Let's start with the premis that this isn't a bad looking old plane. It's been around for a few years, as it is now over 42 years old according to the logs. While it looks good from a distance, up close the dope on the fabric is seriously degraded with loads of ringworm and failing seams, so requires a lot of patching and repainting to keep it in the air. I knew this up front when I bought the plane and it was priced accordingly. So, after 3 summers of fun with this plane, I've finally got enough space in my schedule that it's time to recover it.
First off I built two sets of wing racks to store the wings while I'm not working on them. Behind the two wing racks, there are also 4 short wing jacks. I already have 8 tall jacks to support the upper wings for removal and installation, but needed a short set to deal with the lower wings.
11/6/2024 - I took the plane out for one last acro ride before grounding it. What a sweet flying plane. Sure makes it hard to convince myself to take it apart.
11/7/2024 - I removed all the fairings and covers from the wings. Once again, I am impressed with the quality of the design work in this plane. It is stout! All fairings and covers were tagged and placed into a storage bin. They will get cleaned and painted before going back on.
11/13/2024 - Well now she's looking kind of naked. All the sides, top deck and belly skins are removed. They will all need to be cleaned and repainted, but having them off will also give me much better access to the instrument panel, plumbing, and wiring as I change much of it.
And here is the top deck, side skins, belly skins, wing fairings, inspection covers, and the complete engine cataloged and put on the shelving until I am ready to get started on paint and reassembly. Tomorrow the aluminum covers on the tail come off and go into storage as well, Friday is commited to the EAA Chapter's J-5 restoration project, then this weekend the IO-360 will arrive for next week's fun and games.
11/14/2024 - I removed the rear access hatch and baggage door, then removed all the access panels and fairings from the tail. This is as far as I'll go with the airframe for now. I'll tear down the IO-360 from the Cardinal RG next week, then will likely start building my O-360 back up for this plane the following week. Some time in December, I'll start disassembling the airframe.
I've got the cooling baffling back on the engine now, and the spark plugs and ignition harnesses installed. Yes, I do know what every one of those wires, lines, and hoses does.
12/26/2024 - I needed to gain access to the aft fuselage to route the wiring for the trim servos. I am waiting for some components to arrive to complete the wiring, so I'll do some more disassembly and strip some fabric. Interestingly enough, the fabric on this plane was quite heavy. It had a cover of Ceconite 102, then was taped, then a second cover of ceconite 102. I'll bet it looked great when it was new, but wow was this fabric heavy.
12/27/2024 - All the fabric is now peeled from the fuselage. The turtle deck has a covering of felt between the wooden turtle deck and the fabric. I have new felt, but this is in good shape, so I may just leave it as is.
You can see the covering technique used on the tail to form the cover from flat sheets of dacron. First they covered each side of the vertical stab, then used flat sheet to cover the top of the fuselage down to the upper longeron. The bottom of the fuselage is another flat sheet, then a flat sheet used on either side of the fuselage. The cover appears to be done with nitrate/butyrate dope process on Ceconite fabric.
Bare fuselage from either side.
12/28/2024 - Aircraft set up so I
can take some measurements for the rigging. Overall, it's not
bad, but definitely has some room to improve when I put it back
together again. This is also set for me to use the wing jacks you
see hanging from the back wall to remove the wings next week. I
hope to finish the electrical/electronics work on Monday, then will
start getting set up to pull the wings. I bought some cinder
blocks to attach under the tail to ensure that the plane doesn't dump
over onto it's nose when I remove the weight of the wings.
12/30/2024 - Today is the day to pull the wings. These wooden structures are often seen in the background of other pictures hanging on the back wall of the hangar. These are the wing jacks I built for installing and removing wings. I've used them several times in the past. With these jacks, I can install or remove the wings by myself. I only need help to move the wings from the jacks to the wing cradles. With the jacks in place, you might note that some of the bracing has been removed, but the flying wires are all still in place.
The wings are off. On this plane, the lower wing had to come off first to gain access to some of the keepers for the upper wing. The reverse will be necessary for reassembly.
Right side wings removed. My help all left once the left side was off. I could get this far without help. They will come back and help me move the wings tomorrow. I'll get started removing the upper center section before they arrive.
Bare fueslage from the left side.
12/31/2024 - Last day of 2024! This is all the hardward for the Flying Wires, Landing Wires, inboard and outboard Cabane Struts, and various wire braces that hold the wings and centersection in place. All but the flying and landing wires (which are stainless Steel) will need to be bead blasted, primed and painted.
The wings in the support rack.
And the fuselage. Note that the fuselage fuel tank is now missing. It's laying on the floor in the middle of this photo. I removed it so I can install the fuel sending unit with it out on the bench. Also notice the fan and wet floor. Yes, there was some fuel left in the tanks and it did spill all over the floor. I quickly doused the kerosene heater and put out the fan to evaporate the fuel. Fortunately, 100LL doesn't stink or leave a residue like car gas.
Interesting coincidence is that this being the last day of 2024, this is also as far as the plane is going to come apart. From this point forward, starting on January 1, 2025, everything is either fabrication, or reassembly until the plane is ready to fly again. So, 2025 will indeed be a new year for this plane.