Starting to look like an airplane again.......
Well the new year is here, we are back to work at our real jobs and progress on the 172 has slowed down again. Last weekend we were up in Manchester NH for the kickoff of the FIRST 2007 event. and did not get too much done on the Cessna. For those of you that are not familiar with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) it is a great program where mentors (us) take a bunch of high school kids and embark on a 6 week journey to engineer and build a 120 pound robot. You can check it out at http://www.usfirst.org and if you can....... please, get involved.
Oh yes and last Sunday (7th) was around 50 degrees and the Stearman would not sit still in the hangar........
So what did we get done and what is left to do before we go to paint on Feb 15th? -----
Radio Rack - the radio rack is in my basement and I finally started wiring it. A few more nights and it will be ready to go into the airplane. Note on the following photo that we made band clamps to hold the entire rack together:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture261.aspx
This entire assembly will slide into the tray and gets screwed in at the front. This wiring to the aircraft is via connector so the entire radio rack can come out if we need to service it at some time in the future. This extra feature also makes it so "Murphy" will have no fun putting a few mis-wires into my work......
Main Gear - we are not leaving anything about this airplane to guess so Jerry pulled off the main leg fairings and surprise:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture256.aspx
As expected we found surface rust and some places that had chafed through. I guess the Duct Tape (Approved Cessna Part #?) did not do its job. Not a problem, we cleaned everything up, painted it and put real "Clear" Anti-Chafe material. We also patched up the fairings where they were taking a beating. Here is a completed shot of the main gear prior to putting the fairing back on:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture257.aspx
The fairings were put back on with all new hardware and clamps for the brake lines. We still need to pull off the nose strut and clean it up as well.
Cowl Seal - The original seal was asbestos and worn and broken. Jerry riveted a new seal on and it looks great:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture258.aspx
Glove Box - The glove box was cleaned, painted and installed. On top we fabricated a bracket to install some goodies. Since the right side of the panel is completely open we are using this area for our antenna splitters, lighting bus bars, etc. Here is a shot where you can see that all the antenna cables are complete including nice markers, the splitters are installed and the wire harness is taking shape. Once the lighting bus bar gets installed, the shunt for the ammeter gets installed and the radio rack goes in we will clean this up and clamp it all down:
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture259.aspx
Note that the bracket along the right wall is where the dimming regulator assembly will go. We were able to use the new dimming assembly from the SP so we will have 4 dimming circuits as follows:
- LED Glare Shield
- Radio Rack
- Instrument Lights
- LED Fuel Qty Indicator
Rear Audio - The rear audio wires have been laced in waiting on the interior to complete. This is the right rear side and it will have a Music 2 input which allows the rear passengers to plug in an MP3 player and listen to their own music. This music input is isolated from the pilot and co-pilot which makes it really nice if you have kids in the back.
http://mansfieldlanding.com/forum/photos/1972_cessna_172l_restoration_n19662/picture260.aspx
Some Other Things - We installed most of the inspection covers, even the 2 courtesy lights under the wings which have been wired up and work great...
We still have some things to do but the light at the end of the tunnel is very bright now. The airplane looks like a real airplane again. When we did our run-up a few weeks ago we had a few squawks that we had to nail down as well. One was the oil pressure which was pegged to the top during the run-up. Turns out that the pressure transducer is bad so we have ordered a new one. We also had high vacuum and still need to adjust that next time out.
Authors Note -- Someone asked me today what real problems did we find?
Now I know I have poked a little fun at this airplane but considering that it has served its owners happily for the last 35 years the issues we found were nothing and totally expected for an airplane of this age. My original assessment of the plane was that it was a solid low time airplane that needed to be pulled apart and built back up again. I was smack on. This airplane had very little corrosion and she cleans up nice. We have pulled apart everything and replaced every bolt and nut that was worn or corroded. I am fairly confident that the paint shop will really like us for prepping it so nice. When she comes back from paint it will be a "New" airplane and something we all will be proud to fly.
All for now.........