Other windshields have holes that also allow expansion without the center strip. Like the C206, it is a single piece with no strip. If you had the holes at the top and pushed forward in a dive the w/s would not blow out, wouldn't it stay in place?

All Cessna installed windshields have the notches in the upper edge from the factory, not just the 337 series.

I'm guessing that this makes production faster, thus less expensive. Like I said earlier, if they had holes drilled, then the holes would have to be located, the windshield removed to enlarge the holes, and then re-installed, it there was enough edge distance from the enlarged holes to the edge of the material. If there wasn't enough edge distance, then that plexi would be scrap, and would have to start all over again.

I don't know what stresses there are on a 206 w/s vs a 337. What is the VNE on the P206/U206 airplanes? That could be a clue. Is a 337 wider, what is the surface area of the two windshields?

Here are some more photos of the BAS seat restraint system. Attaching the two brackets together provides the mounting for the shoulder belt reel. One more attachment through the roof is actually an access hole to tighten the bolts inside the spar and then the hole is plugged with a stainless fastener. BAS drawing provides a clear picture of the process for the brackets. Last picture is the fuel tank inspection on the right wing. Five photos is max per post.

You should have that wing supported when those stress plates are removed..I believe that is in the manual. You may tear the skin around the screw holes trying to get them realigned with the nut plates. The wings will droop with those stress plates removed and the wing not shored up.

I usually place a jack under the standard jack point and another outboard of the landing lights using a wood plank and some padding. This will support the wing.

Thanks for the tip, the service manual indicates to support the outer wing panel and tail boom.

Now that I just spent 2 days cleaning the window frame from the door of 2JF, I am ready to move on to other important tasks. These days with the snow falling and wonderful high temps in the 20's, making the 45 mile drive to Larry's hanger has been all but fun. Only because the excitement of again hugging 2JF each day keeps me coming back. OK, Larry and Kathryn's hospitality is a very, very close second. In fact, I must say that Larry and Kathryn are truly wonderful people. They continually want to feed me, make coffee, Larry is over in the hanger helping wrench on the plane and just all around great people. Many thanks to the Bowdish's for their allow me to take on this project in their hanger.

This project is a lot more than I had ever anticipated. It is wonderful and have really enjoyed it, but it's to the point now where I would like to see more progress. We seem to be finally making some progress in the last couple of days. Just little things being totally completed helps in the therapy. Like yesterday we finished the pulse light system. Also, I have always had a problem with the dimmer rheostat for the instrument lights, has anyone else had this issue? It would never function as a true dimmer, just turn it all the way clockwise to reach the end and finally the lights would work at full power. I had bought a new dimmer from Cessna years ago and it worked initially but then would quit except for full on. I have talked with other Skymaster owners and they too have had problems with this. Well while researching for a pulse light system and purchasing the unit from Seaton Enginering Corp. http://seatoneng.com/MaxPulse.htm I found that this company also made a solid state dimmer rheostat that is rated for 12.5 Amps or 350 Watts at 28 VDC. It is called MaxDim http://seatoneng.com/MaxDim.htm I have installed this unit and I will report the performance when all this project finishes enough put the aircraft in the air. The pulse light unit is really a nice compact switch for all the features that it has. The new Stobe power supply is mounted and wired. I will have new wing tip strobes and a tail strobe that flashes alternately with the wing tips. I still have the belly strobe too. Lots of new lighting additions along with interior lights to match the new eyeball vents for each passenger. Photos of those once the interior starts installing. I removed the 8 day wind up clock and opted for an electric, direct replacement. 2JF came off the show room floor with the fuse and power wires for an electric clock but got the 8 day wind up, at least that is what I thought. After removing the 8 day I read on the back "1979" so someone has messed with this before. Well if there was an electric there originally it's back to original now. Now trying to feed the strobe cable from the power supply on the rear firewall to the tail has posed a challenge. There is no access to the boom from the wing aft to the first panel where the autopilot control is. We are working on trying to find the best access, if anyone has done this let me know if there are any tricks to accessing this on the left side of the aircraft. As previous post's have indicated, we have been inspecting the right wing fuel tanks. Yesterday, after draining all the fuel through the sump quick drain valve, we removed the inboard main tank to inspect all fittings and interconnects on that specific tank. It appears that the leak culprit is the sending unit (fuel transmitting unit) gasket. When the tanks are full to the top that point where the sender unit is located is actually lower than the service filler neck. I notice this summer that I had signs of fuel on the underside of the right wing and now that we have this tank out it looks like the only place that the fuel was coming from was the sender gasket. It would trail quite a distance and would only leak when the mains were full. After there was 10 gals burned off it wouldn't leak. We will be cleaning up the tank and checking some of the areas that are really stained but by first inspection after the tank is out it looks like all is ok. We will replace all the cork on that tank because the small amount of fuel that leaked has compromised it's purpose. We also installed the Knots 2 U exterior LED light on the underside of the right wing. 2JF never had an exterior light and with this unit you don't have to even turn on the master switch. It operates on a 9 volt battery and automatically turns off after either 3 minutes or 15 minutes. Just a cool little addition. Well all the new insulation is 90% done and we are just about ready to start the window install next. We need to make sure all interior tasks are completed first so that the new interior can be installed and then we can start to work on the other items, main tires, rear engine mounts, oil filters for both engines, oil lead on front engine, etc., while the interior is being completed. Then once 2JF is deemed airworthy again it's off to the paint shop.

