Thought I'd add my refurb adventures. They will end up being a little out of sequence as I've already done a number of upgrades which I will try and add to this thread.

Currently my 185 sits in the hangar with the propellor off and at San Antonio Propellor for overhaul, the control yokes off and at SairCorp/Flight Boss Ltd for refurb, and the seats and door panels out and at Aero Comfort for refurb, the left cowl flap is at a repair station being reconstructed, and my new JPI EDM 700 out and shipped back to JPI so it can become a 711. I'll cover all of these as I get stuff back.

Seems like once I start taking my planes apart I can't stop. Both my doors have been popping when being opened and closed, the right door really loud. Also both doors were going past their original open stop points and hitting the struts. The left side bad enough that the strut has a crease in it, and the door itself is bent slightly.

Door Steward Project

I decided this was the perfect time to tackle the doors, so my mechanic and I removed the original Cessna door stops and installed Door Stewards purchased from Aircraft Spruce for $347 a pair (one for each door). Fairly quick install, mostly drilling holes and installing rivets. Almost took more time to read the directions then to do the work. The one thing that is required is relief in the door panels for the bracket that mounts to the door. Since I'm having the panels redone anyway it's no big deal.

I highly recommend Door Stewards for Skywagon drivers.

These things are great! They are gas struts that attach one end to the door, and the other end to the sill. We first installed the bracket to the sill, then I positioned the door where I wanted it to be at it's most open point, with gas strut installed on both brackets, then we marked the location the the door bracket. You want to install them at a slightly downward angle so the strut seal stays lubed by the oil in the strut.

Now neither door can hit the wing strut, they open automatically (slowly) once the door is unlatched, and if I park "with the wind" (and forget about the wind) when I open the door it won't get yanked out of my hand and slammed into the wing strut.

And most importantly (to me) that terrible Cessna door stop "BOING" sound is gone. The doors open and close quietly and smoothly. And they are out of the way, will not interfere at all getting in and out of the plane.

Two Thumbs Up!

Door Stewards are great, you will love them, I've had them on my 185 for ten years. If the strut is creased from the door hitting it Cessna says there is a depth that is ok, but any deeper than their limit and the strut must be replaced. You can post the question on the 180/185 site and someone may have that imformation. I can't find it here at home.
Ron

Is it still pretty easy to remove the doors?

It is. There is a small retainer clip that keeps the strut ball socket in place, pull that and the strut end comes off. They give you a second set of door brackets (different style), they suggest using the extra bracket as a strut holder for when you pop the end off the sill, so you can keep the strut with the door without it flopping around.

Just DO NOT rely on those Door Stewards as door STOPS. A wind will open a door and that little device won't stop it from doing your strut.

They are handy, but you still need a door stop. They were nice enough to replace the one that broke.

MTV

Thanks for the tips guys. I don't think I want to know if the dent in the strut is past minimums, I think I know the answer to that, but I guess it needs to be checked so that goes on my squawk list.

Today I took the door panels, the multi-colored jump-seat seat belts, and the carpet (whose back is rapidly trying to go back to the dinosaurs - what a mess I left everywhere I went) down to Aero Comfort, the company doing my upholstery work.

I was surprised that they already had the jump-seat frames sanded and painted, and had completed one of the jump-seat seat backs.

Before jump-seats pic



Sneak peek jump-seat back pic



Really excited to see the complete finished products.

Oh yea, that's the remnants of my currents seats the new back is sitting on and leaned against.

Good looking so far. Keep updating us on the progress.

Better yet, stop by Lockhart (50R) sometime and show it off.

Mark

I missed the Texas 180/185 Roundup last fall.... we need to start planning another one soon... since ya'll are in Texas too want to come to Mineral Wells... I'll put together a Roundup at the Eagle Flying Musuem. Interested?

gunny

We would show up in Mineral Wells for a Roundup. Haven't seen the 180 crowd since a couple of years ago in Fredericksburg.

A Texas Roundup sounds great, count me in!

Quick update on today's work: prop is back from SA Propellor and back on the plane. Blades are in great shape, one ferule had to be replaced as it already had four holes drilled in it. Overhaul cost $2,900+. I've decided to hold off on getting a MT 3-blade and am investing that money in the interior project. So for now I'll soon be irritating the neighbors again with the 86" 2-blade.

We yanked the Cessna "sixpack" of gauges and started replacing them with round digital gauges. The thing that has been the most suprising is the number of loose screws, nuts and washers sitting on top of everything horizontal behind the panel. Even some sitting on top of the breaker bar! How electrical shorts weren't occurring is beyond my understanding.

The elusive backordered replacement fuel gauge shipped today, as did all the Selkirk pieces.

I mentioned to my mechanic that as long as the interior was gutted we should do whatever would be done for the annual, which is due in March. As you can see from the picture all of a sudden all the wing inspection covers fell open. Not sure how they are related to the interior, but oh well.

