N6966W Refurbishment

[MickYoumans]

Hopefully this thread will be an encouragement to those of you that are currently refurbishing an old airplane or contemplating doing so. I just got my airplane back out of the paint shop and I now consider my refurbishment complete. This is so exciting for me because this has been a four and a half year journey to get to this point.
I purchased my humble little Cherokee on April 2, 2011. It had a total of 2000 hours on both the engine and airframe. I thought that since the airframe had so little time on it, it would be a good candidate for refurbishment. Some people like to rebuild old 60’s muscle cars, but for me, I wanted to refurbish an old airplane. Even though the engine was at TBO, it was running good and allowed me to purchase the airplane for a very low price. During the first two annual inspections, I went through everything on the plane to put it into first class shape mechanically, including sending the fuel tanks to Woodstock Aviation to be refurbished. The throttle cable, mixture cable, starter, alternator, vacuum pump and brakes were replaced or rebuilt. For the first two and a half years there was nothing done where you could visibly see any improvement, but the airplane was now in great shape mechanically.
Radio Stack:
In October of 2013 the first visible upgrade I made to the airplane was the radio stack. This plane had one of the saddest radio stacks around. I was starting to have problems with the mechanical selector buttons on the transponder. I didn’t feel like that old transponder was worth wasting money on to repair, plus I wanted to upgrade the panel anyway. I installed a PS Engineering PMA-8000BT audio panel, Garmin GTR-225 radio and a Garmin GTX-327 transponder. I retained the old TKM comm radio for a backup, which I now regret. I wish I had gone ahead and put two of the Garmin GTR-225’s in. I will have to put an ADS-B Out transmitter in the plane before 2020 and will pull the TKM and replace it with either another GTR-225 or maybe even a Garmin GTN-650 GPS/Comm radio at that time.
Before and After Pictures

 

[MickYoumans]

Interior Upgrade:
In the Spring of 2014 annual, my plane was due for the control cable and pulley inspection. To do this required pulling the old interior out. After pulling out the entire interior, I just could not see wasting the time and money to put that old stuff back in there. My mechanics brother did upholstery work and I was able to get him to install a new AirTex interior for me. Not only did I replace the carpet, walls, headliner and seat upholstery, I also installed new plexiglass around the entire airplane. I also replaced some of the plastic parts too.
BEFORE: Old seats and walls. and AFTER: New AirTex Interior

 

[MickYoumans]

BEFORE: Old headliner and console. and AFTER: New headliner and console.

 

[MickYoumans]

Engine Overhaul:
During the course of the 2014 annual, the compressions were down a bit on my engine. By now my engine had just over 2300 hours on it. I had already been talking with my mechanic about rebuilding the engine but was planning to do it the following winter. We decided that since the airplane was already going to be down for the interior work it would be a good time to knock the engine out too. I ordered four new Lycoming cylinder packages and sent them, along with the engine, to Triad in Charlotte, NC for a major overhaul. The overhaul also included new carburetor and magnetos. While the engine was being overhauled, I ordered an Electronics International CGR-30P engine monitor and installed it along with the new engine.
AFTER: New engine major overhaul.

 

[MickYoumans]

Paint Job:
It took a year and a half to save up for the final cog in my restoration. Now in October 2015, I can finally see all of the work for the past four years come to fruition in a completed refurbishment of my Cherokee. I finally have a new paint job!!!!! I was saving it to the very last thing because I didn’t want to see the paint get damaged during the process of doing all of the other work. I am so stoked and happy with my little bird. My once ugly duckling has finally turned into a much nicer looking swan.
BEFORE: This is how my airplane looked when I dropped it off at the paint shop.

 

[MickYoumans]

The white coat goes on, followed by tape up of the paint scheme.

 

[Ravioli]

Very nice!!!!

 

[MickYoumans]

Red coat followed by gold coat.

 

[MickYoumans]

She's finally done!!!

 

[Shepherd]

Chasing the dream!
Good for you. I hope it turns out to be what you dreamed it would be.

 

[MickYoumans]

One more closeup of the wingtip scheme.

 

[flhrci]

Looks great! Congrats!

David

 

[FormerHangie]

It's looking fabulous, thanks for sharing. I like that you kept the vintage style "Cherokee 140" logo on the cowl, that's a nice touch.

 

[N659HB]

Sweet.

