Yoke Refinishing

[Farnold]

Question for the group. I'm starting to refurbish my panel and I have a set of 170 yokes that need refinishing.
The set has a very badly chipped and peeling coat of something like bakelite from the 50"s. What has been the best way to remove this material down to bare metal so I can either powdercoat or paint them? Will an aviation stripper work on this material? I think sanding or sandblasting would be out of the question.

[BloomerJohn]

The color is impregnated. You can not strip it. I refurbished mine by patching and smoothing damaged areas with JB Weld Steel Epoxy. Sand it after it has thouroughly cured and then prime and repaint.

[3958v]

I just did a pair of yokes. I purchased a pair from a fellow locally here. they were white in color with none of the plastic coating. I used aircraft paint stripper on them and had no problem removing the coating. I then had them powder coated by a local shop here in town. He had difficulty with small bubbles forming on the coating when he baked them. It took him three times but he finally got a decent job. Only problem I had was that there is no standard color which matches the original color. I could of had one made up but the cost to make a special color was almost $800. The cost of powder coating a standard color was about $100. If any one ever decides to do the special brown of the original yokes I might try to get with them and redo mine as I feel nice original style yokes recrommed rods and an original panel makes a fantastic restoration. Bill K.

[Dave Clark]

I've redone a lot of yokes. The stock finish will come off by scraping with a knife. (box cutter) Then a high build epoxy primer to fill the holes and fair out. Top coat on the cheap would be a poly in a can like Deft or other in your local store. The best is either Epoxy paint or two part poly mixed then sprayed with a professional gun. That holds up really well and can be easily recoated. I've never bothered to get a paint matched to the ugly (flame on ) stock color but someone out there should have a formula. If not the large auto paint stores can do it prety inexpensively.

[dacker]

I just had my yokes powdercoated as well, it also took him three times because of the small bubbles. My mechanic believed that it was from the sweat and oils being absorbed into the porous aluminum. Don't know whether that is the actual cause but I still have some bubbles on the finished product. Looks a hundred times better than they did before. I can live with the small imperfections and I think that they will hold up very well.
David

[N170BP]

Are we sure the yokes are made out of aluminum?

Perhaps they're made from Magnesium, which would
explain the porosity and the difficulty in avoiding the
bubbles.... (just a thought....).

Bela P. Havasreti
'54 C-170B N170BP

[dacker]

Bela, you may be right. Anybody want to try to light one and find out?
David

[Dave Clark]

Bela

All the yokes I've done are aluminum. It's just that the castings are porous which is why I like the painting rather than the powdercoat. As I remember a previous post on this subject our honored Gahorn mentioned that they cannot be powder coated. I'm sure what he meant was that you will experience difficulties like described here.

[GAHorn]

Bela

All the yokes I've done are aluminum. It's just that the castings are porous which is why I like the painting rather than the powdercoat. As I remember a previous post on this subject our honored Gahorn mentioned that they cannot be powder coated. I'm sure what he meant was that you will experience difficulties like described here.

Depending upon the year of mfr, the yokes were different colors. Mine are Imron "Gull" grey with a Cessna logo in the crossover (and clearcoated on top of it all which gives it the original glossy finish.) The basic yoke is cast aluminum, usually with plenty of surface defects and that is why the powdercoat process doesn't work well with them. Any defect in the surface will show in the finished product.

Dave also wrote: "honored Gahorn" which reminds me of an old Texas politician story, supposedly true, which took place a few years ago....

There was a Texas legislator who had a pretty much "honorary" title of "Colonel" (sort of like many of the early aviators who labelled themselves "colonel" purely for publicity purposes).
Anyway, the Colonel had just finished a long oratory in front of the entire assembled Texas Legislature when his fiercest and most scheme-ing opponent stood before the assembly and confronted him with:
"Colonel", said the opponent. "Humph! Now tell us all here just how you came upon that great title, ..Colonel! How, just exactly HOW....did you gain that high title? Did you win some famous battle or serve with some great distinction in our military?", demanded the pompous politician (certain his accusation would bring great embarrassment to the man.)
To which the man (who actually had a rather quiet demeanor and pleasant reputation) replied, .....
"Why, NO, suh! I make NO SUCH CLAIM of deserving such high title!", he responded. "That fond title is one bestowed upon me by our dear former governor purely as an honorary one. There is not the slightest claim by myself that I deserve such recognition.....it is purely FICTIONAL....without the slightest amount of truth to it.... very much like that quite fictional - - - Honorable- - - in front of your own name."

[Curtis Brown]

I sent mine to Airborne Coatings in Oklahoma, they powder coated them black. They did a good job. I am happy! Cost $100 for the pair.
If you like I will look to see if I can find a number for them. As I recall they may have a web site.
Curtis

[Dave Clark]

Sir George

I was referring to the ugly coral, red, or you know what I mean color. The grey are real nice. All personal opinion. I had a Ford Anglia in college that color and it turned out to be my first major paint job because I couldn't stand it and had to spray it white.