BTW, I finally broke down and decided to remove the ADF and related items. I have a good ADF sense antenna if anyone needs one.

Fuel tank photos

Well, last night we determined that the inboard main fuel tank indeed has a crack near the weld of the fitting that is pictured in the first photo. Just a very hair line crack but enough to make a mess as pictured in the third photo. We are debating the best method of repair. I don't like the idea of glues or chemical fixes but would prefer having it welded. Any thoughts? Any experiences out there with fuel tanks?

Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. You are always welcome at our house.
In fact you are also welcome to spend the night.

Fuel Tank Repair
 

Herb,

I have not had problems with the main tanks, but have repaired my right Aux tank. After draining the fuel and removing the tank, I flushed out the tank with soapy water several times.

I did this by putting about a half gallon of soapy water in the tank and shaking it to assure the water covered the entire inside of the tank. This was done several times until I could no longer smell fuel on the tank. I then flushed it out with clean water. Again with soapy water, then again with clean water. I then sealed up all known orfices (drain, vents - thin aluminum tape works pretty well) pressurized the tank with low pressure air (just a couple of pounds... be careful here... too much pressure will render your tank useless. you might want to make sure at least one of your orfices is sealed with something which is definately weaker than the tank.) I used my hand to seal over the cap opening and held an air hose with very low flow, sealed between my thumb and my palm.

I pressurized the tank until it just started to change shape on the flatter surfaces. Then a friend sprayed the entire outer surface with soapy water looking for bubbles. He marked the leaky areas and I took the tank to a local welding shop for repair. I told them that it was a fuel tank and how I had made it inert. I left it totally up to them to decide to repair it. Make sure your welding shop knows how to weld thin aluminum. Be sure there are no high welds directly over or under a rib.

Be sure to inspect the entire tank. Mine had two leaks and I quit looking after finding the first one. The first time I returned it to the airplane and filled it with fuel, I found there was a second leak... I hate doing the same job twice... but I did.

After the repair, I again sealed up the orfices, pressurized the tank and sprayed with soapy water to assure the leaks had been repaired.

I then flushed the tank inside and outside with clean water, assured that ALL water had been removed from the tank and allowed it to dry for a couple of days. I inspected it for residual soap or water and was ready to return it to service when absolutely clean.