 

[frfly172]

Congrats looks greT,now that your done time to sell and find another aircraft you can refurb,you did a good job.

 

[James331]

Lookin good

 

[bkspero]

Mick, nice job. I'm working on a paint scheme for my Tiger and really like the red color you used. Could you share the type of paint and the name of the shade of red?

 

[MickYoumans]

It's looking fabulous, thanks for sharing. I like that you kept the vintage style "Cherokee 140" logo on the cowl, that's a nice touch.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments!

My paint scheme is a bit 'tail heavy'. The front needed something to balance the scheme out some. The old logo did a great job of breaking up the large amount of white on the cowling area. We drilled out the rivets holding the logo on so we could paint under it and painted the logo separately. We reinstalled the logo with small screws so it will be easier to remove in the future if touch-ups are needed.

 

[MichiPilot]

So I'll ask....how much?

 

[MickYoumans]

Congrats looks greT,now that your done time to sell and find another aircraft you can refurb,you did a good job.

I do admit I had a blast refurbishing this airplane, but I also intend on enjoying flying her too. I feel like I have climbed to the top of the restoration mountain. While I'm enjoying the view from the top right now, it will be a little anticlimactic not having much to look forward to in that regard. I still want to do some smaller things like improve the placards on the instrument panel. I saw a plane that used the engraved plastic material for his placards and it looked very clean and nice. I think that will be my next project.

I am not retired yet, but I have been doing all of this now while I have the extra funds available in hopes that the maintenence costs in the future and into retirement will be lower. While it would be fun to refurbish another, I have no desire to sell this one.

 

[MickYoumans]

Mick, nice job. I'm working on a paint scheme for my Tiger and really like the red color you used. Could you share the type of paint and the name of the shade of red?

The paint shop was supposed to put the paint colors and numbers on my invoice. I just pulled it out and they forgot to do that. They were going to provide that so I would have it in the future if it needed any touch-ups down the road...I mean down the runway.
The paint was Dupont. When I get the colors and numbers I will PM them to you.

I really struggled over the shade of red. I had to pick it out from a book of paint chips. I wish they had bigger chips than the 2" squares that I had to choose from. I was afraid it might be a little too dark for my taste, but as it turns out, it looks great in the sunshine with the metal flake.

While I was typing I remembered that the gold was "Vegas Gold". I'll get the red information for you.

 

[MickYoumans]

So I'll ask....how much?

I'm afraid to add it up.
Fortunately the costs were spread over four and a half years. During three of those years I was doing consulting work away from home, using my airplane to travel back and forth each week. My per diem for travel was generous and it paid for everything except the paint job.

 

[fiveoboy01]

Fabulous paint job! Like it a lot.

 

[AdamZ]

Great looking Bird! Congrats

 

[Zeldman]

Thank you for not painting straight lines on a curved airplane.

It looks really good, you should be proud.!!

 

[asgcpa]

Very nice. Fly her proudly.

 

[jsstevens]

I really like the paint job! Looks fabulous!

John

 

[JB1842]

You need to change your pic now. Looks great.

 

[jordane93]

Looks great! Have fun flying it.

 

[Scott@KTYR]

Wow great looking bird!!!

 

[ettsn]

Nice job, man! Really encourages me to work on my Cherokee!

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

looks like a million bucks....

 

[Tom-D]

looks like a million bucks....

but it's only worth about $30,000

 

[Greenhead]

Jealous of your bird and budget! Great looking plane!

 

[steingar]

Very very nice. You should have a good time flying such a spanky airplane.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

but it's only worth about $30,000

"looks" Tom......"looks"....

 

[Tom-D]

"looks" Tom......"looks"....

I was once told, " set inside the aircraft and look out, paint job means nothing because you can't see it"

 

[mtuomi]

Damn that looks good.
I'm glad people do these restorations, even when they make absolutely no financial sense at all!

I sure hope it fits your mission, so you don't have to think "for this money, I could've bought a Bo"

 

[iflyvfr]

Damn that looks good.
I'm glad people do these restorations, even when they make absolutely no financial sense at all!

I sure hope it fits your mission, so you don't have to think "for this money, I could've bought a Bo"

And pay for the privilege to maintain & fuel it. That's probably one of the nicest 140s on the planet. Let a man have pride in his accomplishments. It's a lot of work.

Thanks for sharing & congrats!

 

[Stingray Don]

Very nice! Love the paint and interior!