kevinbarton1
Registered User
San Antonio, TX
It has been 2 years since I decided to remove the seats and spruce up the interior. As we got further into the process we thought we may as well redo the panel and the next thing I knew we had the wings off and we were ripping all the fabric away. Ultimately I feel I made the right decision to rebuild the entire airplane. The original airplane had the 0-235 so it was lacking in the power department. I bought a rebuilt 0-320 160HP engine and thanks to all of the input on props, Steve Pierce helped me purchase a Borer -43. I have been at a stand still for about 6 months while the frame was being welded. I had just about all the desirable STC's anyone would want including the X-brace kit, reverse dog leg, extended baggage rails, over size rear baggage door, upper baggage door, tabs for cargo pod, float fittings, forward battery mount in right side of cowling, seat belt fittings to frame, headset hooks and cargo loops. We also cut out the lower longerons from the cabin all the way to the tail as well as replaced all the bent U-channel that surrounds the cabin. All of my flight controls were stripped, bead blasted, inspected, primed, covered and painted. They are all finished along the wings. I am hoping we have everything remounted in the fuselage in the next few weeks so we can start covering.