Taking Our Free Abandoned Airplane Home! Ep2

welcome back to rebuild rescue today we're here with the assassin of 401. we didn't get it running last video we spent a few days out here it's freezing cold today so we're gonna get this thing moving and we're gonna take it home it's somewhere where it's a little warmer and a little bit nicer to work on it so we can get this thing fired up because we're gonna get this thing fired up oh and and by the way i really need your help the log books for this airplane they were lost years ago they were given to someone here at the airport and they were lost like nobody knows where they are can't even remember who they were given to so i need your help share this video share this video with anybody that may have worked around an airport we are in the northeast here but any airport just share it with everybody any pilot we need to find those log books so we can get this thing up in the air i know you guys want to see this thing flying i want to see it flying i mean how cool would that be and thank you so much for all the comments for for all the tips and tricks a lot of you guys know a lot more about these things than i do so we're gonna need all the help that we can get these tires haven't held air in forever so hopefully we can get them to hold some air so we can get this thing moved this tire is so dry rotted the cracks in it have to be at least a half inch deep i really doubt this is gonna hold any air these things have tubes in them but i just i i would be amazed if it held in the air it's actually filling it up if you look down here like look at these cracks look how deep they are now this has a tube in it so that's the only reason it's filling up i mean this this airplane has sat here so long that there's dents in the blacktop so like where this tire's sitting it's literally dented in it's sat here so long it's just crazy and i'm not sure how much air pressure these are made to hold i'm a little worried about filling it up it's up to 50 psi right now i may shut it off and let it sit for a while and kind of take shape all right so it's gonna have a massive flat spot on the bottom of it but there is 50 psi in it and and it's it's holding right now so so we'll see so we'll get these other tires filled up as much as possible and see what happens all right so it looks like uh the front tire we put air in it last time we were out here in the video it held air pressure i'm not going to press my luck and put any more air in it just in case it would blow out i think it's pretty much the same thing for the for the tire on the right there i mean we put air in it last time and it held air so we're just going to leave these go because there's air in them i don't want to blow any of them up especially i don't want to blow any of them up in my face so we're going to go ahead and we're going to see if we can't get this thing moved so in the last video we talked about how the owner was like hey if you can get this thing started it's yours for free we've all heard that before i've seen a lot in the comments where you guys were like what do you mean free so he literally meant free it's been sitting here for the owner can't remember how many years but it's like 16 17 years and you know i had questions too i mean i had questions about like why'd this thing sit so long why would you be willing to give it to me because literally i just went to talk to him to learn about the airplane and he's like hey can you get it started and i'm like yeah i can get anything started you know and he's like well if you can get it started it's free so the thing is it was parked here that many years ago because there was an ad an air worthy directive which is put out by the faa on the wing spars so on the main thing that keeps the wings and the engines on this airplane connected so basically the faa is like hey you need to fix this thing or you can't fly it because there's been issues what that ad is is literally taking a thousand rivets out from underneath the airplane pulling panels off attaching these straps it's like a 70 80 000 job so the owner just didn't have the extra money for that talking to him you could just see how it broke his heart you know um if any of you have airplanes you already understand what i'm talking about because you get attached to them i mean these things become like part of the family he parked it he couldn't afford to do that a.d and unfortunately that's 15 16 17 years ago and uh you know mother nature and its birds just did a number on it but we are going to figure out what all it needs we're going to get this thing running because he guaranteed me and in fact he signed paperwork saying that if we get this thing running it's ours it's ours to do what we want with it and he really wants to see it running you know honestly it just makes him feel a lot better to see something happen to this because as much as you guys were like hey how can someone do this to an airplane as much as i'm like man how can someone do this to an airplane you know he wants to see it running too so he said the deal's still on the table you get it running it's