Complete interior re-furbish

[hharney]

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.

[hharney]

Side windows with rubber channel
Main Gear hoses

[hharney]

Pain in the A_ _ entry door window

[skymstr02]

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.

[skymstr02]

Herb, any updates????

Inquiring minds want to know.

[hharney]

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

[hharney]

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!