1948 170 Rebuild

[ghostflyer]

PS. There were 4 of us trying to “escape” , I forgot to clean the sink or dishwasher.

[Stick.Back.Aviation]

Personally i can’t not think of any reason why you cant overhaul or repair your fuselarge or wings in your house . It’s warm,dry and secure . BUT the wives for some unexplainable reason do not have any sense of adventure ,progress etc. A good friend [Ben] asked for help in overhauling [pulling it down] his IO-540 engine . It fitted his dining room table perfectly with room for a heap.of beer cans [empty]. His wife was away on some trip with a some of her friends . She was supposed to be away a week . I was washing some parts in the kitchen sink[stainless steel] using some avgas . They’re about 5 of us all having a good time ,having a few beers and listening to the football,and pulling down this engine . ALL good .
Ben’s wife then walked in .Her trip was terminated due to her friends getting Covid . OMG she went ballistic . She was yelling and screaming at Ben. Then she turned on me .
ME, What have I done . It was all my fault, she screamed Hey, lady … It’s not my engine , i was invited here. i will clean the sink for you . Then she spied the card board shoe box’s of hers from the bedroom that Ben had brought down to store some of the parts in in. What she didn’t know at that time ,I had used the dish washer to clean the baffles and other parts . The dish washer does a great job.
We have to finish the job in my hot hangar . Ben’s place was air conditioned . There isn’t any divorce and they are on speaking terms but the rest of us aren’t allowed around there . We were all having a great time too.

I dream of a family but I relish and abuse the bachelor life until then . The dog doesn't seem to mind when I cook up hair brained ideas like this one. I also figure if miss right comes along while I have a whole airplane in my living room it will set the tone and manage all future expectations. I've used the dishwasher extensively for my truck.. I plan to continue to post updates to this thread and love the stories. I'm sure Ben's wife got over it and he never brought engines inside again. All's well that ends well

[GAHorn]

A buddy of mine and I once overhauled his C-6 Ford transmission by putting all the parts in the dishwasher of his apartment to clean them. It worked out really good… Especially since he was moving to a new apartment the next month anyway…

[ghostflyer]

Many years ago we had an avionics guy on our station who was brilliant any thing that had “sparks” in it. But he had a disability that he couldn’t walk 40 ft with out falling over . He used to laugh it off and tell people it was a bad habit of him . He got the name “Topples”. Some one gave to him a gliding coupon as a present to go for a flight in a glider.
Well he was over the moon with the flight and wanted to buy a glider of this type . It was built by the Swiss company Pilatus . The price shocked him and then he stated to all he was going to build this glider. He joined the glider club and spent numerous hours measuring and photo ing this glider. Topples never married or had a relation ship as he would give you 33 reasons to keep away from females . Topples invited me out to his house too see this glider he had built in his house . When visiting you had to arrive with a 6pak of beer to keep the evil spirits away [his words]. I was totally shocked and couldn’t believe what I saw. This glider was perfect in every way . He had built it without plans ,only by his own measurements . The paint job was like a mirror. BUT he had cut holes in the walls of the house to accomodate the wings and glider structure .
He ended flying it around Australia behind a tow plane . Topples is now deceased and I only knew him for 6 years totally but what an aviator ,very talented person.
All I am going to say about inside his house is err, different ,not organised and he had a mattress on the floor next to this glider.

[GAHorn]

Sooo….ghostflier… I guess you might say that “Topples” preference was for the girls to remain…”Topless”…?

[Stick.Back.Aviation]

Hello Gentlemen,
I got the main fuselage yesterday and got it all pressure washed just now. I have the front section of another fuselage that I was going to steal the landing gear boxes out of, but after looking over everything I think it would be a good idea to use the section of fuselage because it is in much better shape. I believe the section came off a 170A but I don't know for sure. There is no part number anywhere and the dataplate is missing off the section I have. I looked in the IPC and they look similar in the drawings. Does anyone have experience with this that might now if they are same-same, or same-same but different?