I replaced the cork tape on the ribs (Bought an entire roll from a fishing shop somewhere in Florida. They use it for wrapping fishing pole handles. I have plenty left and can send you some if you want to email Larry's address to me. Tell me about how many feet you need (don't forget the ribs on the cover panel.) I have two sizes and I forget which I used, but can send both for you to choose from. my email is jim.stack@comcast.net .

After reconnecting the lines, I filled the tank with fuel, a couple of gallons at a time, until I was sure there were no leaks.

Good luck. The job is not too hard after you have removed the tanks. Hopefully you read the manual and placed a supporting structure under the wing before you removed the upper covers.

For the air pressure, I use the pressure side of a shop vac, high volume, low pressure. Duct tape the hose to the filler hole, and go.

Jim,

Larry Bowdish
10292 Skyview Dr
Kalamazoo, MI 49009

Hey Larry maybe I should make a reservation at your house sounds a lot better than any hotel!

Just kidding
Cheers
Pete

Jim / Skymstr 02

Thanks for the input, much appreciated. Wing and boom is supported, we will double check the tank for any other possible leaks. I ordered some silicon strips from Cessna which replaces the cork. But after talking to GMAS he said to just clean up the cork strips and re-use them using Pliobond to secure them. The original cork is still in really good shape. It had just moved around quite a bit. I may just return the silicon. Thanks for the offer on the cork if you have sent it and we don't use it I can return it or wait for the next victim and offer it to them.

Slow moving Cork
 

Hey Herb! --- I'm an old man. I have not yet shipped the cork. I will hold it for now. Let me know if you need some. I'd rather give it away than let it go to waste.

Jim

Jim, I was able to use the original material. It worked really good. Thanks for the offer.

Has anyone ever removed the original radio air vent system? I have a powered cooling system and do not see any reason to keep the original. With the aircraft going to paint soon I could eliminate these and patch them before paint.

Here is a photo of the fuel tank bay prior to re-install. Also a photo of the radio cooling intake and the patch that repaired the removed ADF sense antenna. This is how we would patch the radio cooling intakes. Make it smooth!

Windshield install horror
 

We started to install the windshield last night. Within about 2 hours we had it trimmed and ready to mount. Amazing, I was really fearing this process but it went slick. I owe a big thanks to the guys at Great Lakes Aero for fitting this new windshield while I was there at their factory. I was able to take my old windshield to them when I picked up my new units. They took my old windshield and fitted the new unit to my old one. I can only think that this may have helped in the fitting process last night. If fact the first time we tried to fit the w/s last night we actually pushed it right into place with minimal effort. We had to trim a little on the starboard lower side and that was about it.

More to come...................

Herb,
You may want to consider priming the interior of the fuel tank bay while you have the tanks removed. Anything to keep the moisture from the bare aluminum would be an improvement.
Dave

All Right!
 

Herb,

The fuel tank bays look good. Glad it worked out! I do like Dave's idea of priming them though.

Well it has been a busy week with the aircraft re-furb. My interior technician has started the fitting and design process. Back in October I picked out all the materials, colors, and had some ideas on the design but now that we can bring in the panels bare and set them in the fuselage to start the final design phase. It is moving along fine. Interior is being fabricated as I write this so I had better get the interior needs finished before I am in the way of the new upholstery coming in.

