped in the vise for bending.

Don't hammer directly on the metal. Use a wooden block to hammer on so the forces are evenly spread and the aluminum doesn't get dented. With the relief angle on the form block the bend springs back to a nice 90 degrees. I love it when a plan works.

Using the rivet hole to locate the part on the form block the 2 pivot holes on the first side can be center punched with a 3/16" transfer punch. The 3/16" pivot holes can now be punched with the Whitney punch.

Two 3/16" bolts and the rivet are were used to hold the part in position for the second bend.

With both bends made the transfer punch was used again to center punch the pivot holes on the second side through the form block. This assures the holes are positioned at the correct spacing and square so the linkage will move freely.

There is no way to get the punch into the marks for the hole on the second side so they need to be drilled. I find regular twist drills hard to control accurately. I also find it's easy for a twist drill to act like a reamer and open up the first hole in the thin aluminum by rubbing on the side of the drill. The small pilot drill on a center drill along with it's smooth sides make it perfect for drilling through the first hole into the center punch on the inside. You just have to leave enough of the drill sticking out of the chuck to drill through the second side. I also used a thin 3/16" washer to protect the aluminum from the spinning chuck.

We now have a well formed part with all the holes properly located. The next step is to form the end down to a nice curve.

In order to form this end down it is necessary to shrink this end of the channel. The trick is to form the metal inward to form a wave in the middle, anneal the wave and then smash it down flat without widening out this end of the link. This is why I chose 5052, it's easy to anneal the area needed without annealing the whole part. First I ground off 2 washers to use to hold the metal tight to the form block while giving room to hammer the corner to the middle with the rawhide mallet. The rippled area was then annealed by coating it with soot from the acetylene torch and warming it with a neutral flame to heat off the soot just in the rippled area.

To keep the sides from moving out the link was put back on the form block and the sides protected with fender washers. Then the ripple was hammered down. A harder form block would have made this work out better so I made a small steel block to just planish the area a little.

The finished part should work just fine. The next part to make is the steel link.

Window Latch Door Brackets (Cessna 0411595)

2011-11-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

These brackets are the 2 aluminum brackets riveted and screwed to the inside of the door. They are made of .040" aluminum and are badly worn. Because they are so small and so worn, I've decided to replace them with steel parts made from .040" 4130 steel.

These are easy parts to make by cutting out a blank bending it and punching the holes. I would like them to line up with the existing holes and have the pivot hole square to help the latch work easily. The first step is to make the blanks. I prefer to make a template for every part from galvanized steel. It allows me to work out any issues without wasting expensive aircraft materials. If you are making more than one part it saves layout time. Also holes can be transferred from the template to the part so they all come out within a tolerance which make them interchangeable (remember Henry Ford).

The 2 mounting holes are 7/8" apart. Once the template is made you can check it against the holes in the door to make sure it's right. If you're not familiar with matched hole construction go read the articles in Sport Aviation on building the Thorp T-18 (Early 1960s). Matched hole construction is one of the best kept secrets of sheet metal work. Today we can accomplish this with a CNC punch press and a computer, assuming you have a couple hundred thousand dollars to spend on a press. The rest of us just use a Whitney Punch (#5 Jr. Hand Punch) with an extra set of punches. You need to take one set of punches and carefully grind off the centering nib.

By positioning the template on the metal for the part you then carefully slip the punch without the nib into the hole in your template squeeze and punch a hole in your part. As I get each hole punched I insert a cleco clamp to help keep the template from shifting around. You will note I am not adding the pivot hole at this time. I'm good but not good enough to get them in the right spot after forming so we'll add them later.

Once the holes are punched just draw the outline with a soft pencil or a scribe. If you use a scribe just be careful not to scratch somewhere that will end up on the finished part. We don't want any cracks forming on our stray scratches. I prefer to punch all the holes I can before cutting out parts. If I mess up punching hole I don't have to throw away my labor cutting out the part, just some metal. I made some extra parts just-in-case my clever plan for forming them, etc. doesn't work out well and I think I'll use these latches for my next homebuilt project.

The parts are cut out and de-burred, ready to form.

To form the parts I cut a piece of 1/4" x 1" mild steel. Next I transferred the hole locations to it, from the template, using the 1/8" punch with the nib on it as a Center/Transfer punch. In this case there was nothing to do but carefully drill the holes using these center punch marks. I then counter drilled the back side of the form piece so I could use some 1/8" steel rivets as locater pins for bending the parts. A 3/32" radius was ground and filed on the corner of the form block and the rivets were epoxied into the holes to make using the tool easier.

With the epoxy dried the parts just need to be slipped over the pins and the whole thing clamped in the vise for forming.

A hardwood block works fine to bend the parts over the form block. By using a narrow piece of steel for the form block the part can be slightly over bent to get the angle exactly 90 degrees.

Left and right parts are just a matter of reversing the part when forming the bend.

The next step is to locate the pivot hole in one of the parts. I used a scrap of some 1-1/2" x 1/16" aluminum angle from Lowe's for this fixture. First a line was drawn on the inside of the fixture. The top rivet hole and the pivot hole are on the same line. The top hole was transferred to the fixture so it was on the line and then the bottom hole, keeping the bent part clamped tightly to the side of the fixture. The 3/16" pivot hole was punched in the fixture. By clecoing the parts to the fixture the pivot hole can be transferred so each parts is within a tolerance that they are all interchangeable.

Then on the outside of the fixture a line was drawn through one of the mounting holes and the finished part clecoed in place. The last part was clamped in place an the mounting hole lined up and center punched on the fixture with the 1/8" punch. With that part clamped and clecoed to the first hole the second mounting hole can be marked and punched.

Now the part with the pivot hole and the mating part without can be clecoed to the fixture and the 3/16" pivot hole transferred to the second part. The parts now fit the holes in the door and the pivot holes are squarely aligned so everything will move freely. I have enough parts to do both doors, they are interchangeable and I have some spares for my next project, as well as the tools to make more.

Owner Produced Parts are really a lot of fun and easier to make than to write about.

Window Latch Parts (Cessna 0411186)

2011-11-17T22:00:00.018-05:00

Since I have no latches for the windows I was lucky to find one for sale from Rick Jeorgensen in California. This one is worn and missing the knob for opening and closing but it should work fine as a pattern to make new ones. The latch is a simple folding mechanism which when folded holds the window closed and when unfolded holds the window open.

Here are the parts disassembled. The key parts are (L - R) the extruded aluminum bracket which is riveted to the window frame
an aluminum link, a steel link, and the simple bent brackets which attach to the door. There's enough wear that the hole locations are not obvious. Things like metal thickness are easy with Verniers, etc., but for some of the other dimensions needed I find photos and scans of the parts easier to use.

By using these images in TurboCAD it's much easier to reverse engineer things like hole locations and the outside shape of complex parts. The drawing at the right shows the scanned images of the key parts and the assembly drawing made to check that the parts will open and fold up correctly. It helps to keep in mind that these parts were probably designed using a tee-square, triangles and a scale in 1/32" increments even though drawings were dimensioned in thousandths of an inch. To scale the images I measure some easy dimensions and adjust the scale of the image until those dimensions are correct. For the 2 links I measured the inside edge to edge distance between the 2 holes, easily done with a vernier caliper.

Time to go make some parts.

Door Handle Stops (Cessna 0411615)

2011-11-13T22:00:00.111-05:00

The inside door handles work in the reverse of what you would expect from opening car doors. To open the door you push the handle forward. It has to do with how the handle connects to the latch. There is a long thin strip of aluminum which is pulled forward to operate the latch. Because the handle is located just below the window the link from the handle to the strip makes the handle work in reverse. This could have been solved by placing the handle about 3 inches lower on the door but it would have put the handle in a very awkward location.

Because of all this a stop is needed to prevent buckling the long aluminum strip if someone pulls on the handle instead of pushing. The parts manual shows the stop (20) but mine were both missing. From looking at the picture in the parts manual the stop has 2 tabs which fit into 2 of the 4 holes in the inner bearing plate for the handle. The outer bearing plate is identical but without the holes for the stop. This stop looks weak, even more so if it were made from aluminum, which is probably why they were both removed. A change to the design was needed to make a stop which would work.

The material could be no thicker than 0.040" so a piece of .040" 4130 steel was used to make the stops. The original stop appears to be loaded in bending, which make it weak, so the new stop tab was designed to be loaded in shear with a welded corner for extra stiffness (see pictures below).

The process for making the stops was straight forward. A paper pattern was made to check the fit. The parts were laid out on the steel and as much hole punching, drilling and cutting done while the parts were still held on the sheet of steel. The tabs were filed close to finished size but the notch for the stop was not cut to shape until all the bending was done.

Once the tabs were all bent they were filed to a snug fit in the holes of the bearing plate.

The Stop Tab was then welded. The notch could then be cut and filed to a good fit so the handle would stop with the latch in the fully closed position.

The pictures below show the stop with the handle in the latched position and then in the unlatched (pushed forward) position. The cotter pins have not been bent for these pictures because that can only be done once all the parts are in the doors.

The left door with the latch and handle reassembled. Next is the window latch, new glass in the window and then seals for the window and the door. I don't plan to install the interior fabric panels until the plane is flying or I win the lottery.

Door Latches

2011-11-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

It seems I will have touched every part in this plane before it flys again. The doors are in very good condition but the latches were all rusted up. They work but could not be left in such a state, so out they came.

The main tasks were to grit blast the steel parts, epoxy prime and paint them. Clearly someone has taken these apart since they left the factory. The oddest bits of safety wire were holding some of the pins instead of cotter pins. The clevis pins at the handles had been replaced with aluminum rivets crudely cut to length with a hole drilled for the cotter pin. The handle stops were missing completely, replaced by washers to fill the gap from the missing parts. The latch base plate was also pop riveted to the aluminum cover plate. Fixed up and properly assembled the latches work great. I did one latch at a time to allow me to see how they were assembled once the parts were done. The second latch was as easy as the first. Before they can go back in the missing stop at the handle end needs to be replaced.

Windshield Polishing

2011-10-31T07:20:00.004-04:00

It's been a very busy summer. The only time I've had to work on the planes was a few minutes while the grandkids were visiting for July 4th. They helped me install the cabin heat valve on the firewall. The summer rush of work is over and I'm finally back making progress on the planes. I needed to finish polishing the windshield and skylight glass so it can all be re-installed. Aircraft Spruce and others have a large variety of polishes and restoration kits available. I'm sure they work fine but I was looking for a local solution. I also had a few small scratches to clean up. These were deeper than would polish out so they were wet-sanded out with 360 grit followed by 600 grit and finished with 1000 grit paper. This left a finish which easilly polished up.

At Advance Auto I found 2 fine polishing compounds. Blue Coral Scratch Remover and Meguirar's PlastX. At Lowe's I found some Gator 4 1/2" polishing discs and a Black & Decker 6 in. polishing bonnet. The polishing discs are basically a piece of 1/4" felt. My little orbital sander uses hook & loop (Velcro) sanding discs so the felt just sticks to the hooks on the face of the sander. Over time the fibers in the felt pad pull lose and have to be trimmed, but it all lasted long enough to do all the pieces. The polishing disc and Scratch Remover were used for the first polishing/cleaning. A coarser polish would probably have worked fine. I use pieces of old, well washed, flannel for wiping off the compound. The flannel doesn't scratch the plastic.

For the final polishing I used the polishing bonnet and the PlastX. I worried that orbital sander would leave swirl marks, but it came out great. Again the cleanup was done with the flannel. The windshield and skylights are ready to install.

Windshield Frame & Heat Valve

2011-05-14T08:53:00.003-04:00

On Monday they took the blog site down to "read-only" for an hour. It's now Saturday and it's finally back working. You've got to love computers.

The heat valve was sticking and of course the steel parts were rusty. I've cleaned it up and painted it with engine enamel. It works great now. It was riveted on but the IPC shows it attached with 4 #8 screws and 12 #6 screws with flat Tinnerman nuts. I need to find out if there is a reason it needs to be riveted. The screws weigh more but allow it to be removed and cleaned, etc. to keep it working well. Right now my plan is to screw it on when my young apprentice is visiting for a week this summer. It takes someone on the inside to hold the nuts. She reminded me the other day that I'm supposed to build a plane for her and one for her brother when my planes are done.

