Brakes

Time to start working on the brakes. I took the temporary tires/tubes off today and started prepping for the new parts.

new parts

I used a space heater to heat up the wheels so I could get the old wheel bearing races out and new ones installed. I’m installing new FAA/PMA Timkin races P/N 13889 and bearings P/N

Using a Space heater to heat up the wheel halves.

I cleaned, inspected and painted the wheel halves. I need to let them dry before I reassemble.

I now have the opportunity to install the Cleveland brakes that I inspected and cleaned about a year ago.

Cleaned the bore, I now need to install new O-Rings.

This is what the gear leg looked like when I started.

Bare naked leg

Really looking forward to adding all these pretty new parts!

New rotors!

Firewall material

The original firewall blanket was old, greasy and didn’t even cover the full firewall.

I did a lot of research on various material to cover the firewall to protect against, heat, flame and sound.

I really liked a material from Aircraft Spruce, but of course it was not FAA approved.

I send a few pieces to a DER for testing and get the test report so now it IS approved on my aircraft.

I cleaned the firewall, cut the material and used 3M V77 adhesive spray to attach it.

Design

I started dreaming about what the final product would look like, so I used my daughters ability to do digital drawing to play with paint schemes.

As you know I’m coving the aircraft in dark blue oratex fabric, so I started playing with White, Silver and Black as trim colors.

I also found a great site called www.aerographics.com that makes vinyl decals you just stick on the aircraft.

Below is the design I think we are closing in on. Note the Big “S” on the tail for Stinson!

Scrub, Scrub

Today I had the kiddos at the hangar helping me get the TOP BOW Assembly cleaned.

Before cleaning, I noticed that the “Tails” of the upper structure, where it joins the fuselage were both cracked, so I needed to make some quick patches to re-enforce that area.

We cleaned the aluminum with Eco Clean from Stewarts which helps remove dirt and grease. Over the next few days I will use the Stewarts Eco Etch, then alodine to prevent corrosion. For good measure I will also paint the assembly.

Time for a change

I have said from day one, this will NOT be a traditional Stinson 108. In fact, I want this to be a modern day twist on a classic aircraft. Of course in certified aircraft I can’t go crazy, but I would like to think of this aircraft being a kind of Next Generation.

That new mindset also made me consider renaming the aircraft. For 74 years she had been known of N97954, but if we are going to make a change, the a new name is required.

I did some searching on the FAA site for a new N number, but I’m sure you can imagine, the FAA site is not well setup for searching. I found a great site on an RV builders site called www.tailnum.com

On that new site, I found the new N number for my Project which has now been registered and mine.

N108NX

Doors

I have really liked the patrol door look and since I had an extra set of doors I thought what the heck!

Example of patrol doors

There are two types of doors, framed and stamped, N97954 originally had the framed doors, but the parts I bought in OK had Stamped.

Framed on Left, Stamped on right

So I cut the cut the bottom panel out, then sanded the doors down and then some light body work.

I should have done this first, but I did a dry fit and the fit very well.

I did have to add some small body work as the doors were a little beat up over 70 some years.

Next will be ordering the dark tint plexiglass. The bottom will be held in with a seal on each side of the glass, and use of backing strips and hardware.

The upper window was originally a two piece window that slid, but I’m going with a one piece window and a Piper like flap window

Solid one piece