Elijah

My friend did that part but I think it was basically getting a DAR to look at the airplane and write a report to the FAA saying yes, this airplane is actually repairable. The FAA then returned the salvaged data tag which was much worse for the wear. That worn out data tag went to mooney and they issued a new one with the same data on it. And after all the repairs were made, that same DAR inspected the airplane and issued a new standard airworthiness certificate.

It's almost exactly 5 years since that happened. I'm really sorry it sat there for so long, the sun really took its toll on everything. Whoever salvaged it for the insurance company took the radios and data plate, and that missing data plate caused no end of problems. That's why it was stuck there so long. Well that, plus the logistics of working on it when it was stuck in Winslow. It'd be interesting to see a few of the pics you took back then! Feel free to post here or PM me.

Well I am happy to say that after all that work, she's finally flying! Parked on the ramp in Kingman Flying over northern AZ looking north Departing KPHX Pretty much everything is working and there were no issues on the first flights. Of course "pretty much" means not everything The EGT gauge is intermittent, there was a loose connection between the selector switch and the meter, fixed that and it was good for a few flights but now it seems like maybe there is another loose connection in the selector switch. The right tank also has a weep along the bottom of the spar. I will need to open that tank and patch that, maybe a winter project. And, the century IIB autopilot only tracks the heading bug. No matter what you select on the heading box, only tracks the heading bug. But that's all relatively minor - it really does fly and it flies nice! The new windows are amazing to look out of, that's the most visible of all the work I did. I'm seeing 150 - 155 knots true around 8500 ft. That's also what flight aware showed on its fateful flight out to arizona from socal.

That's crazy and a real shame. $5 to $6 is probably average here in the US. The price difference is nearly all tax - are you saying you're not getting good value from that additional $8/gal?

Yep this is what I use, or fuel, whatever is handy at the time. Small pan full, soak a rag, wipe, rinse, repeat. Petro distillates by definition cut oil well and don't harm the aluminum. I do use gloves to protect the hands...

So I guess this worked for you? It's a thermistor? I have the same problem with my J...

Sounds good to me. It's a shame how expensive new plastics are for these planes, and apparently for that you don't get a very good fit either. The plastics in my J have seen better days but after hearing the wait time and cost for aero comfort, I repaired the cracks with fiberglass and called it good enough. I'm sure these were originally shaped from molds like you're doing, how many different molds were there??? I mean how much variation was there between airplanes?

The fact that the other one is not bent to me suggests it pretty much has to be mis-rigging. Or, like TerryDubYa said someone pushed the gear up into the well while it was on jacks. When properly rigged, there's an arm near each gear leg that goes "over center" and at that point no matter what you hit or run into, it's not going to put any additional force on these pushrods.... it would be interesting to see a pic of the right main gear linkage (see pic) now when the gear is fully extended. Is the preload spring compressed at all?

I posted some pictures over here:

Time for an update. Got it all back together and weighed it - got 1778 lbs empty weight. It's pretty much ready to fly minus some paperwork. My I/A friend is working on paperwork and in the meanwhile I'm continuing to fix little cosmetic things. Most recent was the cowl. Lower cowl is in pretty good shape, but the top half had a crack up front near the spinner and lots of little cracks on the top surface. Seems this is a pretty common problem: Here's what the top looked like. Everywhere there were cracks, I sanded down the paint to glass. I scarfed out that darkened area and put a single layer of glass on top. Later on I sanded everywhere down to the gray primer - sorry forgot to take pics of that. Someone had glued a curved piece of aluminum tubing around the lip of the spinner. Obviously wasn't doing the job: So I ground all of that out and got down to clean glass, then put a couple layers of glass behind it. Once that was set, I scarfed out the front of the crack and layed multiple layers of glass in there as well. Each time I do glass, I paint on epoxy, then the glass and get it wetted out, then peel ply, then paper towel and finally some method of holding things tightly together. Usually clear packing tape but sometimes have to get a little creative. So that took care of the lip around the spinner. There were also spots around the air inlets that were delaminated and worn through: So using similar techniques, I cleaned it up down to clean glass and then built up layers of new glass. Didn't get a very good pic but this will give you an idea. Later on I scarfed in glass on the outside as well to make that lip square. Then I took care of the cracks along the top of the cowl. The glass wasn't really broken through but kind of flexible, with the epoxy kind of broken loose from the glass fibers. There were some old patches done over top of the stiffener channels but they had way too much resin in the glass and it was real stiff and breaking loose. I ground all that off carefully and got down to clean factory glass, then started laying new glass on top. I did one layer just over each stiffener, then two layers over the whole area: That pic only shows the start but anyway, after getting all the glass wetted out I used a simple vacuum bag setup to squeeze it all together. I wrote about the process in more detail here: But it worked very well, highly recommend this if you do a fiberglass repair to the cowl. I can't think of any other way to hold this much area tightly against the surface while squeezing out excess epoxy. I ended up with a very thin, light and stiff patch that is similar to the factory glass. Here is the finished result (disregard the painting overspray): I know two layers (3 over the stiffeners) doesn't sound like a ton but as far as I could tell, the original cowl is only 3 or 4 layers total so I figured a 50% increase in thickness is significant. I'll let you know how it holds up After that I sprayed the whole thing with primer to fill in the weave on the new glass. Sanded and got that all smooth, then paint: Now it's the nicest looking part of the plane I used Lumabase primer (sandable) and Limco single stage urethane paint. "single stage" meaning you don't need to put a clear coat on it - just mix with a hardener, thin and spray. I have used this on other aircraft projects (including the wheel wells on this mooney) and been impressed with how well it's held up over time. It's also easy to spray and get nice results (no orange peel). I get it from a local automotive paint store.

