corrosion

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

Moderators: GAHorn, Karl Towle, Bruce Fenstermacher

Post Reply
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

Hello again, Just wanted to post some pictures of my bird. When I bought the plane the logs had been long lost and the plane had sat outside for many years in the California desert. As an AP/IA, the only way I could re certify this plane is take it apart, inspect and re assemble. In the process we found some pretty serious corrosion in some hard to inspect spots. The tail cone had 3 stringers wit inner granular/ and exfoliation corrosion. We drilled out all the rivets in the tail cone, replaced the damaged material, treated surface corrosion, primed and painted the parts and re assembled, Next we looked at the stabilizers. on the vertical stabilizer we noticed the channel on the bottom of the main vertical spar where it was spot welded. The spot welds were actually pulling away from the spar because of corrosion between the 2 skins. We were then forced to disassemble the vertical where we found the skins had too much surface corrosion and one the ribs had a corrosion hole about the size of a quarter in it. We blasted, Treated primed and painted all the ribs, Fabricated a new channel for the spar and made new skins. Put it back together then moved to the horizontal. We noticed that it had several blind rivets in it. That means that a rivet failed (more than likely corrosion) We de-skinned it and sure enough found a couple corroded ribs, new skins and serviceable replacement ribs and that is back together. We then noticed that all 4 blocks that the wings bolt in to (the ones with the eccentric bushings) Were exfoliating and flaking apart. We removed them and found the rear carry through corroded through between the spar and the block, also on the top of the front carry through spar there is a spar cap,The spar cap had a large corrosion hole through it but it did not damaged the spar. We fabricated a new spar cap and are working on the rear spar. I'm sure there is still more discoveries to be made as we continue to work. I wanted to share this with you guys so you can be on the look out with your planes. I will attempt to upload pictures. The site keeps telling me the files are to large. My shop Ben's Motorworks is doing all the work in house. That being said of any of you need any 170 work or sheet metal work here on the west coast we are capable. We are located at KFUL in Southern California. Real close to Disneyland.

Have a great day. Were getting "the Storm of the century today" So I guess it time to close the door and shoot some rivets.
Ben
User avatar
canav8
Posts: 1006
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:34 pm

Re: corrosion

Post by canav8 »

Good Luck Ben, thanks for the update. No pictures though.
52' C-170B N2713D Ser #25255
Doug
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

Re: corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f9xkx41vumgt ... CDdBa?dl=0

This is a link to a drop box file with all the photos I have taken so far. Pretty intresting shots. almost 400 pictures.
Ben
User avatar
canav8
Posts: 1006
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:34 pm

Re: corrosion

Post by canav8 »

Ben, what is the histrory of that plane? What did it patrol?
52' C-170B N2713D Ser #25255
Doug
User avatar
n2582d
Posts: 2808
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 4:58 am

Re: corrosion

Post by n2582d »

Ben, You're making great progress! I'm surprised to see that much corrosion for an aircraft based in the high desert. I guess no paint and no hangar have helped ... or hurt as the case may be. Say, as you have a late '55 model (s/n 26977) would you have time to look in the middle of the landing gear box cover? Do you have an elevator bellcrank stop there?
PN0713497-3.jpg
PN0713497-3.jpg (23.46 KiB) Viewed 23975 times
We're trying to determine if and when Cessna installed the part shown in fig. 21-86. See the discussion here.
Gary
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

Re: corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

canav8 wrote:Good Luck Ben, thanks for the update. No pictures though.
I do not have much history on the plane, No idea what or where it patrolled. It was based in Fullerton (KFUL) when it was young, then eventually ended up in Hisparia (KL26). The owner at that time passed away. The Family Then donated it to the EAA chapter in Camarillo (KCMA) then my partner purchased it from them. Now we have it.
No logs though. So everything is coming apart.
If any of you guys know anything about the history on the plane that would be great.
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

Re: corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

n2582d wrote:Ben, You're making great progress! I'm surprised to see that much corrosion for an aircraft based in the high desert. I guess no paint and no hangar have helped ... or hurt as the case may be. Say, as you have a late '55 model (s/n 26977) would you have time to look in the middle of the landing gear box cover? Do you have an elevator bellcrank stop there?
PN0713497-3.jpg
We're trying to determine if and when Cessna installed the part shown in fig. 21-86. See the discussion here.


I do not have any part like this in the plane.
Ben
User avatar
DaveF
Posts: 1516
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:44 am

Re: corrosion

Post by DaveF »

Wow, you're rebuilding THAT airplane! The one that said PATROL on the side. I was sure that airplane would never fly again, but thanks to you it will.
User avatar
GAHorn
Posts: 20967
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:45 pm

Re: corrosion

Post by GAHorn »

BTW, N3434D is serial NO. 26977.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

Re: corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

DaveF wrote:Wow, you're rebuilding THAT airplane! The one that said PATROL on the side. I was sure that airplane would never fly again, but thanks to you it will.
Dave, how do you know the plane? Do you know any of the history of it?
User avatar
DaveF
Posts: 1516
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:44 am

Re: corrosion

Post by DaveF »

I don't know anything about it, I wish I could help you. I saw it for sale (on Barnstormers maybe ?) a couple of years ago. The pictures made it look rough. I congratulate you for bringing it back.
User avatar
bensmotorworks
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:09 am

Re: corrosion

Post by bensmotorworks »

Thanks Dave. It's still fun. Hoping to be done with the fuselage by April
Post Reply