Back at it tomorrow completing the new gauge installs (sans fuel gauge which comes next week), and buttoning up the inspection covers.

I'll Start planning for a C-180/185 Texas Roundup at Mineral Wells..... how does 6-7 April sound for an initial hack at a date?

My airplane spent most of its life in Alaska on Mogas.... converting to 100LL has been a nightmare... there are so many more o-rings in the fuel system then you think there is! I bought a ABW wide fork kit and in taking my tailwheel off I discovered that the bolt holes in the stinger are wallowed out by about 1/16"..... that may be a big reason for intermittent shimmy and hard steering!

Keep us up to speed on your project!

gunny

Mark, as soon as she's flying again I'll drop over to Lockhart. PM me your contact info.

Gunny, those dates sound good to me.

Here is a photo of what the cockpit looked like when I bought her.



Here is what she looked like yesterday morning.



As far as the panel is concerned, when we installed the EDM 700 I so liked the look of the panel without the black plastic cover I decided to get a new panel cut. The first step is to get the new gauges and switches I want installed into the existing panel anywhere they can fit, and remove anything I don't want as part of the new panel. This includes:

Removing the whiskey compass and replacing it with a vertical card compass located in the panel

Replacing the Cessna six pack of gauges with new, round digital gauges

Removing the EGT gauge as it is now handled by the EDM 700/711

Replacing the Landing/Taxi light switches with a MaxPulse system

Installing a digital OAT gauge since I'm replacing the Cessna vents

Installing two accessory plugs, one on each side of the panel

Consolidating com switches, intercom, marker beacon lights into single unit

Replace rocker switches (probably with toggles)

Replace all circuit breakers with new ones

And no doubt other stuff which I will chronicle as discovered. (oh, I just realized clicking on these photos brings up the full size images, cool)

Once the panel contains what I want I will figure out where I want things in the new panel and get it cut.

Phil-

That takes some guts to do an entirely new panel! I've modified mine... but it is original... painful but original.

When I figure out how to post pics I'll put a few up.

gunny

Started a new thread on the Texas Skywagon Roundup..... you can come in those 'other' planes too!

gunny

Barnstormer wrote:

Replace rocker switches (probably with toggles)

[list]Replace all circuit breakers with new ones.

If you are going to replace rockers with toggles and replace circuit breakers at the same time you might consider just going to toggle breakers. I go this way running a bus bar clean across the switches, and it is less wire, less moving parts to fail, less panel space, and less weight. A real good way to clean a panel up!


Take care, Rob

Barnstormer wrote:
Rob, toggle breakers sounds like a great idea! Where do you get those? And thanks.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... tbrkr2.php

It is important to remeber you are replacing both a switch and a breaker and a bit of associated wire when you look at the price of these. Never the less IMHO they are the hot tip in panel switches.

Take care, Rob

Rob,

Way cool. Thanks. This is perfect.

Just a quick update after a long day at the hangar. I said it before and I'll say it again, don't take anything out of your plane to refurbish unless you are prepared for more and more and more.

Case in point. So as long as the headliner is out of the plane, we might as well replace things the the petrified scat hoses that go to the vents, like the one in this picture.



Of course I am replacing the fuel gauges, which means I'll need to drain the fuel tanks so I can calibrate the new gauge. Notice what's right behind the scat hose in the picture? Yep. Fuel tank sending unit. Nothing wrong with them at this moment. Of course they are notorious pieces of junk I've been told, and that would be evidenced in the log book by how many times they've been replaced. And I am going to already have the fuel drained, and I already have to calibrate the fuel gauges, and the headliner will already be removed, as will be the scat hose. FINE! Get two new sending units.....one step forward two steps back.

But wait, that's not all. As long as my 185 no longer has the third row seat. And as long as the headliner is being replaced, why not install a jumbo extended baggage cover. Excellent idea, more room to get things in and out. But we will need to remove the cross brace that's used to separate the old extended baggage cover and the "head rest" area for the third seat.

But, as you can see from the picture sometime in the past a "shelf" was added right behind the cross brace, and two transformers attached.



We pondered this for a moment, removed the extended baggage floor and figured out we could build our own shelf under the floor, mount the transformers there, and move the ELT there as well, completely cleaning up the soon to be jumbo extended baggage area. One step forward, four steps back, but the right thing to do for sure. Of course while we are here we will clean up and reroute the haphazardly run wires.

I may have missed it, but how about your fuel bladders, have they been replaced?

Steve

See what Steve said? That's exactly what I'm talking about. If I had a voodoo doll in Steve's likeness I'd be sticking pins in it right now.

Of course Steve is correct. I'm nearly there right now, but the bladders aren't leaking (yet), and I can't keep this going on forever, so no new bladders right now, time will tell if that decision is a good one or not.

I think I will get a cup of hot chocolate and go through the log books and see just when they were replaced last.