The lower attachment for the windshield is made of 2 strips of aluminum. The inner strip (shown here) is riveted to the boot cowl area with about 12 3/32" countersunk rivets. The outer strip is attached with screws and nuts with the windshield sandwiched between the 2. The outer strip was probably originally riveted on but the holes are to messed up to allow riveting it on. I wouldn't have removed the inner strip but it was all bent up and caked with clear RTV. By carefully working with a hammer and dolly it's all straight and fits very well. There was a lot of crud under it such as old paint stripper, paint residue and the remains of some black rubber as well as RTV. I thought it was odd that this part was dimpled for the rivets but the fuselage was not dimpled to fit. Back to the parts manual (IPC). It says there was a strip of 3/4" electrical tape under this piece 60 " long. Clearly the cheap vinyl electrical tape we use today was not going to fill the gap from the rivet dimples nor would it do anything else of value. The brain finally started working and I remembered the rubber electrical tape we used at the phone company. We never used vinyl tape. The rubber tape was used on battery cable terminals and splices. After wrapping with the rubber tape, overlapping 1/2 width, the rubber was wrapped with friction tape and shellacked. The rubber tape was about 3/4" wide and 1/32" thick, perfect to fill the gap under the windshield strip, provide protection from chafing, and seal out wind and rain. After calling the nearest electrical supply houses to make sure such tape was available I did some checking on the web and found 2 tapes made by 3M which should work. The first is Temflex 2155 Rubber Splicing Tape. It's 3/4" wide and .030" thick, used for exactly what we did at the phone company and even recommended to be wrapped with friction tape to protect the splice. OK, I think this is what Cessna intended. While I'm impressed with how much I was able to straighten the aluminum strip I don't think it is even close to how well it fit when new. So, do they have anything which might work better? I also found Scotch 2228 Rubber Mastic Tape, the name seemed closer to what I need. It comes in 1" width is 1/16" thick and has a mastic layer on both side to help it stick in place. It's also a softer rubber so the added thickness should allow it to better seal the used strip than just the rubber tape. I'll use the 2228 unless it doesn't work for some reason. I'll have to trim it a little but I think the extra work should be worth it. Now where to get it. It turns out both tapes are available at Lowes, Hi-Ho Hi-Ho it's off to Lowes we go. They're in the electrical department with the cheap vinyl tape. They only have the 2228 ( called Moisture Sealing Electrical Tape) in a 4 ft. roll ( about $5) so it takes 2 to do this. It's still cheaper than ordering a 10 ft. roll on line. Before I can finish this I need to paint the glare shield area and prime the underside of the strip, when the rain stops.
To remove the RTV I went to the hardware store looking for some kind of stripper claiming to work on Silicone Sealants. I found some. The one I chose, Pro-Strength De-Sov-it, because of the big label which says "Removes Silicone Lightning Fast!" comes in a spray bottle for easy application. Well, in the small print it says it takes 1 - 7 hours, so much for Lightning Fast. I've long since quit being in a hurry so my plan was spray it on the strip and the fuselage, go back to work in the shop while it does it's magic, then repeat every hour until the RTV could be removed. At the end of the first hour it was clearly working it's way into the RTV. The outer layer was crumbly and really thin areas rubbed off. Three passes of spray set rub off and repeat were needed to remove the RTV residue. I started by removing as much of the RTV as I could with a pen knife so there would only be a thin layer to dissolve. It is a citrus based stripper which seams to remove the plasticizers from the RTV so you can easily scrub it off with a wood or plastic scraper. I won't know until I wash it with prep-sol and MEK whether I really have all the Silicone removed so the primer will stick, but the RTV is gone.

Firewall Cleaned & Painted

2011-05-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

I decided to paint the engine side of the firewall and treat the inside with a light coating of Corrosion-X. I didn't want paint on the inside of the firewall in case of fire in the engine compartment. The possibility of paint in the cabin smoking or flaming while trying to land in an emergency is more than I want to consider. For the engine side I mostly wanted something which could take as much heat as possible while keeping rust to a minimum. Since the rust after all these years was minimal I chose to clean the firewall lightly with Scotcbrite to scuff up the surface and MEK to remove any residual oil. I primed it with 2 light coats of Dupli-color 500 degree engine enamel primer. This was the highest temp primer I could find which did not require curing at 600 degrees. The light coats were intended to just get the advantage of better adhesion by using a primer under the finish coat. For the finish I used one light coat and one medium coat of GPM High Heat Aluminum paint. It's rated for up to 1000 degrees for use on outdoor grills, etc. Do I have a clue whether either of these will hold up or handle high heat, nope. What I do know is that most paints, including my much loved epoxy primer can not handle much over 200 degrees. Only time will tell how this mix works. Hopefully it will never be tested by fire.

The large hole is for the cabin heat valve. I've got it cleaned up and painted with 500 degree engine enamel. I need to find out why it was riveted on since the parts manual shows it screwed on. Screws would have made keeping the thing working well a lot easier. I'm planning to put it back with screws unless I can find why it should be riveted. I'm tired of things which do not work because they were not maintained properly. The valve was stuck with rust and paint which had gotten into it.

Tail Wheel Patent 2,396,277

2011-05-04T22:24:00.001-04:00

If you would like to know how the designer of the Scott tailwheel thought it worked here is his patent 2396277 by Richard Ledwin filed 18 August 1943. Don't read this when you're sleepy.

Firewall

2011-05-04T07:02:00.001-04:00

I've realized I can't put all the controls back into the cabin until I clean up the light rust on the firewall.

Also, all the Tinnerman nuts are rusted and some are broken. Since they're riveted through the firewall it would be tough to get at them once the rudder pedals, etc. are in the way. I've ordered new Tinnermans. One thing I realized is Cessna used plated nut plates and all you can get today are primed. I think I'll add some paint, probably silver, to give them a better chance against rusting. I'd like to think I've learned form all the rusty steel parts I've been cleaning which were only primed.

The Tinnerman nut strips (A6221-8Z-8-D) used on the edges of the firewall for attaching the cowl are no longer available. I read a posting at the club site where the person carefully riveted new nut plates to the strips in places where the little spring tabs had died. I'm just going to make new strips from aluminum and rivet the nut plates to them. Using Matched hole construction, remember the Thorp T-18, I can make the new strips faster than fixing the old ones.

The other thing I expected to find at the club site was a good recommendation for painting or treating the firewall to stop the rust, no such luck. The firewall is Ternplate, think steel coated with 90/10 lead/tin solder. They don't make it anymore because of the lead thing and cancer. It's what was used to make the gas tank on my WACO NINE, 83 pounds of steel, rivets, and soldered joints. Originally I thought it was galvanized steel so I was going to clean it and lightly treat it with Corrosion-X. Galvanized is coated with Zinc and resists rust even at minor scratches. It has to do with the galvanic action of the Zinc. Ternplate has no such galvanic action, scratch it and it rusts. I suppose you could re-solder the affected areas. That sounds like to much work except where you need a ground strap attached. If I were doing a restoration I might replace the firewall, but I want to fly this thing before the grandkids turn into teenagers. So, I'm going to lightly clean it up and paint it with some Rust-Oleum probably a high temp version. I don't like the idea of painting a firewall in case of a fire. They make a paint which can be used on exhaust pipes but it has to be cured at those high temps, not practical for a firewall.

Tailwheel Details

2011-05-03T14:07:00.001-04:00

This simple little Scott 2000 tail wheel which has followed me in several airplanes, Fly Baby, Taylorcraft, Champ, Cub, etc. has been quite a bundle of learning. I started with 2 complete (?) assemblies and assumed I should end with at least one good one and one re-buildable one. I have one good assembly now and a few parts. This exploded assembly drawing does not show all the parts and several parts it shows I didn't have.

Let's start with the wheel. The part at the left (12) is a felt grease seal. It has a piece of felt about 1/8" thick trapped between a washer and a dish shaped piece which is rolled on the edge to trap the felt and washer. The felt needs to be oiled. I'll get to that later. The ones I had were both so warn that there was no felt sticking out into the hole for the shaft. As a result neither would provide any seal to keep the grease in, and keep out dirt or water. They had probably been that way for a while since all the bearings were shot. The rolling surfaces of the races were furrowed like a plowed field. I'm shocked the wheels didn't shake to high heaven.

The part (11) to the right of the seal is just a short piece of tubing 1-3/8" O.D. x .050" wall and 5/32" tall. It's a spacer to keep the grease retainer/seal in the right place on the step on the the fork shaft. This spacer is pressed against the bearing outer race and the grease seal is pressed in against the spacer. Next are the bearing inner race and rollers and then the outer race. Between the 4 bearing sets I had 3 Timken A4050 inner assemblies and 1 from Bower. For the outer races I had 3 from Bower and one Timken A4138. For what it's worth both of these part numbers, made by National, are available in from Advance Auto. They can get them in 2 days, no shipping and a cheaper price. The wheel half for this side has the grease fitting and hex shaped sockets for the nuts. The tires tend to dry out and become lose in the wheel. New ones are about $60, if the tire is lose get rid of it. The outer half of the wheel has counter bores for the screw heads and threaded holes at the edge for the 4-40 screws which hold the hub cap on. The drawing does not show the spacer on this wheel and it would serve no purpose but both my wheels have them, go figure. The 3 screws, washer, nut, and cotter pin are all standard AN hardware.

The next part has no call out but is a felt grease seal under the hub cap. I made mine with 3 layers of 1/16" felt glued together. I made it that thick because the boss on the wheel for holding the seal centered is that tall. I made the O.D. 2-1/2" to clear the screws for the hub cap. To get it to seal out dirt and water I worked wheel bearing grease into it. Just push it down over the boss and the hub cap squashes it down into a nice seal. Speaking of wheel bearing grease. The grease called out for the tail wheel is AN-G-15 which is a general purpose grease not wheel bearing grease.

For the seal on the other side of the wheel the part comes from Univair without any oil. There is only about 1/16" of felt sticking out from the metal housing so working grease into it didn't seam a practical idea. What I really wanted was for it to be well oiled. After all grease is just a carrier with oil added. It's the oil that does the work of lubricating. I thought of just soaking it in oil but wasn't sure it would get further in than just the little bit of felt sticking out. Instead I soaked it in 200 degree 5W30 motor oil like an Oilite bearing. The coolest thing happened when I added the bearing to the hot oil. The air trapped in the felt expanded and blew out so after soaking it about 15 minutes I just removed the heat and let it cool to room temperature to draw in as much oil as it could.
I didn't find and obvious wear or play in the Bracket (1) bushing (4) for the Fork (5) spindle so not much to say there. I have no Idea what the acceptable limits for this are.
The next part at the top of the tailwheel is the magical Arm and Cam assembly (6). It is riveted together so normally no one opens it. One of mine had been opened and reassembled with screws by threading the lower plate. The other assembly snagged when moving the arms so both were taken apart. I'm glad I did because the screwed together one had the better parts but some were missing, never good.

The missing parts were the 2 little spacers I made in an earlier posting. The first picture shows all the parts inside with the lower bushing installed as well as the 2 spacers. Inside the housing are 3 bronze bushings, 2 spacers and 2 arms. The bushings are all identical and the arms are left and right based on the bend tipping the arm up slightly. The stack-up of parts is: bushing, left arm, bushing, right arm, bushing. The spacers which hold the covers solid also act as stops for the 2 arms.

When the arms are aft, straight out, the shaft hole is open and the tailwheel swivels freely. Without the springs holding 25-30 pounds on the end of the arms there is no steering.

When the arms are held forward by the springs the hole becomes sort of triangular shaped which matches the angled slots cut in the spindle of the fork. That little clamping force on the spindle is what allows the steering. If you push the tail to the side the spring load on one side releases and the arm moves to open it's half of the hole and the tailwheel starts to swivel freely.

The arms in the assembly have to line up with the slots in the spindle so they made shims to put between the bushing in the bracket and the face on the fork as the bushing wears down. I have one shim but it was not needed to line all this up correctly. The last piece which I just figured out, and have none of, is a spacer which goes on top of the end of the spindle. It allows the nut to be properly torqued while maintaining the needed clearance for everything to move. It also provides a bearing surface for the top of the Arm and Cam assembly. I'll see if I have one on the Fly Baby which I can copy or if I need to make 2 of them.
The tail wheel is back on but I still can't sign it off until I solve this last problem.

Tail Wheel Spring Back Off

2011-05-02T11:10:00.001-04:00

After downloading and reading Neal Wright's article on tailwheel springs I took the spring back off. At least I have the correct springs. There were 2 parts missing, the aluminum steering spring guard and the steel piece inside the abrasion strip. Those have been fabricated and installed. Also the pin on the shackle assembly which goes in the 1/4" hole in the 3rd spring was ground off years ago when someone installed a spring without the hole. The hole keeps the shackle from sliding off the spring stack. Rather than machine a new riveted pin I used an 8-32 socket head cap screw and AN365-832 nut. The 8-32 screw fit the 5/32" rivet hole in the shackle piece and by just turning the knurle off the head of the screw it fit a 17/64" hole in the spring. Since there was no hole I decided it was as easy to dirll it to to have the same clearance with a hole 1/64" larger. If the screw wears it is easy to replace it. As suggested in Neal's article, I also replaced the main 5/16" bolt with a 3/8" bolt. Since the hole in the support was 3/8" it seamed better to have a snug fit. All this required longer bolts to fit properly. The cross bolt in the shackle is now an AN4-22A. The main bolt is an AN6-22A and the bolts in the rear support are AN3-18A with the heads down. It's all back on the plane. On to the tailwheel.

