Well, shit…

See this section of fuselage?

It’s missing something (see blue tape).

There’s supposed to be a piece of 3/4″ .035 4130 in there on both sides.

This airplane has 65 hours on it, yet it’s structurally incomplete. I think I’ll consider this another lesson in restoring old airplanes.

ALWAYS CHECK THE PLANS.

Looks like I get to do some welding…

I had another productive day yesterday. I pulled all but the bottom fabric off the fuselage. I also removed the mixture and starter push-pull cables. I don’t need them, and they’re in poor condition. The electric oil pressure and oil temperature gauge has been disconnected, and the voltage regulator has been removed from the firewall.

At this point, the only items still bolted to the firewall are the gascolator, engine mount, and cowl mounts. Everything I don’t need has been removed. I would like to add a cabin heat box, but that’s it.

The next steps for engine systems will be to determine the correct throttle, carb heat, and tach cable routings, followed by the installation of mechanical oil pressure and temperature gauges.

This is a fun and educational project. I’m inspired to be creative and integrate proven ideas from other designs, and yet still follow best practices to ensure a safe aircraft. I spend a lot more time thinking about what to do and how to do it than I actually spend working, but that’s a big part of the fun.

April 8, 2013

After spending some time visiting a friend out at HWY on Sunday, and chipping in on his project, I decided that I needed to get moving on Ace disassembly.

This airplane is going to get stripped down to the bare frame, cleaned, painted, and recovered, so everything has to come off.

I have decided to get the engine controls sorted out before I pull the A-65. This includes the fuel system, gauges, etc. I want to replace the firewall, so I’ll use and abuse the old one while I sort out all the holes.

This cowl is held on with cowl pins on either side of the fuselage. The boot cowl, or forward sheeting, is held onto the fuselage tubing with a mixture of countersunk machine screws, button head machine screws, and button head sheet metal screws. A good number of screws were missing. Only a couple were damaged.

I also removed the windscreen, which was just a flat wrapped piece of lexan. I intend to replace it with a more classic tri-section windscreen.

I was surprised to find surface rust on the tubing near the firewall. I had expected corrosion on the lower tubes, but not up high. It’s all surface rust, and should clean up easily.

The next step will be to clean the cockpit area to prepare for figuring out the engine controls, gauges, etc. I might pull the fabric first, I might not. I guess it all depends on my mood.