We have a new windshield in place and mounted. Still need the center post (would be nice to leave this out but I know I can't) mounted, that will come next week. After hearing all the horror stories of installing these Skymaster windows I was really waiting to see how things would go. As stated in the above message it took about 2 hours to fit and trim the W/S and the next day we installed it. We spent a good 4 - 5 hours getting all the goods fastened back down and a big part of that was clean up. The PRC (ProSeal) is a little tedious to clean up but it's done. I actually spent another 2 or 3 hours the next day doing a final clean up of all the adhesive. It really looks nice. Because of the cold weather the PRC is slow setting so it provides plenty of time to work it. Started on the side windows and had to make some decisions on those. Because the model I have (337C) there are rubber channels that wrap around the fixed outer side windows (all except the entry door window). Re-installing these in the channel on the fuselage was a bugger. The new channel may have been a little thicker but the windows were super tight in place. I will leave them dry with just the rubber channel and after the new paint is applied a bead of ProSeal will be applied to the outside of each window to seal them from the elements. This was confirmed with the paint shop and will be the best option because the aircraft is being painted directly after the interior is completed. I finished the entry door window and all I can say is that it is a good thing this is my aircraft. You couldn't pay me enough to do this for a living. Wow, that was a pain. Anyone changed the glass on one of those lately? It is a split frame (see picture below) and there are like 6 rivets that hold it together. Well I spent 4 hours removing the old window, 4 or 5 hours cleaning up the frame from all the old putty and whatever else Cessna used on it. Then Larry and I worked together installing the new window. That was about another 3 hours after cleaning up the PRC. I still need to do a little more fill and clean on it. Major time for this stuff. Driving back and forth every night is getting the best of me but hanging in there. Today we changed the main gear hoses and the springs. Bought the stuff from Cessna through Yingling. Ouch that stuff is spendy. We will be changing the nose gear hosed too but that won't hold up the interior work so it can wait. The right wing fuel tank bays are all closed back up and the wing support has been moved to the port side for fuel bay inspection before paint. I figured that now is the best time to look. I don't want to have to remove all those screws after the new paint is on. Had five screws on the aux tank that stripped on me while trying to remove them. First time these screws have been exercised since 1968. Get the drill and drill off the heads, remove the panel and then use an easy out on the screws to remove them. Aux tank looks good. I will change the level sending unit gasket and be done. Still have to take off the main fuel bay. Still have engine mounts on the rear, spin on oil filter adaptors, main tires, wing tip strobes, tail strobe, oil leak front engine, but this is all non-hold up the interior stuff. Still it takes time and lots of it. Talk to you soon.

Side windows with rubber channel
Main Gear hoses

Pain in the A_ _ entry door window

Its looking real good there! When all said and done, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you had a large part in what you have.

Herb, any updates????

Inquiring minds want to know.

I have been on assignment in the west for the last 12 days. Just returned home and I want to know too. I will have a report soon.
Thanks for asking

Back to work in Kalamazoo
 

It's back to work, now that I am back. Larry took good care of 2JF while I was out West in mountain country, thanks Larry. Progress is starting to become a meaningful word. It sure seems like it has taken a while but good work takes time. Especially part-timers. But I have some good part-timers. Larry continues to provide security on the grounds. Last week he saw strange foot prints in the snow around the hanger and back yard. Ok, it's time to lock her down! Everyone has a key and the hanger is locked, thanks again Larry.

Yesterday I finished the interior windows, that was really frustrating. Trying to be satisfied with brand new windows and eliminating dust between the outer and inner was grueling. Just about the time I would think it was clean with one last wipe, boom, another streak or too much static and here comes the dust. I tried several types of cleaner, anti-stat, cloths and finally used warm water with just a titch of soap. Yes, finally something that I am satisfied with, not 100% perfect, but acceptable. I was working on installing the two middle and two rear inners. I spent a good 3 hours and then re-did the first attempt window this morning. Now I think I am ok with them. Wow, does it look nice. I am so glad I went with the grey tint. The inners are clear and the outers are grey. The windshield and pilot / co-pilot have the UV/sun control. No reason for the middle and rear because they are under the wing. It costs about 20 to 30% more for the UV control but because I don't plan to do this again for a while I thought I would do the UV control. As indicated in previous posts this feat of installing the windshield was intimidating because of all the advice that everyone offered. Even the windshield manufacturer said that those Skymasters are a bugger. Well, I decided to take the old w/s to the manufacturer, just 120 miles away in Flint, MI, and they made some adjustments to the new one based on what Cessna put in 40 years ago. I can only figure that this little gesture helped because it installed very painlessly. Side windows, not too bad. Door window, pain in the butt. Inner windows, easy but tedious because I wanted it perfect.