Tail Wheel Spring Back On

2011-04-26T07:35:00.000-04:00

The spring parts have all been grit blasted, primed, and painted. Along with new hardware I fabricated new rubber pads for the spring mounts. I used 1/16" sheet to cut pieces and laminate pads to fit. I'm not sure I have the correct durometer rubber since I've found nothing on what rubber was used to make the originals, long since gone from this plane. We'll see how they last in service and get harder rubber if needed. By laminating them with contact cement I was able to make them fit around rivets and things like that better than using solid pieces. The aft spring clamp uses a "U" shaped piece of rubber 1/4" thick. By laminating it I was able to glue the pieces together to form the "U" to fit very well. I'm still waiting on a couple parts to assemble the tail wheel.

Tailwheel Parts

2011-04-25T07:26:00.001-04:00

All the parts for the tailwheel are cleaned, inspected and painted. The tailwheel spring mounting bracket at the tail of the fuselage is cleaned up and painted. Once I have the rest of the new parts needed, all this can go back together. The tailwheel steering arm and cam assembly is one of the parts for which there seems to be no information on repairing it. The Scott factory riveted it together, so no internal parts are available. Once you un-rivet it, it's a very simple design. I'll write a short explanation before putting all this back together.

There are 2 bushings which act as stops for the arms and prevent the covers from being crushed when the assembly is riveted together. I could have drilled out the rivets, but it seemed easier to make new bushings. The bushings are 3/8" long, 1/4" outside and 3/16" inside diameter. I have some 1/4" x .028" wall 4130 tubing for the Waco project so I clamped a piece of it between some wood blocks and carefully drilled the ID to 3/16". To cut off a short piece I used the end of the 3/16" drill to hold the end being cut off.

To square the ends of the bushing I ground one end before each cut was made by holding it against the miter gauge and spinning it while gently pushing it against the belt. After cutting the bushings slip each one on the drill bit to hold the drill level. Use a gentle finger pressure to push the cut end against the belt while spinning it on the drill shank. Spinning evens out any slight alignment error and a light pressure allows you to take off less than .oo1" in a cut. With a little care the 2 bushings can be made within .0005" of the 3/8".

A light deburing after grinding and the bushings are ready to rivet in.

Windhield

2011-04-23T08:04:00.002-04:00

It's been raining so I can't paint the tailwheel parts. Instead I've selected the windshield from the never ending pile of parts needing some work. The Skylight windows and the Windshield were sealed in with RTV at some point, what a mess. The window frames were easy to clean up because they're aluminum and stronger solvents like MEK can be used to clean off any residue. The plastic windows can not be cleaned this way. The Internet was useless for finding a solution. Nothing out there seems to be safe for plastics.

I finally realized I'll just scrape off the RTV with a razor blade and pocket knife and then polish the areas to remove as much of the RTV as possible. The correct way to mount the windshield is to glue a 2-3/4" wide strip of 1/16" thick SAE F-55 Felt to the edge of the windshield and push the windshield into the retainers. I still don't know what glue to use to hold the felt to the plastic. All this allows the windshield to move as the plane flexes, which all structures do under load.

Along with RTV some of the edges had residue from friction tape as well as the original glue used to hold the felt. The important thing is all this is hidden in the retaining strips so it doesn't have to look perfect. By holding the razor blade or knife at a shallow angle so it shears off the RTV without cutting into the plastic it works fine. You don't want to cut the plastic in a way that might cause a future crack so you don't want any sharp edge scratching the plastic. Using the curved area of the pocket knife blade solves this problem.

With the razor blade you need to hold it between thumb and fore fingers to give it a slight bend and then work in the middle of that bend. That way the sharp corners can't scratch the plastic. The razor blade works fine on flat or convex (outside) areas. I use the knife in other areas. The razor is nice because instead of re-sharpening it you just throw it away and get a fresh one. The important lesson is never use RTV. Clearly I could buy a new windshield for $250 and skylight windows for $35 each. It's nice to be able to use parts which are perfectly functional instead of replacing them.

Tail Wheel in Pieces

2011-04-21T07:57:00.002-04:00

I've removed the tail wheel now that the plane is back on the mains. I think I'm shocked at the neglect. It has been so long since being greased that the grease had dried out back to paraffin. Grease is made by melting paraffin wax and adding #30 oil to the mix and letting it cool. It takes a very long time to dry out this bad in a closed space like the wheel or arm and cam assembly. Fortunately the plane came with 2 tail wheel assemblies. Like all steel parts the springs were rusty but they cleaned up fine. One tire is dead and the other is serviceable. The wheel bearings are all shot. I'll save one set as an example of just how bad bearings can get. The inner races on one wheel are like furrows in a plowed field. I've found new Timken A4050 bearings on e-bay for about $55 shipped so hopefully they really are new as advertised. The rest should be a matter of cleaning, painting, greasing, and new hardware. I'll have to fabricate new rubber pads for the springs. I have some 70 durometer rubber which should work fine. The tubular rubber piece which goes around the bolt in the spring holes is fine so that's good news. I should have everything ready by the time the bearings arrive. This is the same tail wheel we have on the Fly Baby so any serviceable spare parts will always be welcome.

Brake Hoses

2011-04-20T08:13:00.001-04:00

I needed to replace the dead brake hoses at the rudder pedals. The parts are cheap and the process is easy enough. Aeroquip has a sheet you can download which shows how to assemble 303 hose and fittings. The EAA also has a nice video. I realized after I got the parts that I don't own a mandrel for assembling 1/4" hose. It's easy enough to pay a local A&P shop to assemble and test the hoses or buy ready made hoses. I wanted to assemble the hoses. Everything I read on line said that the do it yourself mandrels you can buy (about $80) are too small a diameter to hold the hose open well during assembly. They make them undersized to fit well in used fittings for disassembling old hoses. The solution was obvious, make my own mandrel. I got out my box of drills and used them as plug gauges to find the inside diameter of the hose fitting, 0.170" goes, 0.172" is a no go. McMaster-Carr has 36" sticks of drill rod for about $3 so I selected 0.168" rod to make the pin for the mandrel.

I cut off a piece of rod about 6" long. By chucking it in the drill I tapered about 3/4" on one end with the belt sander and then polished it. For a holder I got a 1/4" AN 815 union out of the recycle bin as well as an AN818 Nut and AN819 Sleeve. It took some light pounding to drive the pin through union. The ends get squashed down when the fittings are tightens installing the lines in use. This same idea was used to with the nut and sleeve to squeeze the one end to hold the pin in the union.

The tape on the hose is so I can see how long I need to cut the other end of the hose to get the same length hose as the old hose. It also allows me to see when I'm done that the hose is still fully in the socket. For a small hose like this it's easier to use a socket wrench to screw the socket onto the cleaned up end of the hose. I use the belt sander to get a nice clean square end and blow the debris out when done. Remember the socket has left hand threads, snug it down and back it off 1/4 turn.

My camera caused this picture to rotate. I've turned off auto rotate so it won't do this again. The important thing here is I use some assembly oil, it's supposed to be slicker, to lubricate the inside of the hose and the threads on the nipple so it doesn't gaul the socket. After you tighten the nut and nipple on the mandrel oil the mandrel pin. You'll need to clean the the oil off the mandrel before you do the next fitting because the nut has to be tight enough not to spin while screwing the nipple into the socket. I also rinse out the hose when all done with a little mineral spirits. The oil is green so it's easy to see when you've rinsed it clean. A couple tablespoons of spirits will clean from each end.

Push the mandrel into the hose and hand thread the nipple into the socket as far as you can so you're sure the threads are engaging well. Then just wrench it in to leave the right gap, 1/32" - 1/16", between the nut and socket.

The fittings add 1-1/16" to the length of the hose so wee need to cut the other end 1-1/16" short of our 11" length needed.

With a short hose like this it's easy to look through it to make sure there is no bulge or cut flap in the inner hose. These 2 came out great. Now I just need to pressure test them and we'll have 2 excellent "Owner Produced Parts" to install and so note in the log book. Good fun!

Springs and Things

2011-04-19T07:23:00.000-04:00

These are the flap return springs. Once the paint has dried well they can go back in the plane. They were a mess but still sound. I dipped the spring ends in primer and let them dry before priming and painting the rest. It takes a few light coats to get paint into the center of the coils, but with them stretched like this it worked fine.

The skylight window mounting flanges needed a little work. The lip on the inside for the headliner was smashed so I made this tool for straightening them. I used a piece of aluminum angle and shaped it to the inside shape of the lip. I rounded it and tapered it at each end so I could work it into smashed areas. With some gentle work they came out great. Now I just need to find out how to install the windows so they never leak

Pulleys & Cables

2011-04-18T08:28:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a rainy stormy day, perfect for re-greasing all the pulleys. All the old grease was dried on the bushings. Some MEK and a q-tip swap cleaned them up nicely. I re-greased them with the Molyshield grease I got for the engine. It's a #2 grease with 5% Molybdenum Disulfide to reduce friction. There are a lot of pulleys in a C-140. All the bolts, etc. are being replaced so I kitted everything for each pulley in it's ziploc bag.

I cleaned all the cables with MEK. It was amazing how much grit had accumulated on the old grease. After cleaning they were inspected. One aileron cable had some broken strands so it will be replaced. The rest are all OK. I coiled each in a ziploc bag and oiled them with Corrosion-X. I did not oil the turnbuckles, they need to be oil free. Galvanized control cable is originally oiled to prevent corrosion. I'm sure it dried out ages ago.

I also reassembled the control tee and cleaned up the 2 return springs on the flap bellcrank. I'll repaint the springs with epoxy primer and epoxy paint. I believe it is a little more flexible than enamel and therefore may last a little longer before the springs start to rust again. If it weren't so expensive I'd paint springs with white epoxy primer only so any future rust would be obvious at the start and could treated before any pitting starts. I really can't afford a quart of primer just for that.

Cabin Touch-up

2011-04-16T07:25:00.007-04:00

I've got the control cables out of the fuselage and started cleaning and inspecting them. One rudder cable has broken strands and will have to be replaced, good-bye $70. Mostly they're just caked with old dry grease and dirt. I'm cleaning them and re-oiling them with Corrosion-X since they were originally oiled to prevent corrosion. The turnbuckle barrels clean up nicely in carburetor cleaner. The threads have accumulated a lot of dry oily crud. They should not be oiled but they need to be clean to adjust them easily, much better. The trick of using a piece of soft flannel cloth to find broken strands was not needed on the one rudder cable, it was obvious to look at.

All the little guards to keep the cables on the pulleys were originally plated. Not much of the plating was left. I cleaned them up, epoxy primed, and painted them. I used a silver paint to look more like plating but once the interior is installed no one will ever see them. Hopefully the paint will last better than the plating. I've also learned that zinc-chromate is a nice primer but needs to be covered with some kind of paint to seal it. All the steel parts with just light coats of zinc-chromate are rusty. Even zinc-chromate will work if you layer up enough coats to seal out moisture. I think it's easier to just paint them with a good enamel over the primer and get on with it.

There were several places in the fuselage cabin area where some extra cleaning and re-priming was needed. Those are done. I think I'm ready to start putting the controls back in.

Working In The Fuselage

2011-04-12T06:32:00.002-04:00

Now that the plane is back on the gear I've started taking out the control cables and pulleys. All the brackets have some rust and the bushings need grease. I think I need a stand to hold the tail up while I'm working. Trying not to slide into the tail while using wrenches is to much work for an old guy. The Aileron Cables look good but they have so much old grease on them it's hard to tell for sure. I need to clean them up and then measure them and check for broken strands and rust. I also need to find the cross connection cable for the ailerons in the pile of extra cables I have. I must have enough cables for 2 planes since all the other cables are still in the fuselage.

On The Gear Again

2011-04-10T19:51:00.003-04:00

After a rainy day yesterday it finally cleared this afternoon. The last wedge went in fine. This would have all been easier using a 7/16" universal socket. It's shorter than a socket and a universal joint, all 1/4" drive. There is not much space to work.

As the sun sets it's nice to have it starting to look like a plane again. Now I can get the remaining control cable pulley brackets out to clean up, re-grease the pulleys and check all the cables. All the brackets are rusty so I'm sure I'll find more problems but they should all be minor.