yours to do whatever you want with it so let's get at it we got to get her home yo how are we going to get this thing out oh yeah let's go get the tug this is tug and let me tell you this thing is heavy this is literally built out of like half inch plate steel it's 12 000 pounds so what better vehicle to tow that thing than a 12 000 pound tug so let's get the tow bar hooked up you know then we'll get it untied and everything and then we're going to take her home [Music] so i really want to make sure i get this thing nice and tight because the last thing i want to happen is for me to stop and for this here front of the airplane to go through the back of the tug could you do me a favor can you guys grab this and hold this while i back up so we got the tug hooked up uh with the tow bar it's secured in the front so now let's get it untied so we can i'm so excited so so we can get this thing moved so how do you undo ropes that have been tied for that many years these are some really good knots whoever tied these so make sure you post in the comments you know are we gonna make it back we have a long ways to tow this thing you know or the tire's gonna go flat i hope not oh so we got it all untied it's all hooked up now we got to go inside here and try to get the control lock off it's rusted in there it's been in there for years now i know a lot of you guys mentioned about all the bird droppings all the diseases and everything and make sure you wear a mask but i forgot a mask today so i was fine last time i'm gonna just go ahead and uh and brave it without it we'll see what happens all right so oh man almost got it oh yes so we got the control lock out um which uh well look at that the ailerons actually work they're a little sticky but not elevators don't work you don't even need to have this out this literally controls the elevator and ailerons which has nothing to do with the front wheel moving that all has to do with the pedals which control uh control your you know the front wheel left or right um and the rudder actually in the back so i'm gonna put this back on because it's really windy and i don't want everything flopping around the wind and then we're going to go move this thing yeah so we're all hooked up let's get this thing moved [Music] [Music] so [Music] all right so so we made it back home and you guys might be kind of asking ourselves you know where is home well home is home's right here [Laughter] [Applause] home's the hanger that we were able to get because of our videos because of you guys sharing the videos people saw it they want to get involved they wanted us to have a place you know a nice place to work on the 401 to make sure we get it fired up so we're all in 100 let me show you what we got so one of the things with a 401 i mean it's it's a big airplane i mean it's a twin engine wings are huge it's tall i mean the tail is probably you know 11 feet up in the air so you need a big hanger and you know big hangers aren't things you come by really lucked out and we're really excited so this this is the hanger so this is where we're going to be doing all the work on the 401 it's heated it's got lots of light and it's comfortable so this is where we're gonna make it happen not only that but this is our new rebuild rescue hanger this is where we're gonna do a lot of projects we're gonna do a lot of airplanes i mean you can see some airplanes in the background they're getting worked on so we're totally excited we're excited to bring you guys in here and for you guys to be a part of our channel and to be a part of the process you know we're even going to have some events in here we're going to have all kinds of things going on again just totally excited so let's get these hangar doors open and let's for the first time in i don't know i'm gonna have to put a year on this like 17 years let's say 17. so first time in 17 years the 401 the birdhouse is going to be out of the weather it's going to be inside we're going to be able to really dig into and take a look at it and you guys are going to come with [Music] all right let's get her push in here all right so we got this in we didn't run in anything so that's always good all right let's get her unhooked [Music] i'm totally gonna have to get one of those things yeah i'm gonna have to get one of these it's a lot of work to open some doors all right so we're inside the shop and i have to tell you this feels so much better than standing outside in the wind i mean i think it was 20 degrees today with wind chill it was it was just terrible so again feeling really blessed really happy we got this uh nice heated shot interestingly when you bring it in looks a lot worse you can really see what uh what this thing looks like i wish you guys were here to see what it looks like because it's really bad i'm honestly i'm kind of standing here thinking you know what did i get myself into but you know we're not quitters here you know we're gonna we're gonna keep at it so i'm gonna get these callings these engine cowlings off and you know based on everybody's advice about maybe cleaning these things out you know before working