The right wing is all back to normal after inspecting all fuel cells and finding a leaky fitting that had to be removed and welded. Fuel is back in the main cells and panels are buttoned up tight. Now the left wing is open, we removed the left auxiliary cell to gain access for a strobe cable to the rear left tail. Thanks again to Larry and Craig for their time they spent removing the tank and sump (big pain) to just satisfy my silly desire for another strobe light. But we started down that road and just couldn't stop. Left side of the brain kinda thing. Well the cable is in and now we have a problem with the fitting on the sump tank that will need repaired. All the wing panels are off on the left side right now and all looks good. Some typical staining around the gauge senders so those will receive new gaskets. I had to straighten up the cork padding strips under the aux tank. GMAS suggested that I just use the same material, it doesn't wear out. He is right, the stuff is like new just needs to be re-attached in a couple spots. Stick it down with some Pliobond (thanks GMAS) and your good to go. We will pressure (carefully) check the tank before it goes back in even though there was no indication of a problem (thanks Jim). What is interesting was finding some notes, in the wing, where the left aux and mains are. One says "Hi you all" written with a marker. Figured it was one shift leaving messages for the next shift. The photo below of the aux tank bay shows the writing. Another interesting bit of info was that on several structural pieces in the cabin and on the wing panels it is stamped M-337. Lots of parts are marked that way, I think 2JF is part O-2. Cool!

In a earlier post I had discussed the original radio vents on the outside of the cabin. I wanted to remove them because I had a powered avionics fan that had been installed several years ago to provide direct cooling to the avionics. Well the original vents were not even plumbed to the radios anymore and I thought why have these ugly little openings when the aircraft is going to paint. Now is the time to remove these if I can. I had one response concerning the removal and made me think a little more about going through with this. Then I decided to call a major avionics shop and asked them about the vents. They said remove them, they are nothing, just allowing moisture to migrate into areas you don't want moisture. With the powered avionics fan there is no need for these exterior vents. I did find one duct that was not attached to the fan that fed air to the engine / fuel gauge cluster. I figured it would be best to attach this to the powered fan. I had two fittings off the fan not being used so it is now attached. We made some real nice patches for the old vent areas that will be almost invisible with the new paint. Because the rivets that Cessna used for the original vents had to be dimpled, it required the patch holes to be countersunk just enough to fit flush to the inside skin. The original skin is .024 but we had to use .032 for the circle hole to fit flush to the outer skin. The circle was sanded just a little to allow a clean smooth finish. The paint shop will do the rest.

The tail cone for the new strobe needed TLC. This side of the tail has never had a light in it. The opposite side holds the clear nav light and I have had issues with it before too. Well a little Bondo and fiber will bring this back into shape to hold the new strobe light powered by the 2 day run the cable :-) Should look good at night.

The center strap is back on the new windshield and along with the components that live attached to the center. My interior tech did a great job on the center strap trim. It has new life with the new paint and color. Re-install the glideslope antenna and the pilot and co-pilot vent manifold.

The interior is starting to take shape. It is really nice to see some progress that is really noticeable. The headliner is Ultra Suede and will be a huge improvement over the original Cessna vinyl. The new eyeball vents and lights add a touch of class and modern look to the interior. The side panels are started and this is just a first glance at what is in store for the exquisite design with the materials that were chosen. This is exciting, more to come, stay tuned.

All of the sheet metal parts on the O-2 airplanes are the same part number with a "CP" suffix. The "CP" means that these parts were etched, alodined and primed. The "CP" stands for corrosion proofed according to a friend that used to work at the Cessna Wallace plant. This is also true with airplanes built with the seaplane option (180's and 185's).

