The International Cessna 170 Association

Update: Doors are finished. We completed the painting last weekend and I worked up the courage to replace both pilot and co-pilot windows. Amazing how clear the new windows are. Attached the new door seals and window seals earlier this week, then re-installed the old door panels back onto both doors (we will keep the old panels on until the new Airtex interior arrives).

So the answer to the million-dollar question: did the door seals ... seal? Happy to report it was a perfect fit with minimal pressure. I created four new hinge pings using 3/32" brass brazing rods with a loop on the top to permit me to remove the doors at-will throughout the refurb process. We applied a thin coating of silicon gel (supplied with the seals) to the seals per the manufacturer's directions and then shut the doors. There was a very slight pressure all around - just a hair's breadth more than the old seals - and the door latch easily clicked into place. The manufacturer indicates to leave the door latched and locked for a minimum of 24 hours without disturbing to allow the new seals to conform to the frame and space between the fuselage. I must say that I'm impressed, can't wait to take it up in the air and see if there is any difference.

Nice!

Door seals do more than keep wind/weather out .... Bad door seals are a major source of noise in the cabin. Good seals are much more effective than sound-proofing (and cost/weigh a lot less also.)

We're in a bit of a holding pattern after stripping and re-painting just about as much of the interior pieces as we can before the Airtex interior shows up. In the meantime, I've been touching up some small worn spots on the panel with enamel paint. I also ordered some vinyl labels from Higher Graphics, which produces model-specific replacement panel labels for aircraft. The set designed for the 170 appeared to actually be for an early model 172, but as part of the process they gave me the opportunity to proof the four-page label set ahead of time and made changes.
I didn't create a 100% 170-specific set but did modify many of the labels to adjust the speeds/mph and some of the placard-specific verbiage. I'm only using about 20% of the labels they provided, but I now have a chance to replace the multitude of p-touch labels that seem to be everywhere on the interior. While it's not perfect, it's a vast improvement over the old. The labels were easy to install (they arrived die-cut - clean the panel area with alcohol, wet both surfaces with Windex to activate the adhesive, slide into place, let tack before removing the temporary covering material, then press into place).

Received the ash trays back from the chrome shop this morning. Amazing what they can do with 68-year old aircraft parts.

Where did you send your parts to be rechromed? Bill K

I found a local bumper shop in the Atlanta area called "Southern Bumper Exchange". While their bread & butter is ... bumpers ... they also advertise that they chrome accessories, chairs, art, etc. I am impressed with their work.

Brian,

I would love to hear an update about your door seals. I Need to address door and window seals on my '48 and have looked at the website for your seals installed.

They are a bit more expensive so I am wondering if they are worth the premium price and how well they work?

Regards,

Jared

Jared - they work excellent. In full transparency, and as others have pointed out, the gap between the door and frame is fairly uneven but the seals do a very nice job. My greatest fear was that they would bind in the door and I've experienced none of that. I have not noticed any appreciable difference in wind noise, but candidly I did not experience leaks prior to replacing them. Highly recommend the seals. Make sure you also purchase at least one tube of the adhesive, and an extra (tiny) tub of the silicone grease (you are supposed to re-apply once every year).

Edit: you also mentioned the window seals, and the new seals work very well indeed. They are self-adhesive and have just the right amount of thickness and "give" to create a tight seal. It's critical to remove the old seal and adhesive, obviously, before you replace the door and window seals. Removing the door seal adhesive was a royal p.i.t.a.

Work on the interior continues. The rest of the Airtex interior (seats) arrived while I was at Oshkosh. Last weekend I removed everything out of 62C's interior and did the final stripping of the frames. My wife has been working on the seats - which are taking a little longer than we anticipated but still faster than patterning them ourselves. This morning we finished painting the remaining trim and began working on the headliner. Having the old headliner out gave me the opportunity to give the interior a real good inspection for corrosion, and thankfully the aluminum is in excellent condition. We're about 75% done with the headliner at this point. The carpet will go in with very few modifications, but we'll need to spend some time fitting the back panels.

Before and after photo of the co-pilot seat is attached. Interesting note: the new seat is 3 lbs lighter than the old seat.

Well ... the interior refresh is "finished" (is it ever really finished, though?). I bought a nice bottle of Scotch on the way home from the airport to celebrate.

With work schedules a bit out of hand for both my wife and I our project time has been limited to weekends only, though I've spent the last weeks' worth of evening sweating in the hangar trying to the get the last bits of the project wrapped up. This evening I put the final screw in, put the tools away and closed the doors. Really, really happy with the way it turned out - we've learned so much in in the process.

Now ... if the rain would clear out I would like to go flying again.

Brian,

Which material did you go with for the headliner? I take it it was from Airtex too?

Joe

Joe - yes, we used the Airtex headliner. The quality, construction and patterning were spot-on but it was a bugger to install. During the process of installing it wife and I discovered some curse words that neither of us had used for many years. I'm sure ears were burning all over the airport that day. Transparently we're not 100% happy with the way we put it in - still a few sags - so we may take it out and have another run at it again. Just not today ...

Sweet, ready for another 50 years.

I often reflect on whether we are building anything today that will be remotely useful in 50 years. Maybe some bicycles.

brian.olson wrote:Joe - yes, we used the Airtex headliner. The quality, construction and patterning were spot-on but it was a bugger to install. During the process of installing it wife and I discovered some curse words that neither of us had used for many years. I'm sure ears were burning all over the airport that day. Transparently we're not 100% happy with the way we put it in - still a few sags - so we may take it out and have another run at it again. Just not today ...

I can relate, it is a bugger to install. When I installed mine I started from the back and moved forward, I found an article somewhere in a magazine on how to install one and it was priceless. I couldn't tell from the pictures if yours was of the wool variety or not, but if it is, find an old spray bottle (409, cleaner of some kind, etc) that has a mist type spray setting. Fill it with water and mist the areas with wrinkles and then use a hair drier on it and it will make the wrinkles disappear! Start out slow and cautiously, but if you have a wool one it will work wonders!

Joe

Looks really nice!