While waiting for clear weather over the weekends, I have been working on cleaning up the internal peripherals. The wing dollies needed to be sandblasted, and the axles needed to be replaced so I could install better wheels.
Also the nose stop needed some serious repair and cleanup. I created a tail wheel stop to replace the door hinge thing that was used hold the fuselage in place, and was responsible for the rudder damage. And lastly,The mid-wing supports; a completely different issue that I will address later.
So, let's start with the Nose Stop.
When I removed the original stop from the trailer, I cut off the upper supports, since they weren't needed and were over-kill to begin with.
I sandblasted the steel, and took it to Sandia Trailer to have a forward brace welded to the existing stop.
I repainted the finished steel with a zinc chromate primer to retard corrosion.
The stand was finished with red DCC polyurethane enamel, and the open edges were capped with plastic handrail end caps.
The next mess was the old nose cover. The inside sheepskin fabric was yellow and old, and needed to be removed. The contact cement was so old that it dried out, and the fabric peeled out easily.
The original fiberglass work was rough. But I new that I could clean it up without remaking a new cone cover.
I used the same polyester resin that was used on the original, but I added cotton filler to the resin to thicken it up, and filled the gaps. I then sanded the shape smooth. I sprayed the cone with primer to see how the work was progressing and to identify any other holes I missed.
After the cone was refinished, I used the same Red DCC paint that I used on the stand to add the finishing touch. It was finally smooth and glossy!
I could not find any padding material with the same density as the original, but after washing the original cloth in the washer, it came out looking like new!
I used DAP contact cement to glued the original sheepskin fabric back in the cone.
And here is the finished nose stop!
As mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to install a tail wheel cup in the trailer, to avoid any future damage to the rudder like what happened before. I made a foam mold and sealed it with filler and paint.
Here is a photo of the nearly completed mold.
And here is the completed fiberglass tail wheel stop cup for the trailer. I gave the cup a few coats of the DCC Gray paint to protect the fiberglass finish.
The next project was to clean up the wing dolly. The pins used to hold the wing spars in the dollies were rusty. I used phosphoric acid to clean off the corrosion and old paint. I then used a stainless steel brush to get the rust out of any crevices.
The results are bright and shiny pins.
I repainted the handles only, and then coated them with a red grip rubber used on the handles of pliers and other hand tools.
The wing dollies were a mess. The felt on the spar box just feel off with little effort to remove them.
The wheels were welded on and I had to cut them off before I could sand blast the metal. I found replacement wheels that were the same size as the original wheels.
I sand blasted both dollies, and then had new axles welded on.
I used the same DCC red paint on the dolly's and then added the wheels.
You really need to keep an eye on these dollies with these scooter wheels! They really want to roll!
I just need to add new felt padding to complete the dolly restoration.
The next two sub-projects will be a nightmare! The Fuselage cradle, and the Mid-wing supports!
Oh Thrill!