That would make sense, because all the parts stamped M-337 are primed. Were all the Skymasters built in the Wallace Plant? Was that the only plant they were assembled?

As you carefully look at this aircraft it leaves a lot to be desired in the streamline, finesse arena. In some places it looks like they had some last minute thoughts on some straps and patches here and there. It's definitely a aircraft that was built for utility and not looks or speed. It's airframe strength was tested with the military use and I like the idea of how strong the whole frame is rather than built for speed and looks like Bo's or Moo's.

Hi Herb, The project is looking good so far. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Actually I would have liked to have seen more of the work in progress in person but I guess the photos will have to do, keep them coming please. One item I was wondering about but haven't seen you mention is the matter of corrosion proofing. It looks like, with copious amounts of solvent and elbow grease, you have large areas of internal panels gleaming clean. They look great but removing 40 years of oil & grime now leave them exposed. Are you treating them with CorrosionX or similar product before reassembly? Good luck with the remainder of the work. Best wishes, Steve G.

There were very few places of corrosion, most of what you see has not even been wiped off. This aircraft is really clean and in good shape. Those few areas that had some noticable corrosion were cleaned and treated as indicated in earlier posts. I will be treating the aircraft with Boeshield before the paint. http://www.chiefaircraft.com/airsec/...onControl.html Boeshield was developed by Boeing. Goes on with air in a fine mist or fog. Doesn't leave a mess like some of the other products and drys to a waxy film quickly. Come on out, Larry has an extra bedroom and we will put you to work.

Here are some more photos, left wing panel, the M337 stamp in the cabin, left boom sump tank (what a pain to remove), sound control in the cabin, left aux tank.

Having sprayed CorrosionX into my acft. twice now I know from experience that it is not easy to deliver product throughout the airframe. The thinking behind the question was that treating the wings and booms while the fuel tanks are out would greatly facilitate that portion of the job. Also, cabin soundproofing will preclude treating sidewalls and once your new interior is installed I suspect you might not be thrilled with the prospect of trying to spray above the headliner and elsewhere within the cabin. The good news with the fogging spray is that it goes everywhere. That's also the bad news. I'm not familiar with BoShield but with the other thin film oils their application delays painting for a year or more as the material weeps through lap joints, screw holes, etc. If you haven't yet you might want to speak with your selected paint shop as to timing. I suspect you might now be better off waiting until after painting, even with a wax based product.

BoShield goes on as a fog, and displaces water, but when it dries, about 2 days, it leaves a waxy finish over the surface, protecting the surface from further water migration.

It's also messy on the outside, where there is overspray, but it will be stipped so it isn't much of an issue.

Steve you are so right about the timing with the panels open. Why I didn't think of it was unknown. But because you mentioned this, the timing was still good, the left wing was still open and so I did treat it. Although we only had the aux tank out (all panels were off) I was still able to spray the Boeshield with ease around the aux and main tanks. Sometimes you just don't think about these opportunities. I have started to treat the rest of the airframe as we open other panels for an annual inspection while we are doing all this work. I figure even though the annual is not due, I have all these panels open so why not do another inspection. So I'll have a year from the finish date (real soon) for the next annual. The Boeshield is really clean and does not bleed like Corrosion X.

Well just an update on progress, the left wing is back together and buttoned up. All the insulation and soundproofing is in place. The headliner is 90% done and the new BAS seatbelt restraint system is installed. All the widows are finished, only the door and E exit have to be attached to fuselage. I started stripping the door window seal today. What a mess, someone used way too much weather strip adhesive. I call it gorilla snot. When it's dry and old it takes hours to remove. Let's see what's left, motor mounts on the rear engine, spin on oil filter adaptors, strobe lights, main gear tires, front gear hydraulic hoses, oil leak on the front engine,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,a few other exterior chores. We worked hard this week to finish anything in the cabin so that the interior upholstery could be finished this weekend. Should have 90% of the new interior in by Saturday including the Rosen visors. FINALLY!!!