Thank you!

[c170b53]

Not sure if that’s going to keep you out of the pub or keep you in one

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

The 170 and the 170A will be the same with the exceptions of course those new things added to the A the 170 didn't have. One this comes to mind is the fuel lines and the fuel selector would be different between the 170 and the 170A. The 170A being preferred. However you'll have to look at the fuel line routing to see if you can make that work to the aft location of the 170A routing. And of course there would be legalities to deal with.

[ghostflyer]

I think the less “disturbing” of an airframe in rebuilding is the best thing to do especially if you do not have a fuselarge jig. Projects are great when things go right and you know you are right. I have had people say “I followed the structural repair manual to a T “. It’s some times interpretation of that manual that can get you into trouble . Then friends or another qualified person will “help” but be afraid to say anything different because they do not want to upset you or maybe they will doubts about their own ability . They will follow your lead. The best thing to do is obtain a qualified person who is totally independent of you and of the project to advise and inspect as the project progresses.

[cessnut]

If your gearbox isn't damaged, you can justify a lot of corrosion cleaning and skin replacement before you change the cabin section. That being said, I have done some crazy things with homemade fixtures. I agree with ghostflyer. Things can go sideways in a hurry. Come up with a good plan, get advice from a person who actually knows what they are talking about, and fix that thing up!

[Stick.Back.Aviation]

I can't say this is what I wanted to hear but it probably is what I needed to hear. The 170A fuselage section I have was obtained because of the gearbox. This picture is the 170 gearbox that I was going to replace. Looking at the A pillar rivets I decided it might be a lot easier to use that section of the 170A instead of just stealing the gearbox components out of it. After closer inspection it seems they are just different enough that they aren't really interchangeable. The only thing I'm sure of at this point is that I am going to be up to my eyeballs in work and spending all my money for sure.

~Tyler

[ghostflyer]

There is so much knowledge and experience in the membership of this organisation it will make your project an enjoyable task. The forum library has just about everything that you would wish to know ,but saying that I found it a bit clunky to navigate . Going to the convention also is a great source of information where you can talk to different people who have been through that situation or will offer the needed advice or advise who to go and see. Advice given is unbiased and no commercial favours.
as a old saying goes, Read it 3 times ,have a beer talk about it , measure it twice , cut once. please note .. some people get the second stage mixed up with the other stages .

[n2582d]

I am rather surprised to see the commonality of part numbers between the 1948 C-170 and the C-170A. I would have thought, since the two models have completely different struts, that the lower attach points would not have common part numbers. But, in fact, they do. Based just on looking at the part numbers, it looks to me like you should be able to transplant the C-170A landing gear bulkhead assembly into your C-170 fuselage. The items from the C-170 IPC circled in red below are part numbers which are not in common with the C-170A IPC.

Click to Enlarge

[Stick.Back.Aviation]

I am rather surprised to see the commonality of part numbers between the 1948 C-170 and the C-170A. I would have thought, since the two models have completely different struts, that the lower attach points would not have common part numbers. But, in fact, they do. Based just on looking at the part numbers, it looks to me like you should be able to transplant the C-170A landing gear bulkhead assembly into your C-170 fuselage. The items from the C-170 IPC circled in red below are part numbers which are not in common with the C-170A IPC.

C-170 Figure 19 - Bulkhead Assembly.png

I am going to go for it. The only hangup I have now... I was at the airport this morning picking up some material to make parts for a guy and he said he thought all cessna stuff was drill to fit. Am I going to be heart broken when I try to swap some of these parts/skins?

Thank you Gary for this comparison. I printed out a 170 IPC I think I need to print a 170A so I can properly compare them.

Tyler

[GAHorn]

From the legality standpoint… it would be better to transplant the 170A-model gearbox to the 170… rather than switch the 170 dataplate to the 170A fuselage.