Gear Back On

2011-04-07T22:00:00.008-04:00

The gear is finally back on. I still have 3 rivets to install on the skins around the gear. They need some modified bucking bars to get them in and I need to crawl in the fuselage to figure out what is needed. I haven't wanted to crawl in until the plane was off the stand. The rivets are also easy to get at with the gear on. I still need to install one of the wedges and torque the 2 attachment bolts.Someone had modified the skin on the left side to get at the wedge bolts better. I did those 2 wedges first without realizing how much easier it was with some room to work and being able to see what was happening. The right side has not been modified and is tough. On top of that the slight amount of primer I put on the gear, 2 coats, prevents the wedges from going in as far as they did in the factory. This requires longer bolts which adds to the problem. I did not repaint the wedges for that reason and wiped off any primer on the channels with MEK. The wedges are a very shallow taper so it doesn't take much to make a big difference. I got each wedge lined up with the bolt hole and then started the bolt in to assure it would be lined up free to turn it in. Then I pounded the wedge in tight per the Cessna 100 Series manual and tightened the bolt. Once I was convinced I had the wedge as far as it would go I checked the bolt with the mirror and found I had 1 - 2 threads through the nut plate, perfect. I don't trust that the wedges are in as far as they should be since I used AN4-10A bolts and the parts list shows AN4-5A. The bolts I removed were AN4-6A, but even then 1/4" longer bolts leaves me believing the wedges can go in further. I'll recheck them as we move forward and also after we start flying just to see if they can be wedged in further. I quit when it got dark and I got tired. It's still very cool to have the gear back on.

Bucking Bars

2011-04-06T06:42:00.004-04:00

I've started riveting the panels back over the gear leg openings. I had gotten some new bucking bars from Aircraft Spruce. When I went to use them I realized they mostly have sharp corners , (chamfered but not smooth and round), edges and some rough areas on the castings that need smoothing. Any edge etc. which might come into contact with something while bucking the rivets needs to be smooth so it won't scratch anything it touches. I'll spend a couple hours rounding all the edges and smoothing any areas which might touch something. You don't want everything smooth or they're hard to hold while bucking the rivets. I'm not really complaining about Aircraft Spruce. On something like these panels where you have to reach in through a hole to buck the rivets it's easy to touch the structure while bucking the rivet. If all this were being done by 2 people in nice open space it could probably be done without any worry of scratching things.

Engine Assembly Greases and Sealants

2011-04-05T08:23:00.003-04:00

I now have the rest of the greases and sealants to start assembling the engine. There are more listed in SIL99-2B but the work has already been done, plugs & breather elbow, or they don't apply, fuel injection, turbo charger, etc. The tube of Molyshield grease came from The American Lubricants Company in Dayton, Ohio, (800-543-9720 no website). They take credit cards and were happy to sell one tube. It's a #2 grease with 5% Molybdenum Disulfide for use on the valve stems and gear teeth. . The small tube of Dow Corning Molykote G-n paste came from Skygeek. It's for the cam shaft lobes and tappet faces. I've seen on line videos showing this stuff being slopped on the lobes and tappets. The directions on the tube say: Apply a thin coating. For more effective application, burnish into metal surfaces by rubbing on with lint-free cloth. Remove excess. May be applied with short, stiff bristled brush. Not everything you find on line is correct. I only hope I don't post incorrect info or at least someone will point it out when I do.

Trim Wheel & Fuel lines

2011-04-04T22:00:00.006-04:00

I was concerned that I would not get a good seal on the old fuel lines. There was evidence people had worked to seal the fittings to stop fuel leaks in the past. The best solution would probably be to make all new lines. Instead I ordered some DEL 37 deg. fitting seals from Aircraft Spruce. They're about $2 each and I won't know if they work until I can leak test the lines. They're soft aluminum caps which fit on the end of the fittings (shiny ends on fittings). They intall easier on new fittings, but by lining them up squarely on the fitting and then slowly turning the fitting while gently pushing down with your finger tips they go on well. They stay fairly well but will fall off a new fitting so be careful they are very fragile. They're so soft I'm sure they will seal very well. I also cleaned up and re-greased the bearings for the elevator trim tab wheel. The wheel is straight forward to re-install using the procedures in the 140 Operation Manual or the 100 Series Service Manual. The service manual does not have the cable tension spec for the 140. It did have one piece of information I could not find in the Operation Manual. There was no spec for oiling the chain in the Operation Manual because none of the control chains are supposed to be greased or oiled. It would seem they were more concerned with it picking up dirt if oiled than reducing friction. Many slow moving parts are better not oiled. When I cleaned the chain in some MEK I was shocked how much grit washed off it from someone oiling it in the past. The chain didn't even look dirty. If I ever detect any rusting I'll use the Corrosion-x to lightly oil it, but for now it is cleaned and moves very freely.

Painting Engine Parts and Brake Problems

2011-03-30T08:21:00.003-04:00

I've started painting the black parts for the engine, rocker covers, intake tubes, etc. The cylinders are next. I wasn't happy with the Cleveland wheels I had cleaned up and installed so I could get this thing back on the gear. The plane came with a mismatched set of Goodyear wheels and 4 brake calipers. I found wheels to match the Goodyears so I decided to clean up the brake calipers. After degreasing and stripping the old paint I quickly condemned all 4 calipers. All four have cracks in the casting at the edge of the machined area and the closest hole. Each is only cracked on one hole. I'm sure if I thought about how the braking loads are applied it would be obvious which were on the right and which were on the left. But who cares, I have more metal for the recycling bin. I've drawn arrows to the crack to help anyone else looking at their parts.

Engine Case Painted

2011-03-24T10:25:00.003-04:00

I couldn't find Continental Gray engine enamel, but I did find a Dupli-Color New Ford Grey at Advance Auto which is lighter than the Lycoming gray. It came out great. It was another paint with the recommendation to spray 2 light coats and then one medium coat ten minutes apart. After all the time spent masking I understand why Continental switched to Gold Alodine on the aluminum parts and their ugly Gold paint on steel parts. Even with clamp on masks there is a lot to mask. I pounded some dents out of the oil sump and I'm cleaning the Accessory case and other parts which get Grey paint. Fortunately the only inspection I needed to do was to make sure nothing got damaged after all these years setting. So far everything is fine. I'll probably paint the black parts before I start reassembly so the engine doesn't set open very long.

Brake Lines In Gear Box

2011-03-20T18:54:00.004-04:00

The new brake lines are fabricated and installed in the gear box. It took a few hours of careful work to get them so they follow the correct path and attach where they are supposed to. Fortunately 1/4" tubing is easy to work with.

I'm priming the fuselage under the 2 skin panels before I rivet them back on. After the riveting is done the gear can finally go back on.

Fuel Lines & Selector Valve Back In

2011-03-17T21:32:00.011-04:00

While the plane sat so many years the mud daubers had gotten into the fuel lines and brake lines buried in the landing gear box. With the skins (IPC fig 15-23) covering the gear box sides removed these are easy parts to replace so the gear has remained off while I get them done. The mud daubers had made it all the way to the fuel selector valve. Other than cleaning, the selector valve is in very good condition. The only problem was getting the rusty cotter pin out from the handle as well as the screw which broke at the cotter pin hole. After an easy out failed to remove the screw, I carefully drilled it to just short of the tap hole diameter for the 8-32 screw and then used a tap to gently remove the remaining threads of the screw. I need to verify that the valve seals but there were no scratches on the sealing surfaces. The fuel lines might have been cleaned but it seemed better to just fabricate new ones. I have this cheap tube bender which at least bends the right radius. The edges of the grooves scraped the sides of the tubing so some improvements were needed. I filed a slight radius on the corners of the grooves, then polished each radius with scotch bright and finally with the Dremel tool and polishing compound. To assure the aluminum tubing moved easily in the aluminum bender I also oiled the groove with a light machine oil, Problem solved. . The tool looks like it should be just held in your hand and bend the tube. That works fine for 1/4" thin tubing but not for the 3/8" x. 035" tubing used for the fuel lines. To get a tight radius you need to hold the bender against a solid surface to force the tube to stay in the groove while forming the bend. The result is a bend as well formed as the factory bends. . . . . . . . To prevent chafing on the fuselage structure the factory slipped lengths of thin rubber tubing over the aluminum before forming the flared ends. Lowes has a vinyl tubing of the same diameter and thickness which works perfect for this purpose. This worked fine for the new tubes, but some of the old tubes had been stored away from the mud daubers and didn't need to be replaced. The anti chafing tubing on some of those was cracked. On these old tubes people in the past had used various clamps, etc. to hold the anti-chafe tubing tight. Instead I used some heat shrink tubing slipped over the old tube and shrunk to a tight fit. The heat shrink I used was 1-1/4" wide laying flat. It was left over from my hang gliding days in the 70's so I don't remember the diameter.

This size fit nicely over the fittings and shrunk tight. Start shrinking in the middle, work around and then out. They came out great. I think these last 2 pictures are slightly out of focus.

Engine In Pieces

2011-03-15T07:02:00.003-04:00

The engine is apart (the picture is before I split the case). I've started cleaning everything so I can inspect, measure , and re-paint. The prop hub is off to be overhauled (inspected & replated) so I can't reassemble until it returns and can bolt it to the stand. The only problem I've run into is finding some of the lubricants and sealants required by Teledyne Continental service letter SIL99-2B. A.E.R.O. had the silk thread (641543), 3D Permatex to stick down the thread, engine oil, and Paste-Gasket (642188). I'm still looking for Molyshield Grease and Dow Corning G-N Paste. I now have a lifetime supply of silk thread. In the past it came with the gasket set. I guess I'll just have to find more engine projects to use it up on. I like that idea.

Engine Work Begins

2011-03-11T06:28:00.002-05:00

I've started taking the engine back apart. It's hard to imagine this project has sat so long but it was March of 1991 when Bolduc overhauled the cylinders. Maybe when we put it back together this time it won't sit so long without flying. I just want to make sure there is no rust or any other damage from sitting so long.

Engine Gaskets, etc.

2011-03-08T19:09:00.004-05:00

The gaskets, etc. arrived to day from Fresno Airparts. It's always like Christmas when parts arrive. Now I need to get working on the engine so it can go back together. Everything has been overhauled but it has been setting for many years. I'll inspect all of it especially for corrosion and re-measure everything just to be sure it's correct then hopefully have it reassembled soon.

Putting Things Back in the Fuselage

2011-03-05T08:48:00.002-05:00

It's nice to finally be putting things back in the fuselage. The new nut plates for the gear leg wedge bolts are epoxy primed (no more rust) and riveted in. I have the materials to make the new brake lines. The float fittings were almost as much trouble to re-install as they were to remove, very tight quarters for big hands to work. The control yoke, flap lever, and all the other little parts I took out are cleaned, epoxy primed and painted. I love the Poly Fiber Epoxy Primer but I've never been happy with any of the enamel paints I've used over it on fittings. John Gaertner of Blue Swallow Aircraft turned me on to an epoxy spray paint from VHT Products Company. You can get it at most auto parts stores, they have a where to buy it page on their web site. You spray a light coat, wait 10 minutes another light coat, wait 10 minutes and then a final medium coat and let it dry to a very hard finish in gloss black or satin black.

Cleaning Fuselage Cabin Area

2011-02-28T19:11:00.004-05:00

Between breaking a bone in my arm at Christmas, waiting for parts, and work, I feel like I'm going in slow motion. I have got the gear box area all cleaned and primed, very hard one handed. To spray inside the channels above and below the gear leg I needed a dog leg spray gun. I took the nozzle and tube off a can of brake cleaner and added a rubber band. I was able to spray all the hidden areas after a couple tries and checks with an inspection mirror. I love cheap solutions that work. While cleaning and inspecting the gear box area I could see rust on the float attach fittings in the belly. You really find out how much 2 hands are needed trying to get those bolts out but I got there. The parts cleaned up nicely and are primed and painted ready to reinstall when all the bolts arrive. The aluminum was mostly dirty and cleaned up well. After I primed it the weather turned back cold so I wrapped the area with rugs strapped to the belly and left a 60 watt bulb burning all night in the gear box. It stayed 59 degrees despite the freezing temps. outside and the epoxy was nicely set by morning. To get the fittings out I had to remove the control column and push tube to the elevator cable bellcrank. The column and tube looked good but there was a tiny bit of flaking in the last coat of paint. I decided to clean them and repaint. Boy am I glad I did. It appears someone long ago sanded them and painted them gray. Unfortunately they did not re-prime them first and simply covered a lot of rust. They're cleaning up and I will probably replace the push tube. I've also found, anything that should move is generally stuck. Fortunately I've also found the best unsticker in the world. Faith Olen-Glick (I'm flying her Champ) loaned me a can of Corrosion X. It is amazing. Not only did if free up the trim indicator in minutes and the universal joints in about an hour, I have a rudder bar for my WACO NINE project which has spent years being soaked with every known penetrating oil to no affect. I even checked it with a board for leverage before trying the Corrosion X, not a wiggle. Just 2 hours after spraying with Corrosion X it wiggled for the first time in decades and after a couple minutes was a free as new. It's the most expensive spray ($15.25) I've tried but it's worked perfectly. It is actually cleaning the rust off the rudder bar. The result of all this is I'm removing everything related to the controls and cleaning and lubing everything. I don't want any rust or sticking in the controls. The bolts and other parts to start putting this all back together should be here tomorrow. Unlike building new parts I only discover what I need once things are apart.

