Mooneymechanic Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 thought some might like to see a log of my m20f restoration in case anyone else was contemplating fixing one that they a presently flying or repaining a gear up on. i bought this aircraft from the insurance company for $17000 as is where is and restored it over a period of two years with the help of my wife and way to much spent , overall i think it took me around 2000hrs labour to do which i know is just not cost effective but i did not do it to save money i did it to save a good airplane from going to the scrap heap and for the experiance toward my a&p it has been back in the air now for 10 yrs now . it had an engine faliure up in ontario and the pilot had a choice of rocks trees or water , he elected to land gear and flaps up paralell to the shore , aparently he did a great job as no damage from the landing other than the main gear doors were peeled back by the water. all four occupants waded to shore with no injurys . it was quite a job to restore as it had to have every tube drilled and inspected for water and corosion then treated and resealed , fortunatley other than a tube in the engine mount it was in great shape, after recovery i completely dissasemble it and put it on a rotissery so we could posistion it any angle we wanted to make sure there was no moisture or corosion. all the paint was stripped off which took weeks to get into every little corner and around every rivet , then we re etched and alodined it epoxy primer and painted everything before re assembly so there were no unpainted areas under fairings to corrode . i took the engine to chuck ney in tulsa to be overhauled and it turned out about the only thing that was salvageable was the pushrod tubes valve covers and some external parts , all the internall parts were factory new and we bought a ney HD case with his beef ups and cam oil squirter mods, the prop we got overhauled by hope aero in ontario and the radios were all sent in to be cleaned and recertified too, along the way we put in all new hoses and lines through out the plane and stripped and resealed the tanks and put in new landing gear pucks tires and brakes. re assembly went pretty fast about a month thanks to the help of some friends up in muskoka who build show quality float plane conversions let me into their facility to guide me through the process. that was in fact probably the most valuable part of the whole proccess having three of the most detail oriented aircraft mechanics i have met to date to work with. the most valuable thing you will gain out of doing or assisting your own restoration is the intimate knowledge and understanding of how your aircrafts systems work i have since done a few more restorations and it definatley does get easier and faster to complete the task every time i will post a few more progress pictures through completion in the following replies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooneymechanic Posted January 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 some assembly pictures and a completed one , then a picture at oshkosh four days after its first flight , we loaded up the family and took it and my son on their first big trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marauder Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 You are a brave man for tackling such a large project! Looking forward to the updates. What was the story behind the plane? Just saw your last pictures! Nicely done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rwsavory Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooneymechanic Posted January 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 bought the plane because i was looking for something faster than my cheroke and did not want to see this one scrapped, it had a low time engine that was overhauled in quebec and one of the rod nuts came off and the rod snapped. i have since done two more complete mooney restorations and some partial ones so acumulated about 6000 hrs of experience on restoring and working on them here is an e model i did right after that one , had the whole family involved in various parts of it , we all had fun and got to spend time together too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinwing Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 hey thanks for sharing...a great story with a sucessful water landing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbridges Posted January 14, 2013 Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 bought the plane because i was looking for something faster than my cheroke and did not want to see this one scrapped, it had a low time engine that was overhauled in quebec and one of the rod nuts came off and the rod snapped. i have since done two more complete mooney restorations and some partial ones so acumulated about 6000 hrs of experience on restoring and working on them here is an e model i did right after that one , had the whole family involved in various parts of it , we all had fun and got to spend time together too So, you've saved 3 mooneys from the scrap heap? I think that's awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooneymechanic Posted January 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2013 I have actually put 5 back in the air that would otherwise have been parted out three were complete restorations two were " minor. " just little prop strike deals that only needed engines props and some belly work, Unfortunately the last one was not so successful as I got it finished and had to many naysayers complaining it had a bad damage history so I could not give it away for less than the avionics alone, I bought it with a low time engine and in need of some repairs , so I put a new style prop on got it repainted and new leather interior fixed about 100 squawks and got to fly it a while Anyway I am in the process of parting it out now so I can get some flying done in my 310 The good news is that has already put two more back in the air from it's donations and will probably keep a few more flying over the next few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I currently own the first restoration project, bought it 7 yrs ago. It has been a very good plane. Have since installed an ei eng monitor and fuel flow instruments. Cleaned up some 40 yr old wiring behind panel, installed avionics master and a 496 installed in gizmo in radio stack. It has many speed mods--cowl closure 201 ws, fiberglass one piece belly, oil cooler relocation etc. A lot of my pilot friends were agast that I would fly in a thing that had been stripped down that much d put back together. All in all, I have had no major issues and have spent a lot less than a lot of them that have non damage issue aircraft. After the good luck I have had with the F I got seduced by the pain, big eng and 530, 430 and 696 in the panel of a rebuilt m20s. Hope I have as good luck with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kris_adams Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 Thanks for saving them from the scrap heap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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