anymore we're gonna get them cleaned out because right after that we're gonna start working on these to uh to make sure we get them fired up because i want a free airplane so so let's get at it you get the screwdriver here so when you get that cowl off look at all this stuff i don't even want to touch it i can't wait to get the pressure washer out and get this thing washed off i'll bet you pressure washer with a buffer which i can make that thing look almost new well um you know except for where the the paint's coming off oh just like i remember it full of bird stuff hey could you guys could you do me a favor could you go over there yeah go ahead and and lift that up and we'll have to pull this down off and up all right so somehow i don't remember this being this dirty so now that we're inside um i'm going to be able to pull the lower cowlings right off so as we're cleaning this up everything's just going to fall right down you know right down the floor i don't i don't have a mask with me or goggles or any of that stuff that everybody should have but none of us men ever have so we're just gonna do it without it and and hope nothing bad happens so here's the some of the screws and nuts washers that i got off there totally corroded it's kind of what we're gonna what we're gonna get with most of these you know considering it's been outside so long it just makes it a little bit more difficult to work on yeah so that's loose we'll get the other one loosened up and and then we'll pull this whole belly this whole belly off of here these screwdrivers would probably work a little bit better had i not welded them to the starter solenoid on that jeep wrangler project from a few weeks ago so the more i'm looking at this the more i'm trying to figure out how or how am i going to get all this stuff out of here because you know this is years and years of just caked and just just crap so i don't know if i'm going to have to go get a vacuum and maybe do air and vacuum and water but there's one thing i promise you is it is it's going to be a lot of work and uh and it's going to be a pain in the butt so i think that's what you know how we'll go about it i'm going to get this cow off so everything can drop on the floor and then i'm gonna have to go grab a vacuum you know to get this thing vacuumed out all right i got these cow flaps loosened up and i just got to get underneath here and get all these screws out from underneath so unfortunately a good bit of these screws if they're not stainless bend up rusting out and they're they're just going to strip so i'm going to drill all those out and then clean the threads later i definitely don't want to be underneath here when this comes down yeah i think this amount of screws and anything can become pretty maddening you know i'm kind of wondering with all the comments from the aps uh in the last video you know what is what airplane is the worst to work on you know put a post in the comments let me know which airplane i shouldn't buy and or take for free um because it's that much of a pain yeah that's disgusting wow take a look up here in this one vent tube i mean this is this is way back um you know underneath the turbos and stuff it's just solid i mean it's solid clogged with like bird stuff but we're gonna get it all cleaned up [Music] what is that so that would be some type of a breather or overflow all right let's see if we can't get some of this stuff out of the intake down here whether it's a breather or something i'm not quite sure what that is but it's definitely clogged up solid oh it's so disgusting some of this stuff's even so thick that it's caked on and the only way i can move it was with like a screwdriver because you're kind of chiseling it away all right let me see if i can see if there's a vacuum in a broom somewhere around here i think i remember seeing a vacuum on the other side of the hangar let me go see if a vacuum next door because we don't have one over here and i think it'd be best to kind of jar some of this stuff loose and vacuum it out i'll be right back all right yeah this stuff just isn't budging all right so the vacuum cleaner idea is not working this stuff is it's so heavy you know because it's been also on the weather it's you know it's wet but it's so heavy it's so caked on you know it's almost like glue i think really the only only choices i really have it at this point i would say is going to be getting some compressed air in here which is obviously going to get all this stuff all over me which i really don't want to do only other thing i can do is just you know is flog it with water and just hopefully that you know get some of this stuff out because it's it's just caked in it's just going to be a battle no matter what we do but we do get to get it out of there it'll be nicer to work on a cleaner it is a little important for air to be able to get down through air-cooled cylinders it's just so caked in here [Applause] [Applause] i wouldn't recommend doing this without goggles we're gonna do it anyway just happen to have a spare mask [Music] is uh so the air hose seems to be the best way to get all this stuff