It's pretty much done, we're working on paperwork and I'm doing misc cosmetic stuff, like the upper cowl. I mean I don't know if an old airplane is ever "done" but it's ready to fly, let's put it that way! I should update my thread

I recently did some fiberglass repairs to my top cowl. I added several layers of fiberglass cloth to strengthen the area around the "bump" on top the cowl which always cracks. Mine had a lot of cracks and the fiberglass was "flexible" aka broken in spots. I went with fiberglass for 2 reasons; 1 I had it on hand, and 2 I figure the rest of the cowl is fiberglass and has held up for nearly 50 years, so why reinvent the wheel. They just made it a little bit too thin on top, which a couple extra layers will fix. I have done fiberglass repairs before and my experience is over a large area with curves (like a cowl) it's hard to get the cloth to both lay flat AND get all the excess epoxy out. (can usually do one or the other but not both). As others have said, more is not better when it comes to the amount of epoxy in the fabric. So for those reasons I chose to buy the stuff to vacuum bag it - it was not expensive but I had some of the stuff on hand. I'll give you a quick list in case you want to do the same: Vacuum pump & AC gauge/manifold. I had this already from doing car AC systems but you can buy for a couple hundred or rent from autozone for free. These don't pump a lot of volume but I was able to get a roughly 24" x 20" area sealed up enough to pull plenty of vacuum. If you did a much larger area it might be harder to seal all that and you'd need a bigger capacity pump. 1/4" air hose and adapter to go from 1/4 NPT to 1/4 flare to adapt to gauge manifold, you can get these at local HW store. I got the hose from harbor freight. Vacuum film: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pnpages/01-14805.php Vacuum port: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/cm/vacuumbagging_valves/vbvacvalve2.php Breather material: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/vb3450breather.php Release film (peel ply): https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/vb5201breather.php Sealant tape: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/tape01-01602.php BTW the sealant tape is key, I doubt another type of tape would work so if you skimp on anything, don't skimp on that. Or the peel ply. I used the other half of the AC gauge manifold to bleed vacuum off as needed to pull about 15" of vacuum. I paint on the epoxy (I used aeropoxy), lay on a layer of cloth, get it all wetted out, then paint more epoxy, next layer of cloth, etc. Then the peel ply. Then the breather material. Then put the sealant tape down around the area (clean a strip with alcohol right before putting down the tape) and put the inside half of the vacuum port somewhere you have a flat spot. Finally the plastic film, push it down tightly all around onto the sealant, hook up the port and then start pulling vacuum. As it tightens up you'll hear any leaks and I was able to seal them up by just squeezing the tape down more. It's thick and rubbery and tries to "suck" into the cracks sealing leaks as the vacuum pulls down. Anyway, I was very happy with the results. It looks as good as the factory glass. Definitely worth the extra effort.

I realized I am missing the rear seat belts (rear seat was out of the plane when I got it). I'll have to buy some either new or from a salvage place unless anyone here has some they want to get rid of? I see where they attach in the center but not sure how they attach on the sides? Probably bolt to the plates at the edge where the lower seat back attaches? (see pic). Any pics of a similar airplane would be appreciated. This is the non folding, bench seat.

Got all the windows in and I must say they look fantastic. Makes it a whole new airplane. I have the interior back in now as well and we're getting close to doing weight and balance. I put fiberglass patches on the back of the interior pieces where they were cracked and gave them a light coat of white paint. All antennas are mounted and all the belly skins are on. Starting to look like a flyable airplane again. I'm missing a couple of the quarter-turn, cam lock style fasteners for the cowl, I think a large one and a small one. Any suggestions on where to get new ones? I turned up sky bolt with a quick search, is that what people are using?

I have the two rear windows installed and the rest trimmed and ready to go. Windshield unsurprisingly took the longest to get right. It actually was fairly close as it came from great lakes, I don't think anywhere required more than 1/2" removed. I got it to fit and then took a little more off all around so there is some "wiggle room", hopefully avoiding any pressure points. I have been attempting to glue the windows roughly in the "middle" such that the edges are not against the metal frame anywhere. I did all the trimming with a pneumatic cutoff wheel and die grinder, and a small handheld belt sander to finish. And finally some hand work with finer grit to leave a nice smooth edge. (Last pic is as the belt sander leaves it prior to hand finish) The masking tape worked well to keep sealant where I wanted during the gluing process. Once the window was held in place from inside, I would wipe the excess sealant that squeezed out and then carefully remove the tape leaving a nice little bead along the edge. Next up I think I'll glue in the windshield, followed by the two front side windows.