Corrosion Found During Annual - How Bad?

[LevelWing]

Some corrosion was found during annual. One area was on the flap and one area was in the wheel well. While the mechanic continues the inspection, I wanted to get the take of the community here on how bad it is and what it would take to fix.

[EricJ]

Those both look Very Bad.    The bottom one looks to be on a component that may be replaced, but the top one looks structural.    

[MB65E]

Dang. It’s all of our worst fear. While it might sound harsh, Scrap the wing. Salvage wings can still be sourced. 
-Matt
 

[LevelWing]

I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. If it's really this bad, what are my options? Replacing the week will be incredibly expensive. What can I get for the plane with the wing like this? Salvage the whole plane?

[Andy95W]

Replacing the flap bracket should be pretty straightforward.  For the wing, you’ll probably want to contact someone like Don Maxwell.  His shop can probably do the repair or recommend a shop that can.  His shop will also be able to tell you if that one extruded aluminum angle can be replaced.  I doubt you’ll need a whole new wing, but the cost will be significant either way.

I think there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to get a ferry permit to fly to a repair location, but nothing more than that.

Sorry you have to deal with this.

[DCarlton]

I believe there was a service bulletin for the flap hinges years ago.  Mine was corroded and needed replacement.  Discovered when the plane was disassembled for paint.  The corrosion was exactly where the bulletin said inspect if I remember correctly.  

[Slick Nick]

Finding the wing won’t be an issue, places like BAS will have a few. It’s finding a shop that you trust to do the work that will be the tricky part, and then you’ve got to consider things like do the tanks in the new wing need resealimg, etc before you have it bolted on. 

[LANCECASPER]

10 hours ago, LevelWing said:

Some corrosion was found during annual. One area was on the flap and one area was in the wheel well. While the mechanic continues the inspection, I wanted to get the take of the community here on how bad it is and what it would take to fix.

If there is evidence of rodent urine, which is very corrosive, you might check to see if your insurance company would cover it.

 

[67 m20F chump]

Email the pics to maxwells shop and see what he says.

[redbaron1982]

12 hours ago, LevelWing said:

Some corrosion was found during annual. One area was on the flap and one area was in the wheel well. While the mechanic continues the inspection, I wanted to get the take of the community here on how bad it is and what it would take to fix.

The corrosion looks bad (intergranular with exfoliation) and not "repairable", the second picture does look like a part that can be replaced. I'm sure I know exactly which is the corroded part in number 1, but doesn't look structural to me (like as the spar or spar cap), do you have more pictures?

[redbaron1982]

1 hour ago, 67 m20F chump said:

Email the pics to maxwells shop and see what he says.

They repaired a corroded wing spar cap on my J model, replacing the aft stub wing spar. It was not cheap (20k - 30k), and it took over a year, but the airplane flies great now.

[67 m20F chump]

I had it too on the lower spar cap inboard of the right fuel tank.  I replaced the wing with a parted out planes wing.  6k for the wing and about 18 months of my free time plus a bunch of A&P supervision.  I never want to do that again.  Put in bladders too.

[LevelWing]

Well this isn't good. Looks like this is going to be an expensive repair. Just out of curiosity, if I chose to sell the plane as-is as opposed to fixing it, what kind of hit would I be looking at? Clearly it'll be significant, but I'm trying to figure out what the most cost-effective method here would be. Sell the plane as-is and get another plane (Mooney!) or sell my soul and pay the costs it'll take to fix.

I'm aware there are other factors to include engine time, avionics, etc. Just looking for something to work off of.

[MikeOH]

JMHO, but if your A&P won’t sign it off as airworthy then you are in an underwater situation, for certain. As you say, what is most cost effective; but factor in the aggravation of repair (likely a cheaper dollar amount than selling for scrap and buying another, but the down time and supervision may negate the dollars)

Sorry you are having to deal with this.

[67 m20F chump]

I don’t know where you are located but for sure I would call in the experts.  Give Don Maxwell pictures of what you are looking at and I would talk to Airmods in New Jersey.  They will know and have done the work before.  With my plane I thought long and hard about building a Van’s Aircraft using my engine, prop, and avionics.  I couldn’t give up on the Mooney and I fixed it.  Nothing about owning a plane makes financial sense.  Decide what you want.

I am still thinking about building a RV and if the RV15 ever gets put out I may do it.  The only thing driving me that way is being able to do work on the plane myself.  

[aviatoreb]

Hi LevelWing, I went through something comparable about 10 years ago on my M20K Rocket.  I sent my airplane to Wilmar for a tank reseal (preemptive since the tanks were 30 years old original seals and it was a precursor step to new paint and I just didnt want to deal with tanks giving away on a new paint job).  Well once one tank was stripped of the sealant it was found that there was corrosion on a wing spar under the sealant.  You couldnt find that without stripping the sealant in the fuel tank under the fuel under the sealant, so it wasnt any APs fault who signed it off for annual.  Well that was very depressing.

I had it repaired by Dave at airmods in NJ, https://www.airmodsflightcenter.com. he is a magician.  He was able to do the operation without entirely removing the wing but separating the wing and lifting the wing and plane apart but still in place.  It took about 9 months and about 20k+.  10 years on I am glad I did it that way.  I had also considered replacing the wing but that was also very expensive - more expensive when it came to finding a tip top wing and shipping it before the replacement phase of labor.  I was going to paint anyway but you would want to paint as well.   

So it can be done, but is this plane either worth it financially, or sufficiently dear to you that you are willing to bite the bullet if it is not financially sensible?  Remember if everything else is customized as you wish and you are all caught up on all the other maintenance things, there is some financial value there since buying another airplane always starts with inheriting someone else's headache to bring it up to your own standards.