voorheesh wrote:cessnut wrote:Looking forward to some more pictures of the progress. If you have the original cabin top skin you might want to fasten that in place before you take too much apart. To remove the aft bulkhead you will have to remove the door sills, at which point you will want to cross brace across the door openings.
If you had to replace the doorpost where the datatag is located, it would be legal to reinstall the datatag on the new post. You would not have changed the aircraft, the airframe, or even the fuselage for that matter. George is right. The days of drilling data plates off of wrecks and moving them to another aircraft are behind us. I don't doubt that is the history of some of these old planes that we love. However, changing major components and reattaching the data plate to the same aircraft is not illegal.
As someone who has some insight on legalities, I would suggest that questions about the data plate are the least of your worries. Reading this thread, it appears you have two distinct airframes (or portions thereof) in marginal conditions/states indicating you may want to use portions of each to combine into an airworthy (safe) aircraft. And while it sounds as if you have some qualifications, this may be your first attempt at major airframe work. I suggest you look at those jigs in the pictures from Miles, because that is very likely the scope of repair and assembly you are facing. And consider that the expertise and equipment to accomplish such a job is not found in every repair shop or with every technician hanging around our local airports. At the very least, an inexperienced mechanic or owner would need serious direction and supervision for something like this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you taking on such a project provided you recognize the need for this direction and defer to someone who is qualified.
I suggest you find a person who can assess your project in person before making any major decisions or performing any repairs or assembly. (As Ghostflyer also mentioned.) I have seen examples of well meaning owners who dive into projects like this and end up with serious even dangerous problems. These include at least one airplane that, on the surface looked perfect, but had hidden serious defects of which the owner was totally unaware.
Sorry to lecture, but it is intended to help you. By the way, thank you for your interest and energy to getting a great old airplane back in the air. Best of luck and look forward to hearing more on your progress.
I do not feel lectured and appreciate you taking the time to voice some valid concerns. I was blissfully planning on doing all of this at my house. My second job out of A&P school was at Kenmore Air in Seattle WA, and I was always impressed by the jigs they used to rebuild wrecked beavers. I thought they only did that because those planes had been wrecked. I figured two straight fuselages would go back together straight. I understand how ignorant it sounds but up until you guys started posting pictures of jigs and talking about jigs I was operating under the pretext that I have cleco clamps and the holes will line up. I have a vast pool of experience to draw on in the aviation community, but no one here in Florida with a jig. Some of my most valuable aviation mentors have encouraged this activity whole sale. It seems like my best course of action is to hot swap the gear box, but as another member stated "the plane is built around it". Looking in there it looks like I could get to it and change it. That would eliminate a lot of the trouble of needing a jig. Might be a fool's errand. This plane seems like a "there has to be a horse in here somewhere" sometimes. I could get more for the prop than I paid for the whole project... but she deserves better.
Still motivated. Will keep yall updated.
