Complete interior re-furbish

[SteveG]

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.

[WebMaster]

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.

[hharney]

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.

[hharney]

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.

[hharney]

Interior Progress

[hharney]

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.

[Ernie Martin]

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