I talked to the paint shop today, looks like they are ready to see the airplane in about a week or so. I still have to make a decision on the paint scheme but I am on my second draft of design and hope to make a choice here real soon. I will continue to post progress as the aircraft goes through the paint shop.

This has been a fun project and thanks to Larry and others on this message board, it has been a real education. I hope this thread helps others when they go through this process in the future.

Here is the progress report for the last couple of days, rear engine mounts are replaced, rear engine oil filter is installed, all inspection plates on the left wing, booms and tail are back on. The new tail strobe is installed. I had to rebuild the mount on the tip of the bottom tail cone as over the years this has been compromised. I have the white nav light on the starboard side as original and so now added a tip strobe to the port side.

One item that is being thought out is the plastic cuff that transitions the boom strut to the boom. This unit looks almost impossible to change. Mine has a nasty crack and I would really like to change this before paint. It is flush riveted to the boom but looks impossible to re-rivet if removed. Has anyone ever changed this item?

The interior continues to make progress. Although finishing yesterday was a dream. That's ok because I am still not in a hurry. We had problems with the original interior light switches. Cessna really went the extra mile with these stylish slide switches. I guess I shouldn't complain, they are 40 years old. I had new switches from aircraft spruce that I bought but once they arrived they were only rated for 12VDC. Although they were rated at 25 amps I just decided that the originals were still good so I wasn't going to change something that wasn't really approved. Anyway, the pilot map light switch decided to come apart while trying to re-install the window trim that it mounted to. After fiddling with it for what seemed like hours, checking to see if it worked, cleaning the contacts, lubing it so that the action was easier we finally had it installed. Just small incidentals like this can really eat up your afternoon. Of course it's Valentine's Day so my interior tech and his son had plans with the lady's so about 6 PM it's done for the weekend. Well some progress was made as the photos below testify. I am really liking what I see. It's going to be one of a kind. The leather that was chosen is really nice, soft with a casual texture to it. We decided that wrapping the windows was going to be really difficult based on the plastic frames. Cessna has more curves and angles and to wrap these would leave several seams in many directions. We were going with an raised stitch and it would have created quite the railroad track look. So after painting one of the plastic trims and seeing how it changed the look I decided that I could live with the plastic window trim. My plastic was really in good shape. The only piece we had to replace was the overhead console. All the windows are original pieces. With the special paint that is used and the offset color to give some nice contrast the trim really turned out nice. It looks brand new. We lowered the carpet line on the side panels. The original line was like 1/3 of the way up from the floor. By lowering the carpet line it allowed us to use more leather on each side of the designer fabric. I am sure it was easier for Cessna to just push the carper up higher and it also may have helped in the sound control over the vinyl upholstery that was original. We make some nice access panels for the main gear area to be inspected in the future. With the advanced use of Velcro these days it's really nice what can be done. The panels are totally invisible looking at the upholstery but it you know they there it's just a tug on one corner and the panel comes off to give a nice access to the area of the gear for inspection.

Trying to decide on the paint scheme, keeping the new interior in mind and trying to use some of the original color has been challenging. Not sure which way I am going yet. There were about 3 or 4 designs that I liked after searching all the Skymasters I could find pictures of. I will continue to work on this as time will allow even after the aircraft is being prepped for paint.

Interior Progress

Hours and hours of cleaning off old seals and rubber. Another "note" written on the door from Cessna, it says "avocado" and we assume that was referring to the elegant green interior that was Cessna original.

Installing the emergency exit window in the now clean frame.

Paint scheme drafts.

I know you didn't ask for a vote on the paint schemes, but I vote for the left one, hands down. Not only is it superior to the one on the right, but I find it stunning. Can't remember any Skymaster with such a bold and elegant design. FWIW.

Ernie

I'm with Ernie on this one.
The paint scheme on the left is eye catching.