out it's also the messiest way but you know i did get this extension the other day thinking this may help to get down into some of these spots i definitely think this is probably one of the more disgusting things i've ever done considering i know that there is wet bird poop flying all over my face right now but we gotta get this thing running so so we've been working on this thing for a few hours now just trying to get all the dirt out of the nooks and crannies and crevices and if you look on the floor i don't know how many pounds of of dirt is on the floor but it's it's everywhere i know i saw some some comments on our last video about people looking up the tail number and it flying somewhere in california in 2019 sometimes uh you know the uh someone putting in a tail number to register another airplane for a flight will mistype it it's obvious this thing hasn't gone anywhere i mean it's got half-inch cracks and tires it had dents in the blacktop so good on you for doing your research but yeah this thing hasn't gone anywhere and if it did it's miraculous and a miracle and i want to meet the pilot so we've got this thing pretty cleaned up i think the only other way we could we could get it cleaner would be to literally pull the engine out of it and clean up every component and take out all of the baffling and and stuff and really scrub it down which at some point you know if this thing's ever gonna fly again that's gonna have to happen you know the i mean these are gonna have to come out and get torn all apart and rebuilt anyway as far as for firing it up and being able to work on it now i feel a little better being able to work on it because i can actually see the components and stuff but it's still there's still stuff caked on down here so i think one more thing i want to get done here today is i'm going to loosen up the turbo the oil feed line to the turbo and hopefully get that oil feed line off and just just put a whole bunch of penetrating fluid down there because i'd like to be able to break that thing loose so we can get it started and i realize it it doesn't need uh i saw a ton of comments about you know the turbo uh not being able to be you know need to be free just to start an idle but it actually if you look up under the exhaust there's bird's nest inside the turbo so it's literally it's just clogged up so we're going to free that up i am going to unclog that i am going to get that out it is going to work when this fires up we are going to have to dig into these mags i mean each of these mags i guarantee is corroded inside i used to raise sprint cars and uh we used mags on the sprint cars so i do know how to service them so we'll pull these apart we'll clean the points up we'll make sure there's some some grease in there for the bearings and stuff like that and make sure they're firing so let's get this turbo loosened up let's get some penetrating oil in there so it it's spins loose i'm a little afraid it's going to snap a line here oh yeah all right so the the oil feed line did come loose i it's so corroded that it is an 11 16 line but it's not 11 16 anymore because it's that corroded that it just doesn't it's a little smaller so really lucky that we were able to get this off and not a drop of oil came out of that line so that line is dry which is a little worrisome as far as if the oil pump is pumping oil i can't remember if there was oil pressure on the gauge in the cockpit when i was turning it over because i know i would have looked for that because even during uh you know cycling the starter and stuff like that you should get some oil pressure so maybe i'll have to go back in the video and check that out i'm gonna get some some of this penetrating oil down inside the turbo so we can let it sit this is the oil feed line for the turbocharger and it feeds oil into the bearings of the turbocharger all right so so we've got some penetrating oil down in the turbo bearing i got the line on loose just because i you know i don't want anything getting down in there and you know messing up the fact that we want to loosen up the turbo so i'm going to let that sit for a few days and then when i come back in i'll you know pull this housing apart get a socket in there we'll jar that loose you know i want to be really careful not to bend the uh the shaft on the turbo because because they're really delicate and likely we'll either rebuild this ourselves or we'll send this out at some point but i really wanted it to be loose for us to fire this engine up um we do have some parts ordered for the engine and we're gonna get it fired up this thing's gonna run mark my words this engine will run and this airplane will be ours make sure you guys subscribe you know like the video hit notifications so you can see in the next video because it's going to run thank you for watching

Channel: Rebuild Rescue

Views: 1,603,540

Keywords: Rebuild, Repair, Build, Vehicle, fix, mechanic, truck, renovation, Auction, copart, nomad, travel, outdoors, Restoration, Airplane, Cessna, Free

Id: FfA93Q8ofb4

Length: 33min 22sec (2002 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022