Tail work

The start of all the sheet metal work on this plane began with the tail section. The tail had some damage to the skins and to some of the internal structure, as seen in these two pictures.

We quickly got to work drilling out rivets, pulling cables and electrical wiring out, taking the sheet metal skins off and ordering new parts.

Terry and Jamin worked together to knock this out. While Terry trimmed and match-drilled the new sheet metal to the old so that all the rivet holes would line up, Jamin worked on all the linkages and bellcranks in the tail section.

With the new skins mostly match-drilled and new stringers and bulkheads in place, the new skins had to be mounted and pinned in place (which makes the plane look like a porcupine), to make sure everything is perfect before treating the metal (because you want to treat the metal after you've drilled out every hole).

Making a make-shift dunk-tank for parts, the skins were treated to prevent corrosion (turning them a nice golden color), and then the riveting began.

The final product is a beautiful new skin, with an interior that is both treated and primed to prevent corrosion for many years to come. This extra effort right now will mean reduced maintenance costs and less down-time when this plane flies as a missionary pilot trainer.