This view is looking up at the trailing edge (top RH aft edge) of the windshield. I made sure to remove and etch/alodine/primer all these parts. I do not want any corrosion starting in this area, as I do not plan on accessing it ever again. Rather than use screws in the windshield, which stick up a bit and look ugly, I chose to use rivets, like the original installation.

I stripped all the old paint off the inside of the doors. There were many layers of spray can interior type paint. It was quite beat up looking and needed to be fully removed to get a good finish. I will paint the inside of the doors Matterhorn white, Jet Glo. That way, any surface not covered by plastic trim will look really nice and new. Plus the door seal will have a nice smooth surface to adhere to. I plan on painting the inside of the doors before I put the windows in. I understand that the inner rivets will need brush touch up, but the overall paint quality will be much better.

I had to repair the RH upper door hinge pin. The fuselage is the wear problem on these Cardinals. The door hinge does not wear. The original pin is allowed to rotate in the fuselage thereby wearing the hole in an oblong pattern. In this case, an oversized pin needed to be fitted, The top side of the oversized pin has a notch, because removal of material from that area is not possible or wise, it is structural. This notch requires that the pin be prevented from rotating. So a tab was added to the bottom of the pin, along with some additional weld on the lower end of the pin. This completely fills the worn hole in the fuselage.

Each removable part from the aircraft is getting stripped, etched and alodined. The steel parts are getting glass beaded, properly primed and painted with Jet Glo matterhorn white. It is truly amazing just how many parts there are. I am having to do them in batches, just to keep them organized. The nose gear, in particular, is very complex once fully disassembled. I did not find any particular problems with the nose gear. All of the bearings were well lubed and free. The hardware was in good shape. But it was in desperate need of paint and corrosion protection.

Here the overhead sheet metal parts are going back on. The air ducting CAT tubing is known for promoting corrosion in the area where the tubing attaches (due to the cotton based tubing retaining moisture). My airplane was no exception. The aluminum tubing flanges were corroded on the outside. I made sure to remove the surface corrosion and treat each part individually. That way, there won't be continuing problems. The parts came out looking like new.

The picture above shows the channel where the door’s window sits.

Upon removal of the upper wing fairings I discovered 4.4 pounds of Cessna certified goopy sealant. It was all over the place. I used a plastic scraper and got the majority of it off. I then discovered the Napa Brakeclean (tm) dissolves the sealant within about 1 minute. So Scotch Brite and Brakeclean did the job. I coated the bare sections of aluminum in epoxy primer to prevent corrosion. I even primered the underside of the fairings.