Landing Gear Wedge Bolt Nut Plates

2011-02-13T20:01:00.002-05:00

While removing the landing gear legs I had a problem removing the 2 bolts holding the wedges tight on the left side. The nut plates and bolts had rusted enough to bind the bolts and shear the rivets holding the nut plates. The bolts came loose enough to get the wedges out before I realized there was a problem. I should have gotten some oil on them before I started removing them. I had no problem on the right side but they were also rusty. The nut plates are riveted into the steel channel which is the upper gear support. I needed to get in enough to replace the nutplates on both the right and left gear. It also seemed a good chance to clean up any light rust and re-prime as needed. I thought about trying to remove the floor above the supports but removing the skin piece (0411611) covering the area was easier. I'll also replace the short piece of brake line which looks like it gets wet from water around the gear leg. Most of what looks rusty there is really primer sprayed in through the leg hole in the past. The bolts were easily cut off with a Dremel tool with a cut off disk. Now I know what to use to cut off a lock. It really went quickly through the 1/4" AN bolt. . The next step is to clean things up, epoxy prime and put in new nut plates. It looks like the skin can be riveted with the gear leg installed, but I'll probably rivet first.

Brake Master Cylinders Complete

2011-02-04T20:55:00.002-05:00

The brake master cylinders are reassembled and ready to install when I get the missing bearing block. Cessna sells new blocks for $2.27 per half but you need to order $25 minimum. I've been looking to see if there is anything else I need first. The cylinders have new o-rings and the parking brake cables work now.

Parking Brake Cables

2011-02-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

Cleaning up the brake master cylinders was a simple enough matter. The housings had to be grit blasted to clean up the rust on the outside before epoxy priming. A lot of care was taken to seal them so no grit would get inside. New o-rings will be installed on the plunger. The biggest problem was the 2 bowden type cables attached to the cylinders to operate the parking brake locks on the plunger shafts.

The cables were both stuck and I thought they were rusted up. I started inspecting them by carefully bending the housing to look between the coils for the rusty area. None were found on either cable. What I did find was the cables had been painted some time while the plane was in service. The paint had gotten in the coils and bound up the cable core. It took a couple hours of careful work to brush the paint from the housing using a file card (file brush) while carefully bending the housing to open the coils. Once that was done graphite was worked into the housing and the cables work fine.

When the o-rings get here I'll reassemble all of this.

Rudder Pedals Assembled

2011-01-25T20:48:00.004-05:00

The rudder pedals are reassembled and ready to install once I find the missing center bearing block. . . . . . . . The bearing is a cast part. split in half with 2 holes for the tubes. The part number 0411264 is cast on the side of each half. The Top is -3 and the bottom-4. I'm missing the bottom. From the parts I have I can't tell that they were machined as pairs since all the halves line up well. It's obvious from wear marks which were the installed pairs, but otherwise there is no misalignment. Therefore if I could find even just a bottom it would probably work. . . These springs are the rudder pedal return springs which keep the pedals from falling toward the seats. They were a little rusty and at some time after the factory slobbered with paint. It was quicker to clean them up and epoxy prime them then look for new ones. I stretched them, between some clamps, enough to hold them open to grit blast and prime them. Once they are well cured I'll release them and they'll be ready to install with the pedals. The next job is the brake master cylinders.

Ready To Assemble Pedals

2011-01-25T06:24:00.002-05:00

All the parts are cleaned up and repainted. I found some nice aluminum colored Rust-Oleum to paint the cast pedals and their links. I epoxy primed the inner (brake) shafts because one was developing some rust even though they were cadmium plated. I also lightly greased the inside of the rudder bar to protect it without paint. One thing I would do differently is not painting the stubs on the rudder bar where the pedal tubes slip on. One light coat of epoxy primer would have been fine. They just fit to tight otherwise. They're all back together. I'm also missing one of the halves of the bearing blocks that mount to the floor structure. Hopefully it fell in the shop where the pedals were removed several years ago. No one even has any listed anywhere on line.

Rudder Pedals

2011-01-18T08:01:00.002-05:00

I'm changing the brakes to Cleveland brakes and need to get some shorter bolts for the axles, so we're on to the rudder pedals. I was going to just grease these and reinstall them. I keep finding enough cracked and corroded parts that I decided to take these apart to clean and inspect them. They are primary flight controls after all. We have the optional Right Seat brakes which is nice. So far the only problems I see just in taking them apart is some rust and the Oilite bushings for the brakes are dried out and the tubes were very sticky to turn.

The bushings just press into the the rudder bars and hold the brake shaft in. It has a step on it which made it easy to press out the bushings. That may have been it's purpose since the arms on each end hold the shaft in.

Now that all parts are disassembled, bagged or tagged I'm ready to start cleaning to inspect. The parts book really helps to figure out how all this works.

Wheels Ready to Assemble

2011-01-09T22:00:00.002-05:00

All the parts are painted ready to reassemble, after the paint drys a little more. New brake pads had been installed so I have new o-rings, felt seals and bolts. The wheel bearings will be repacked. It will be nice to put this plane back on it's own legs.

Priming Wheels & Parts

2011-01-08T13:51:00.004-05:00

Business has finally slowed enough to get back to the landing gear. All the parts are cleaned and the first coat of epoxy primer sprayed.

I found a nice little airbrush at Michael's craft store for $25. It is set up to work with expensive little air cans. With a piece of 1/8" tubing and a couple fittings I modified it to work with the air compressor or my little portable air tank.

I cut off the can fitting at the end of the thin tube on the brush. Then I opened one end of the 1/8" tube, with the tube fitting I used on the other end, so I could slip the small tube into it. A little super clue and some heat shrink tubing over the joint and it is tight past the 50 psi limit for the brush. With a quick disconnect fitting on the 1/8" tube I can hook it up to any air source. It works very well with 30 psi at the regulator and about 6 ft. of tubing. It atomizes the primer very fine so you get a nice smooth coat. I mix the primer in an 8 oz. jar so it pours easily into the small jar on the brush. I put any extra in the freezer until the next coat can be sprayed. I found it takes about 2 months in the freezer before you see it even start to thicken so a couple days in the freezer slows the epoxy's reaction enough to save wasting much primer.

Second Coat of White on Wings

2010-11-21T19:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was able to get a second coat of white Poly-Tone on the right wing. Today I finished the left wing. They'll have some time to dry over Thanksgiving. After that we'll watch the weather for some warm days to get the yellow sprayed. At least they could be flown like this if the rest of the plane is ready before warm weather, fat chance.

First Coat of White

2010-11-15T20:10:00.002-05:00

I took this picture at this odd angle from the porch of the attic because I could see the faint grey spots in the white. Jim and Dondi had warned me that the yellow is very transparent since they eliminated lead from the pigments. Their point was that any shadow from the silver will show through the yellow. When I first sprayed on the white it looked so good I thought I could get away without a second coat. After talking to Jim he convinced me that there were visible shadows in the white. After looking at this picture they don't show in it. Anyway it is supposed to rain the next 2 days so we'll let the wings dry and hope its warm enough Thursday to spray a second coat of white. I've got a lot of work piled up in the shop so I guess the rain will give me a chance to earn some money to pay for all this good fun.

Gear Legs Primed

2010-11-14T22:00:00.001-05:00

Both wings have now been sanded and resprayed with Poly-Spray. If the weather holds I'll start spraying color with Poly-Tone. The gear legs are cleaned up and the step rivet holes inspected for cracks, fortunately none were found. I've sprayed the first coat of epoxy primer on the legs. I like epoxy primer better than zinc chromate. They'll get one more coat before putting them back on the fuselage. I have 2 sets of wheels and brakes with the project, one set of Goodyear and one set of Cleveland. We'll try using the Cleveland assuming they clean up to be serviceable. I've started bead blasting the parts to remove paint and corrosion. At least the rotors cleaned up fine.

Sanding Wings

2010-11-13T20:19:00.003-05:00

Thank heaven for a stand which easily rotates to a nice angle for working. I started with the leading edge at a lower angle, reaching from the leading edge side. Than between the spars at this angle from the trailing edge side. Last I tipped up the trailing edge to a comfortable angle and sanded behind the rear spar. Just a light sanding along the edge of the tapes and the open areas to get any specs of trash under the poly. You can really see any brush bristles left in the Poly-Brush, I thought I found all of them earlier. Once it dried I sprayed another full cross coat of Poly-Spray. They really look good, not perfect, but I like how they're coming along. Tomorrow the other wing. These cool short days really slow things down.

Spraying Wings

2010-11-11T19:18:00.002-05:00

The weather wasn't as warm today but I managed to get a second coat of Poly-Spray on the first wing and the first coat on the second. Tomorrow I'll be able to sand any spots which need it on the first wing and get a second coat on the other. They look good and are well covered so I feel very good about the results.

First Coat of Poly-Spray

2010-11-10T17:52:00.003-05:00

Good fun today. Now the wings are looking like wings. The Poly-Spray was easy to spray. We're getting warm enough weather to get one coat a day. If it holds I still may get to spray the color this fall.

I'm also cleaning the rust from the gear legs. It's slow because I don't want to use to much sand blast pressure and I'm blasting the areas at a shallow angle to avoid peening the surface while scrubbing off the rust. They're cleaning up nice, just slow.

Removed The Main Gear

2010-11-07T17:28:00.008-05:00

The past three weeks have been very busy in the embroidery shop. Things have slowed enough to get some time on the fuselage. It's been to cold to spray on the wings. We may have to move them back up to the attic for the winter. Most everything has already been removed from the fuselage. There are a few steel parts which need to be removed and repainted, rusty. The gear legs are one of those and it seemed better to start there. We needed to remove them to properly clean them and epoxy prime the metal.

To remove the gear you need to get at the main bolt in the fuselage. The Bolts that hold the wedges in are easy to get at from outside. The wedges jam the spring steel tight in the frame so the legs don't rattle around on landing. To hold up the fuselage and get the doors open the easiest place to support it is at the rear spar attach fittings, behind the doors. Two 2x4 rails were laid on the ground and vertical pieces cut to fit over the spar fittings. Diagonal braces were added to stabilize the posts and everything is screwed together. I put a bolt through the 2 cross braces just to make it more rigid.

Some weight was needed on the tail even without the engine or anything in the cabin. I used a 5/16" bolt so there wouldn't be any severe loads on the spar fittings. The fuselage just sets on the bolts.

With the doors open it was easy to get to the bolts. You need a 3/8" allen wrench for the bolt and a 12 point 9/16" wrench for the nut. A little tapping on the inside of the gear leg with a soft mallet got the wedges out and then it's just a matter of sliding the leg out. I thought I might need to support the gear but they don't move once the bolts are out.

The mains are off and in the shop for cleaning and painting. I'll also clean up the wheels and repack the bearings so once it's all done we won't need to take any of it apart before the plane flys.

Temporary Cover for the Fuselage

2010-10-25T20:31:00.004-04:00

To make it easier to keep the cabin area clean and dry I made a nice fitted cover from a heavy duty 8'x10' poly tarp from Lowes. I used duct tape to tape it in position to neatly form the pleats. I then sewed the pleats with some (Poly Fiber) machine sewing thread with my cheap Singer machine. Now I just slip it over the cabin and hold it snug with a bungee around the bottom rear and one on each gear leg.

It's much easier to install and remove than a loose tarp and it doesn't flap in the breeze which is what gets them torn on sharp corners, etc.

Final Spray Coats of Poly Brush

2010-10-25T20:09:00.002-04:00

Before I sprayed the first coat of Poly Brush I looked very carefully for any bare spots along the spars and re-brushed them to fill them in. What I found was I should have put Poly Brush on the spars like on the leading edge, etc. Anything on the lower (flat) surface within 1/8" and anything on the top (scalloped) surface within 1/4" of the fabric should have 2 coats of Poly Brush. The poly drips on such surfaces as you brush and then wicks adjoining areas clean. After several careful applications the bare spots fill and blend in nicely under the spray coats.

To make life easier mixing 3:1 I marked up a stirring stick by carefully pouring 1/2 gallon of well mixed Poly into a clean empty can (lower mark). Then I made a higher mark at a distance equal to 1/3 of the lower height. Then all I had to do was add the Reducer to the second mark and I have very consistent 3:1 mix.

I also found it helpful to filter the Poly Brush mix into an empty reducer can for pouring into the cup of my HVLP spray gun. Quick and easy No Mess pouring, easy to open and close the can, easy to keep well shaken. I'll do another can for the Poly Spray. .

Both wings now have 2 full spray coats. We're ready to start the Poly Spray the next warm dry day. They are not perfect but I'm very happy. Much more fun than just doing bits of all these steps in training classes.

Some Problem Spots

2010-10-19T20:09:00.005-04:00

There are a few spots which need a touch up with the 225 deg. iron. I also found a few spots where the first brushed coat did not fully encapsulate the fabric. All the spots where where the fabric is close to but not touching some structure. Almost all of these were along the spars. The fabric only sits about .040" from the spar, the thickness of the rib plus anti chafe tape. When the first coat of poly-brush was brushed on, the liquid on the back of the fabric appears to have transferred to the structure leaving the fabric nearly dry. In the first 2 pictures it left little more than pin holes. The third picture shows a spot over the spar which has a large dry spot. I've gone back and lightly brushed some 3:1 Poly-brush over the areas and feathered it as best I could. I think I can smooth the edges a little with the iron and or some reducer. I'll check the other wing before I spray and fix any spots I can find which should prevent it from ever showing. There appears to be poly brush actually on the fibers just not enough to seal it.

First Spray Coats

2010-10-18T19:16:00.003-04:00

Yea! Finally we're spraying. There is hope these wings will get done. I got to use my new HVLP spray gun also. Well it was new in 1997. It's just taken a while to get to this project. The gun was a going away present from the people I worked with at Genicom, before I started my embroidery business. The instructions are to put on a medium coat of poly-brush, dry 2 hours then a full wet coat. Surprising how much redder it looks and the poly brushed over the tapes are blended very well. The next dry day we'll get the second coat on.

Fuselage Brought Home

2010-10-16T20:17:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went back to Bill Oliver's house and brought home the Fuselage and all it's associated parts. With that we have the whole plane at the house, along with the Fly Baby and WACO NINE. Can life possibly get any better? We wrapped the fuselage with 4 mil plastic and duct tape to make sure nothing fell off or got broke in the wind. For less than $20 it was cheap insurance and worked great. The trailer is my sister in-law's boat trailer which we keep in our back yard (we live at a lake). The main gear was ratchet strapped to a plank on the trailer. The tail wheel was strapped to the spare tire and separately to the tongue of the trailer.

. .

. To get the mains on and off the trailer we used some car ramps with one end raise with blocks to make it easier for 2 old guys to do.

To keep the wheels from sliding various blocks were screwed to the main cross board. That 2x10 was Bolted to the frame with 3/8" U-bolts.

The fuselage is now ready to move into the tent once the spraying is done on the wings.

The upholstery on the seats appears to be original from 1947. I need to do some research on original fabrics. They are in very good condition if they are original.

Ready To Spray Wings

2010-10-13T19:20:00.002-04:00

It's almost amazing. Both wings are ready to start spraying. The tapes are all on with a coat of poly-brush over them. They've all been ironed to smooth the edges and any other lumpy spots. The grommets have been added in the low corner of each bay. The seaplane grommets are installed on the drains for the fuel tank bay and dollar patches are applied to all grommets in the slipstream. Everything is ready for the poly-brush to be sprayed on. Well almost everything, the weather forecast for tomorrow is bad. Time to tune up the spray gun and make sure it will work well with poly-brush.

Tapes on RH Wing

2010-10-07T21:29:00.005-04:00

I need to start these things earlier in the day. I keep running out of daylight. The patches went much faster with everything prepared. The chordwise tapes I pre-cut to length and roll up with a paper clip to keep them out of the dirt. You wouldn't want them to get wet and rust but even I'm not that slow.

One of the nice things with polyester fabric is the ability to stretch and shrink it to fit nicely around things rather than making lots of cuts in the tapes.

The tapes are done. I still need to iron the edges smooth, put on another coat of poly-brush over the tapes and add drain grommets. Then I can spray both wings with poly-spray and color. It's nice to have them looking like wings.

RH Wing Ready For Patches & Tapes

2010-10-06T19:34:00.003-04:00

They say tomorrow will be warmer and hopefully I can get the tapes all on. One coat of Poly Brush goes under all the tapes and patches. Pencil or chalk lines were laid out for all of them using 2" wide straight edge. The poly brush gets feathered along the edges so it was a little slow. Sometimes even having fun is like work. It came out real good and gives you a reason to think through where patches and tapes will go. The 2 inspection rings are on and all the patches are cut out. Tomorrow when this poly brush is dry applying everything should move right along.

Fabric Clips on RH Wing Ribs

2010-10-05T20:10:00.011-04:00

I realized I never showed any pictures of fixing the hole spacing for the rib clips. I worried a lot about clips being loose but the real problem was all the clips which were added after the plane left the factory. The hols were to fare apart to get the clips to stay in. By measuring the hole edge to edge distance the bad holes were all found to be greater than 1.245" - 1.265" tolerance. It takes a little care to get just the tips of the calipers in the holes. . Next the clip edge of the holes are each lightly filed with a rat tail file and then remeasured, etc. It sounds tedious but you quickly get a feel for it and I never over did any of them. All the factor hole fit the clips fine as is.

The clips are each hooked in one hole and popped in the next. When the hole spacing is correct they snap in and hold very well.

There are 139 on the top side and 68 on the bottom. Except for fixing some else's poor hole drilling this is really fast compared to rib stitching.

Once the clips are all on you need to apply 4 coats of Poly Brush to the reinforcing tapes. This fills them so they don't suck the Poly Brush out of the surfaced tapes. I find a cheap 1" brush with the bristles cut off to 1/2" long works great. It hold enough liquid to do about 8" on the first coat and about 24" after that. It just covers the tape with no mess on the fabric and is real easy to control.

RH Wing Fabric Clips

2010-10-04T18:23:00.003-04:00

This evening I started putting on reinforcing tapes and installing the clips which hold the fabric to the ribs. It was going well until the sun went down. I guess I'll have to add lights to the tent now that summer and the mosquitos are gone. I did find the same problem with this wing, as on the left wing, with the clips which were added in the field. The hole spacing is too wide to properly install the clips. A little work measuring of the hole spacing and filing solves the problem but it does take time. I don't want to over do it so I file a little and recheck the measurement. As soon as they're in the spec they fit fine.

RH Wing Shrinking & Poly Brush

2010-10-03T19:17:00.006-04:00

On the LH wing the outboard seam did not come out straight. It was bowed in towards the root 3/4" in the middle on the top and bottom. I had followed the directions for shrinking an envelope which said to start at the seams and slowly work away from them to keep them straight. It made sense but only worked on the inboard seam. This time I looked to see if I could figure out why and prevent it. I realized the extra fabric around the nav light was probably the cause. The envelope fit tight at the last rib where the metal tip starts. From there outboard it was very loose. I started at the seams with a quick 250 degree shrink on them and the rib bays each side of the seam just to take out a little slack but not enough to pull the fabric tight. I then went to the tip and worked like a fan shape from the nav light inboard on the top and bottom. I worked this just enough to get rid of the slack and pull the fabric so it touched the edge of the tip with no big wrinkles.

Then I went back to the seams and did a slow shrink all the way along each seam. This was to pull them tight cordwise to help resist spanwise movement. From there I followed the original procedure of shrinking out from the seam doing one bay on each side then flipping to do the other side. Do another set and repeat

With the wing tight the seam is as straight as it was sewn, much better.

The wing is now ready to cut just enough to get the strut fittings to slide through. It looks strange to leave tents around such things while shrinking but it's much easier to get the cuts in the right spot.

The cut fabric was glued to the spar and fitting plate. The gas tank filler and sump holes were also cut and the fabric glued down. Once the glue dries its easy to shrink around the spots to remove the slack.

The fabric was the shrunk at 350 degrees and the first coat of polybrush applied. It always looks strange at this point, with visible drips on the inside, but comes out very smooth.

We're ready for reinforcing tapes and rib clips but we've lost the sun light and I'm tired.

Fabric On RH Wing

2010-10-02T22:00:00.005-04:00

The rain finally ended. The slip cover is on the wing ready for gluing. We pulled the cover snug with some spring clamps holding the fabric at the root end. This allowed us to get it close enough to final position to cut the hole at the light for the tip stand. The root was glued first with that end setting on a table. It was easier than working around the stand. Once the root was done it went back on the stand for easy flipping. . . . . . . . . . The aileron cutout and rear strut access were next and the trailing edge of the tip last. It's now ready for shrinking. It looks loose but the fit is just about perfect except right at the tip where it could have been sewn to a better shape. There is about 1" of extra material around the nav light.

RH Wing Ready For Fabric

2010-09-26T22:00:00.005-04:00

The Blocks for attaching fabric to around the Tank Filler Neck were made of of a soft wood 1/2" thick with a cross grained ply of 1/16" veneer of mahogany on the top and bottom, making a thick 3 ply plywood. The veneer was badly broken so I replaced it with 1/8" plywood. There is plenty of room for up to 3/4" thickness. Double click on the pictures and you can see the dimensions for the hole, etc. I epoxy varnished the blocks which should now last for the life of the plane. You could probably make them from 3/4" plywood if there is room to widen the thin section a little. On the left wing the filler is that close to the root rib. I could not get the right tank that close.

They're stuck in place with black tar like roof sealant. Once everything is painted I'll seal the gap better with RTV to keep water and gas out of the wing.

The tank had some spots where fuel had stained it and while there was no evidence of a crack or wear I pressure tested the tank to make sure. A coupler for my 2" hose on the shop vacuum fit snugly over the filler neck. My shop vacuum has a blower connection as well as vacuum. The blower side puts out a nice 2 psi. Isn't it great how life just works out some times. I taped over the gauge opening, it leaked a little, and plugged the drain.

I connected a low pressure gauge to the fuel line to monitor pressure and used soap solution to look for bubbles on the stained areas. As expected there were no leaks. The stains are in areas which seamed to be the natural flow paths from spillage around the filler neck, still worth checking.

The wing is now in the tent ready to install the fabric. All ADs and service letters are complied with, the tinnerman nuts are all on, wire is run to the nav light, and the tank is snugly mounted on it's padded ribs. The wing rib lacing is done and all areas needing chafing protection are taped. After a very busy summer working and traveling to fly-ins during dry weather it is now raining here. Once it dries out again we'll get the fabric on and work to get both wings through color before winter.

Tapes Done on Left Wing

2010-08-08T21:11:00.003-04:00

We've taken the grandkids camping, been to Oshkosh and waited for the humidity to drop. It finally did on Saturday but not until an intense storm on Thursday which took out the top 80 feet of a tree leaving about 30 feet standing. The poor car took the beating but the wing in the tent behind the broken end of the tree hardly fluttered. Go figure. . Before the spanwise tapes went on, a coat of polybrush over the other tapes was needed. It helps adhesion to have the tapes filled so they don't suck the polybrush out at the overlaps. Also any bumps and rough edges of he tapes were again ironed smooth. The edges of the tapes are brushed perpendicular to the tape to feather the polybrush. It should help create a better finish.

The tip bow was taped by continuing the leading edge tape all the way around. It take a little longer to shrink it to a good fit without any cuts but I'm doing this for fun not speed.

I used metal drain grommets. I checked the parts manual to see how many were needed in case they put them on both sides of the ribs or in front of the front spar. They used 12, one on each high side of the rib at the trailing edge. They also used 2 Seaplane grommets to vent the fuel tank bay. I'll have to order those while I cover the other wing. The holes are there in the sheet metal on the bottom of the tank bay.

All the poly brush is done and tapes ironed smooth. It's time to cover the right wing.

Tapes & Patches on Left Wing

2010-07-15T22:02:00.007-04:00

I like working with Poly Fiber. The patches on various wear points and around the tank opening and landing light were next. All are cut with pinked edges. I like using a Fiskars Rotary Cutter and cutting board. For straight cuts a plastic straight edge works well. All are available at local fabric shops. Also the scraps of fabric I used for patches were very wrinkled. They ironed very nice at 225 deg. I used my heat press I use for printing tee shirts. It has good temperature control and you just put the peices in and clamp it shut for 5 second. Next I cut all the chordwise tapes to length 107" for the long ribs (at flaps) and 96" for the short ribs (at ailerons). There are a few other shorter pieces needed which I cut as I went. While doing the first side of the wing it's helpful to roll the tape half way and clip them with a large paperclip. It keeps the ends off the dirty floor. . . . The tapes went down as easy as cotton tapes with the Poly Brush thinned 3:1. The big difference is you need to work the Poly Brush up through the tape to wet it. It's what you should do with cotton but it wicks so well it just gets wet even if you don't get a good layer under it. What is really cool is smoothing the edges of the tapes and patches. With cotton and ceconite you spend a lot of time carefully sanding the pinked edges to get them smooth. With Poly Fiber you just use a small hobby iron at 225 deg. I like the Coverite 21st Century that Dondie sold me. The shape of the platen (sole) is much better. It was a little boring but so easy by comparison to sanding and redoping. They really come out smooth, it was great.

Back To Fabric Work on Left Wing

2010-07-06T20:34:00.003-04:00

We finally moved the wing to the tent. It really works well. There's room for a table and room to walk around the wing even with it in the flat position. I've secured the cover a little better since this picture. I put eye bolts at each pole and the tarp and cover are tied down to them. It pulls it all tight and the timbers weigh enough to hold it in the wind. It needs a fan in the peak on sunny days. . The first task was to put 4 coats of Poly Brush on the reinforcing tapes to seal them so they don't suck all the Poly Brush out of the Finishing Tapes. I didn't believe it would take four coats but it does. Next the Doilies were glues over the Inspection Rings. Now we're ready for Patches and Tapes.

Tent For Wing Work

2010-05-24T21:55:00.005-04:00

The weather and lack of pollen finally allow me to get back to fabric work. Actually I've been to busy in the embroidery shop to get anything done. My friend Caleb Glick offered the use of a tent so I could have an outdoor place to finish the fabric work without carrying the wings up and down the stairs to the attic. We had some planks from the road bed of an old bridge, for a yard project when the weather turn cool again. We used these planks to make a deck where I will one day have a shop/garage. We drilled holes and pounded in some rebar to hold them in place and provide locators for the posts. To get some more head room I made 1 ft. extensions for the posts from 1" EMT conduit. As soon as I get some time in the shop we'll put the cover on and move a wing into it. We also have a large tarp we'll cover it with for some extra protection and to tie it down. Now I won't have to carry the wings in and out every day.

Flaps Are Complete

2010-03-16T22:00:00.001-04:00

The fittings and hinges are all riveted back on. Waiting for the AN442 rivets for the end of the control fitting was worth the time. They're in the worst spot to get to and were the easiest to install. With the flat head the tool doesn't have to be perfectly centered. By using one of my dies with a flat ground on one side it was easy t0 get into the tight space and squeeze them. Now I just need to finish writing up the 337.

Flap Fittings Primed

2010-03-15T22:00:00.002-04:00

I decided to remove all the fittings from the flaps to check for corrosion between them and the spars. The parts were all plated, poorly, or zinc chromated. There was rust on the back of all of them, stop strikers and actuator fittings. I have them all cleaned up, treated for corrosion and epoxy primed. I also did the engine mount. The aluminum spar was covered in rust from the fittings but had no corrosion. I glass bead blasted the areas to clean them, conversion coated them and epoxy primed. Once the primer is well cured I'll rivet them all back on and finish the paperwork.

Wings & Things

2010-03-08T22:00:00.003-05:00

The weather was great and I got all the areas on the wing that were scrubbed for light corrosion epoxy primed. It will need to get a little warmer to get on with fabric covering. Some rivets I've been waiting for arrived today so I can remove the torque tube fittings on the ends of the flaps to clean and prime them. I didn't want to take them off until I had rivets to put them back on. I just want to make sure there is no corrosion behind them, clean them and epoxy prime. I couldn't finish riveting the hinges back on until this was done since the inboard hinge gets riveted with the fitting. Lots of little projects.

RH Wing Ready To Prime

2010-03-07T18:16:00.003-05:00

The weather cooperated today, 60 and sunny, so we took the wing outside and cleaned it and conversion coated it. If it's still nice tomorrow I'll get the epoxy primer on all the old metal to protect it where I removed light corrosion. If the weather keeps improving we'll soon be able to get back to fabric work

Flap Hinge Fabrication

2010-03-01T21:36:00.005-05:00

The best of the original flap hinges was used as a pattern to locate holes for the new hinge segments. The #10 bolt holes are 9/32" from the outside edge of the hinge and centered on the hinge 1-5/8" on centers. The 1/8" rivet holes are 3/16" from the outside edge of the hinge, one hole is centered and the outer holes are 3-3/8" on centers with the inner holes 3/8" inward. All of that could be measured and done carefully by hand for one hinge. For 6 hinges, per flap, it is quicker to use a Whitney punch and duplicate the holes. The peened end of the hinge was opened and the pin removed. A segment of the new hing material was used to make a master by clamping the old segment to the bottom of the master with the loops pulled snug and centered to locate the holes. The Whitney punch with a nibless punch was used to duplicate the holes in the master.

The new blank was then placed under the master snugged, centered and clamped so the holes could be transferred from the master to the new segment. This require another modification to the poor old Whitney punch to add a clearance for the loops. This was easily done with a file and some careful cleaning before putting the punch and die back in.

As each hole is punched a cleco is installed to help assure nothing moves to mess up the hole alignment. The same process was then used to make the other halves.

The last thing to make was the hinge pins. These were cut from the pin stock with snips, the ends squared up on the belt sander and, a slight chamfer added to deburr the end.

With the pins installed the ends were peened with a hammer making sure both ends were closed enough to keep the pins retained like the factory hinge.

Engine Stand

2010-02-28T22:00:00.005-05:00

The snow cooperated to get the engine to the attic. A friend had offered his engine stand but that was just one more thing to carry up to a crowded space. Besides I like inventing things. I have this auto engine stand which I use for the Fly Baby's engine (also a C-85) when it's not on the plane so the plan was to modify it. I had a piece of 3" x 6" x1/4" angle I had used as a second hand bucking some rivets on one of the Cub wings so it seemed perfect for the task. I cut a 2-3/4" hole for the prop hub and drilled 13/32" holes for the prop bolts. On the short side I drilled 2 holes 1/2" dia., 8" apart to mount to the stand. . Leveling it side to side was easy but the stand tips up at a slight angle. I wanted the engine vertical so it would not want to turn and damage anything. I made some wedges from 1/8" aluminum angle, put a taper on one side and left a bit of the flange to get the angle flat. They have a hole in them for the bolt so they can't pop out. I've had those kind of exciting things happen. I also added some washers to move the C.G. forward and strapped a sand bag to the front leg. . . With the come-along hooked to the rafters and a shackle on the lifting lug it was pretty easy to lift the engine into the hole in the stand. I did get the boss lady to help so nothing slipped . The engine is bolted to the angle and we're read to pull the engine back apart. All the machining should be done and it should be just a matter of making sure no rust has developed and oiling all surfaces. I'll also measure everything since I'll be signing for the work.

Flap Hinge Repair

2010-02-27T22:00:00.001-05:00

I've removed the hinges from the flaps and cleaned the area to install the new hinges. I need to make a fixture to correctly locate the holes in the new hinge segments so this all fits when the flaps are installed.

Flaps and other things

2010-02-25T22:00:00.001-05:00

The new hinge material arrived today to replace all the hinges on the flaps. They are all very bent up from use. It seems better to replace them now. The old hinges are made from AN251-1 piano hinge which is no longer available. AN257-1 is the same except the hinge to hinge pitch has been reduced from 1 1/64" to 1". The extra 1/64" made the loops each 1/2" wide where AN257 loops are slightly less than 1/2" to give clearance between the loops and lengths of hinge in whole inches. It is a nice round number world after all. Otherwise the flaps are in very good condition. Also receive some streamlined tubing to start on the repair of the bent wing strut. The snow is finally melting so I can get the van close enough to the shop to carry the engine to the attic and start taking it back apart to make sure we have not developed any rust and to re-lubricate everything.

Repair Complete

2010-02-14T22:00:00.008-05:00

The last task for the new leading edge was to locate the rivet holes on the lower side and rivet it on. When I made the skin the old one measured 14 7/8" but, I made the new 15" because one of the holes was to close to the edge. I should have written it in red on the plastic protector on the skin. I got everything in position and the edge seemed to be in the right place so I aligned the old skin with it and punched the holes. Bad plan, the holes were off by 1/8". In the past I've pulled the skin tight and carefully located 3 holes to align the old skin with before duplicating the holes. . I should have done that here. As a result I removed the new skin and made a new one, again. One thing I did differently was to leave the short (lower) side 3" long and clamp it to the form board. I then pulled the skin around the tube with straps and boards as before and trimmed off the 3" after forming. It made the 2 halves closer in length and much easier to work with. I also made this one using 1" pvc instead of 1-1/4" as I first tried. It fit perfect. . . . . . To match the bottom holes better I clamped the skin down using straps and 2/2's to hold it tight to the ribs. I also found it fit straighter with a block of wood holding the leading edge out at the last rib at the tip. The rib is just not strong enough to pull against and the skin will pull in at the tip and bulge between the ribs along the bottom edge. I had to shim it to a tight fit and the skin came out straight. . . . . . . . . . . Before pulling the skin around I carefully drew centerlines through the holes and made pencil marks on the ribs 1" and 2" from the hole center. This makes it easy to locate the hole centerline parallel to the spar. Once the skin was pulled tight I marked the centerline on a piece of tape at each rib. This made it easy to line up the last holes on the old skin and duplicate the holes as before. . . . . . While riveting the bottom rivets I placed a strap next to each rib to hold the skins tight so all the holes lined up better. All but the rivet closest to the leading edge were able to be squeezed. . . . . . . Installing this new skin went better than the first one, but it was not my goal to get better at this, just get it done. It is done. When the snow finally melts I'll get it outside and finish some light cleaning on the rest of the wing and prime it before covering. I worried that all this work would leave the wing more difficult to trammel but, it was closer to square than the left wing. It also now has the heavier drag wires required by the AD.

Riveting Leading Edge Skin

2010-02-08T22:00:00.005-05:00

Between more snow then we've seen in ages and a few days with the flu, I'm a little behind what I had hoped. I found the easiest way to rivet the Leading Edge skin to the Spar aft edge was with my trusty rivet squeezer. The inspection mirror made it easy to see how the shop end formed. Near the compression ribs the skin had to be clamped to hold it tight while riveting because the compression member sits on top of the spar. I had modified the squeezer in the past for repairing Cub ribs and that worked great for getting the tools down close to the spar. The hardest part was remembering that the Spar Flange is not square to the Web so the squeezer handle had to be tipped down to keep it square to the flange. If not held right the rivet would bend and have to be drilled out and start over.

I found it easier to work this edge with the Leading Edge down. I fitted the drag wires in and adjusted them to hold everything straight. They have to be out to rivet the compression members on the forward side of the Spar.

Because of the angle of the Spar Flange the rivet on the forward side needed a special bucking bar. I got some 1" x 1/2" steel bar stock at Tractor Supply and made this bar to fit around the ribs over the lower spar flange and provide a surface square to the rivets. The handle allowed me to hold it well even though the mass was a little light. It worked well for both 3/32" and 1/8" rivets on both sides of the ribs. .

I ground the tip at a 14 degree angle and the 45 degree relief at the top so it would clear the lip of the flange when riveting in the area of the doubler. The tip is radiused and polished.

The cut out was sawed to a 1-1/2" radius so I could smooth it on the roller end of my belt sander. I screwed the handle on but would have welded it if that were available in my attic shop.

Everything went well. The 5/32" rivets for the drag wire brackets take a fairly heavy bucking bar about 4 lbs. to form the heads well

The top surface of the skin is now on and I just have to figure out how to pull it tight to locate the lower rivet holes. I have the feeling I should have bent the Skin more to the finished shape. The drag wires are permanently installed and the wing trammeled per the factory service letter.

Riveting Ribs To Spar

2010-01-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

The ribs are riveted to the spar. I modified the long head of my rivet squeezer to fit loosely over the spar flange. There may be some heavy rivets it won't squeeze without bending but I mostly use it for 1/8" and 3/32" rivets so I don't think it will hurt it. The biggest problem I had was my rivet gun hasn't been used in years and the air valve was stuck. I also discovered that I do so little riveting I don't own any bucking bars. With 9" of snow falling I faked it and moved on. The skin below the tank is riveted to the spar and we're ready to set rivets on the skin and the drag wire brackets. Then the outboard skin can go back on. This was a very long day of going slow and careful. I don't want to have to redo this.

Riveting Spar

2010-01-29T21:13:00.002-05:00

I've started riveting the new spar, etc. I could have started this earlier but I wanted to make sure everything fit properly. I've started with the compression members. Then I'll do the ribs and the skin below the tank. I'll get everything I can before the skin goes on. The drag wire brackets will have to wait until the skin is on the spar because the brackets block the rivets above them. I'll trammel the wing before I finish the skin. Well, that's the plan anyway.

Bending Leading Edge Skin

2010-01-28T22:00:00.009-05:00

The best way to do this is with a press brake where you push the sheet into a die to form a nice bend at the exact location needed. I don't own a 12 ft press brake. I've faked it where the skin is narrow and long by folding it and pressing it between 2 2x4s screwed to the floor. I just didn't think I had the strength to do that with such a wide skin. The plan here is to form it by pulling the skin down over a tool made by screwing a length of 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe to the edge of a straight 12 ft long 2x8. The screws were spaced about every 18", countersunk and any edge of the head sticking out filed smooth with the pipe.

You can see in the first picture with the old skin setting on the tool showing what the desired shape should be.

To keep the skin from becoming wavy and to protect the edge of the skin, 12 ft long 2x4s were clamped, with backing blocks, to the skin edges.

With the 2x4s clamped on, the skin was placed over the tool with the nose of the Leading Edge ligned up with the top of the pipe, red marks on skin and pipe.

Light crank type cargo straps were than wraped around everything about 2 ft on centers. OK, this took about 10 tries because the 2x8 wants to fall over. By holding the 2x8 with my knees while carefully starting to tighten the 2 straps at each end I eventually got it going. I then realized I should have used a 2x8 on the long side and started over with some extra 2x4s so it would all clamp closer to the bend. .

Eventually the bend was tight enough that the clamps and backing blocks were hitting on the 2x8 preventing further bending. We were able to remove the clamps and blocks at this point because the friction of the 2x4s against the skin prevented them from slipping. If I had some pieces of 2x2 to add right at the bend I could have made this bend even tighter.

As it turned out it is not as bent as the old skin but it is identical the the skins I recently installed on some Cub wings with no problem so they should work just fine. Once they're riveted to the spar and top of the nose ribs the straps can be used to pull the bend tight to finish the underside riveting.

New Leading Edge Skin

2010-01-26T22:00:00.010-05:00

The first task was to fit the old skin back on the wing to make sure all the holes still align correctly so it can be used as a pattern for the new skin. Again Cessna did an excellent job making the parts the same. Everything aligns perfectly. While the skin was on I also marked any holes which needed to be ignored or had gotten elongated drilling out the rivets. There were extra holes from drilling out the welds. If a hole was elongated an arrow was drawn on the skin to show which side of the hole to use as a guide when punching the new hole (see the 3rd picture below). After a careful cleaning of the floor the sheet of aluminum was laid out and 15" cut off for the new shin. Because this was thin enough sheet I used a Stanley knife and padded straight edge to score and break the sheet, much cleaner than snips. On thicker sheet like spar webs I use the table saw, noisy but very clean straight cuts. By standing the strip on edge in a curve it is stiff enough to allow easy filing of the edge to clean it up and debur it. You can see some of the markings to help punch new holes correctly. Because of the curve of the old skin I'll work from the inside so all the markings need to be transferred to the inside of the skin. X's mark holes to ignore. The old skin was then clamped to the back of the new skin. The only place I have that is flat is the floor so some 2x4s were used to hold the skins off the floor far enough to work with the Whitney punch. C-clamps and craft sticks, to protect the metal, were used to hold the shins from moving while new holes were punched. I started with the 3/32" holes between the ribs along the spar. They were generally the cleanest holes. As holes are punched clecos are installed and the clamps removed. These are simple matched hole construction methods. Go on line to the EAA Sport Aviation library and look up John Thorp's articles on building the T-18 in the early to mid 60's. Always punch any hole you can reach with the Whitney punch using a punch with the center nib carefully removed. Holes that can not be reached are center punched with a duplicating punch and drilled using the old skin as an added drilling jig to help keep the drill bit from wandering. I will do the holes from the other edge after the bend is made, the skin is fitted and alignment holes located along the other edge.

Primed Nose Ribs

2010-01-25T19:12:00.003-05:00

The 4 nose ribs which needed some minor repairs are fixed. All the nose ribs and the outboard leading edge skin are epoxy primed. With the ribs installed the old leading edge needs to be fitted on to make sure it can be used as a pattern to make the new leading edge skin.

New Spar Installed

2010-01-24T19:45:00.005-05:00

All the areas where corrosion was removed or cleaning exposed bare aluminum were treated and primed. The spar is now ready to install. Suprisingly the new spar went in easier than the old one came out. Everything fit perfectly and all the holes align. Clearly a testament to how they made the parts and assembled the wings at Cessna. The only rivets which will be oversize are due to old repairs. The most I'll have to do is clean out any primer in the rivet holes and we'll be good to go. With clecos in everything and the drag wire installed the wing is back on the stands until we start riveting. The front drag wire fittings have to be removed to rivet the leading edge to the spar, so it will be back on the tables for that. Until then, the ribs and outboard leading edge have been cleaned and are ready for primer. There are 4 nose ribs which need minor repairs and we'll be ready to fabricate the new Leading Edge. The aluminum is due in 2 days so the nose ribs should be on before the leading edge is ready

Removing Front Spar

2010-01-22T21:37:00.005-05:00

I realized I have several 2'x4' plastic tables from Sam's which we use in the shop and for our booth at fly-ins. They are adjustable for height from 24" to 36" so they make nice work tables. Three of them nicely support the wing. After rem0ving the clecos I gently worked the spar loose. With a stool as a support at the root end the spar came off easily.

There was a little corrosion hidden at the area around the tank bay which was where the corrosion problem was. This wing spent to much time parked on its nose. Who knows, a critter may have nested in there at one time while it was stored. It all cleaned up easily from the surface of the ribs, etc. It shows the protection difference of the clad aluminum used for the ribs and the bare extruded spars. I'll treat and prime the cleaned areas so they'll last and hope all the holes match up with the other spar.

Rivets Removed From Front Spar

2010-01-21T22:00:00.001-05:00

The first task was to remove all the nose ribs. They need to be cleaned up and treated for minor corrosion and make some repairs. The rivets are now all removed from the front spar so it can be removed. Clecos have been installed to hold it all together while removing the rivets. The wing is now more like a limp flag. I've been able to use my wing stand so far but I need to make some stands or a large table to hold the wing while I swap the spars.

Prime Spar and Finish Leading Edge

2010-01-20T22:00:00.001-05:00

Today the rain stopped and it warmed up to 41 degrees. Well, the can of epoxy primer says it will paint and cure down to 35 degrees and if it's humid just let the primer set for an hour instead of 30 minutes. As you can see most of the 14" of snow is finally gone. The primer went on just fine after a final wash with MEK just to make sure it was clean. A few hours later the rain was back but by then the spar was safely back in the attic to finish curing.

By evening the primer was dry to the touch and the attic is only 55 degrees. The leading edge is now off. Removing and cleaning ribs is next. I've tagged the ribs to put them back in the same positions because I want to use the old skin as a pattern rather than mark and drill all the rivet hole from scratch.

Removing Leading Edge on Right Wing

2010-01-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

Today was rainy so priming the spar will have to wait. Today I put the wing back on the stands and started unriveting the leading edge. I didn't want to take the wing appart until the spar was ready to install because an assembled wing is easy to strap to the ceiling in the shop. I think I ran out of storage space a year ago. Most of the rivets are 3/32" and are very easy to drill off the heads. What I hadn't thought about was the spot welds. The leading edges were originally welded to the ribs. It seemed like a good idea but the welds broke at high angles of attack and high loads so they went back and added rivets. Even with my careful drilling of rivets I won't be able to reuse the leading edge, which is in good shape, just to many holes with rivets and welds. The welds seem to come appart best by center punching the middle of the weld and carefully drilling with a #30 drill (about the size of the weld spot) while lifting the skin until the weld lets go. Some were already broken years ago. Some brake as soon as you lift the skin a little, and other need to be drilled. You don't have to drill away all of the weld for it to weaken enough to let the skin break lose. You want to leave some skin on the rib since the skin is going to be replaced and the ribs can be cleaned up and reused. We'll clean up the ribs after they're off the wing.

Cleaning up Corrosion on the Front Spar

2010-01-18T22:00:00.001-05:00

Now that all the rivets and fittings are off cleaning the light corrion and remainging crud on the spar is easy. First I washed off any remaining paint residue with MEK. To clean the corrosion I glass bead blasted with AC beads at 20 psi. Glass beeds can be sieved and re-used up to 30 times if you keep the pressure low enough not to smash the beads, and blast at a 45 - 60 degree angle so you're scrubbing the surface not just peening it. When I first bought glass beeds the young lady selling them explanied that the pressure should be very low, if you can see something happening it's probably to high. This was slow work but well worth it to make sure there is no corrosion trapped and growing under the expoxy primer when we're done. Also, you're only blasting any spots of surface corrosion. This is a 53 year old spar so there was a fair amount even if nothing serious. The biggest problem was how to get a wing spar in my blasting cabinet. There is a door on one side so I put a metal cutting blade in my circular saw and cut a hole in the other end of the cabinet so the spar could pass through (this will also work for grit blasting the wing struts). I then took some scraps of a stiff foam rubber and made plugs for the holes. I cut the plugs about 3/4" large than the holes and split the edge of the foam so it fit over the edge of the metal making a nice seal. I adjusted my roller stands for my table saw and placed one on each side of the cabinet for the spar to roll on. Next I cut "I" shaped slits in the foam for the spar to pass through laying on it's side. Problem solved, no mess in the shop, put on a head set with something to relieve the boredum and blast away. The spar really cleaned up nice. With the cleaning done the spar was treated with a Phosphoric Acid Etch & Brightener, and then a Conversion Coating to assure no corrosion is left and the primer bonds well.

Removing Rivets From Front Spar

2010-01-17T21:00:00.001-05:00

Todays task was to finish removing rivets from the front spar. When it was removed from the wing the rivets were drilled just enough to get the ribs off leaving all the holes plugged with the ends of the rivets (I'm not complaining). For the 3/32" rivets holding the leading edge and ribs a light tap on the drilled off end with a hammer and punching them out with a pin punch worked fine and quick. For the 1/8" rivets in the doubler at the strut fitting I drilled them with a 3/32" drill most of the way through the spar and the punched them out with the pin punch. They just hung up to much with 3 layers of metal to punch out otherwise and I didn't want to increase any hole sizes. I also removed the strut fittings and the drag wire fittings. They'll have to go back on after the ribs are riveted on.

Stripping Wing Spar

2010-01-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

We're finally done with end of year tasks in the business and the snow is starting to melt. With the temperature at a warm 51 degrees I got the spots of paint and primer stripped off the front spar. Clearly stripper works better at 70 degrees. I used a stiff propylene brush and a lot of elbow grease and it cleaned up nicely. I wanted to make sure someone hadn't painted over some light corrosion. It seemed better to clean it all up now while the spar was easy to work on.

Brought The Engine Home

2009-12-12T20:35:00.002-05:00

Today I was at a breakfast in the Shenandoah Valley and was able to stop at Bill's house to get the engine, windshield and some other small parts. The machining is all done for the overhaul and some assembly has been done. The plan now is to disassemble the engine to make sure nothing has corroded while it's been setting and then reassemble it complete. A very good winter project. I won't even need to turn on much heat in the attic workshop. The cylinders were done by Buldoc Aviation at Anoka County Airport in Minnesota. We've been busy with the Christmas rush in our embroidery business so the wins have been setting.

Control Surface Paint Stripping

2009-11-29T18:33:00.002-05:00

Today was one of the perfect fall days here in Virginia. The dog and I spent the afternoon outside. He slept while I stripped paint from one aileron and one flap. It looks like Bill had decided not to use these. The aileron needs a little work and we have one spare new old stock flap. The aileron looks easier to fix than the spare we have which has a little corrosion. I think I'll sell the spare flap when I'm done. I'm assuming the better one will bring more money. The used ones are in very good condition. They do need new piano hinges, but those will be easy enough. At least with spares I have alternatives if things don't work as planned, does anything?

New Right Wing Spars

2009-11-28T17:35:00.004-05:00

Today on my way home from visiting the grandkids in New York I stopped to visit Bryan Cotton in Elmira. He is also rebuilding a Cessna 140 and had a set spars which he did not need for his wing. As a result I now have a new (used) set of spars so I can start rebuilding the right wing. I'll need to clean up the spars and epoxy prime them before I start taking the old wing apart.

Picked Up Control Surfaces

2009-11-19T18:43:00.003-05:00

Met with Bill today to get the control surfaces, engine cowl, struts and other small parts. It was a rainy day but very exciting. There are enough extra parts that we should soon have all the control surfaces inspected, repaired and ready for primer.