We bought a Cessna 172 airplane to Renovate | Was it worth it?

[Music] it's a gorgeous spring day so it's a perfect time to show you this cessna 172m behind me as you can see it is in beautiful condition and when you're buying a plane the condition is important you want to have something that you're proud of to take your friends and family and when you fly into a different airport you turn heads and this plane definitely does that a lot of times to get that kind of condition and quality you need to look at a newer more expensive plane but what we did is we bought a solid 172 m and then we did a complete refurbishment on it and that way you can have this plane in beautiful condition for a fraction of the cost of buying a new one about two years ago we went ahead and we bought this 172 2m to refurbish in this video i'm going to walk you through the steps we took in that refurbishing process now i wish i had individual videos of the different stages of the process but i honestly hadn't planned on making a video about it so i'm just going to have to walk you through the steps as we go and explain what we did along the way now this gorgeous 172m is for sale if you're interested we've got the link below to in the description of this video to go to our website where you can see all of the logbooks since new and all of the detailed specifications of the plane so the first step in the refurbishment process is to select the right plane now we selected a cessna 172m for multiple reasons one of the main and first reasons is that it is one of the most desired models out there the 172 had multiple improvements over the older model cessna 172s including the camber lift wing which helped with the stall characteristics and slow flight characteristics as well as allowed for larger fuel tanks the 172m also has one of the best engines ever put into the small ga planes the lycoming o320 e2d so when you find your right plane your right base then the next step is to check it you need to make sure you have a solid airframe because obviously the one thing you can't really change when you're doing a refurbishment is the airframe when you're looking for the plane to refurbish you want to look at the history you want a solid airframe and this particular plane was actually owned by a highly experienced pilot and it was owned in the midwest down in iowa so those factors combined to make it a good solid plane for us to start out with now this particular plane hadn't been flown for many years before we purchased it it was actually sitting on a grass runway and the one good thing was that the owner would go out and he would start it up and just starting it on the ground isn't the same as flying you have to make sure that you get those engine rpms up get the oil up to good operating temperature because that evaporates the moisture that's what keeps the engine from getting corroded when it sits for a long time once we had found the plane we had an experienced mechanic go through and do a complete pre-buy inspection on it to double check everything we wanted to check for corrosion we wanted to make sure it was a good solid airframe this is actually a low airframe on it there's only about 3 500 hours on the airframe on this plane so that's another key component when you're doing a refurbishment is try to find a lower our airframe overall the main components of the plane seem to be in good condition even the gauges and things like that were still clean and clear so overall this plane was found to be in good condition the gauges were clean the main components were in good shape it was a privately owned plane not used by a flight school and no damage history during our inspection process we even had to hand prop it to get it started so that we could go ahead and feel how the engine listened to the engine running and then we also made sure we checked the compressions things like that just our overall basic pre-buy but in a much more depth because it'd been sitting for a while so all the compressions came back in okay condition there was one just a little bit low but it was still within limits so we were able to go ahead and apply for a ferry permit in order to get it off the grass strip and back to the field for the mechanic to start the work on it so a ferry permit is a one-time permit that's issued for a plane after mechanics has inspected it said that it's an air-worthy condition to get it on a vfr flight from point a to point b in order to have maintenance or other repairs done on it so once we got our ferry partner approved the pilot went in to the grass strip got in the plane took off and started flying noticed after taking off that one of the indicators actually wasn't working believe it was a pitot tube that was blocked so the airspeed indicator wasn't operating now something like that happens a situation like that in flight the first thing you want to do is set up known power settings obviously with a 172m you even have a little bit better time of it because it's very difficult to stall the plane so it's a very safe plane to fly in that type of situation you can also use the windsoloft and mobile app use your check your ground speed and be able to calculate your approximate true airspeed to give you an indication and just make sure you're within safe parameters we'd really appreciate if you take a minute to like our video subscribe to our channel and of course any questions or comments feel free to leave them below we always do our best to answer them whenever we can now that we found a plane that we're going to refurbish the next step is to do a full detailed annual and make sure that all of the mechanical components are taken care of we started the annual on this it was one of the most detailed annuals you find on a 172 done by one of the most experienced mechanics that you'll find went in and replaced over 24 parts on it and not all of those really needed to be done but we tend to overdo when it comes to maintenance make sure everything is safe after doing that extensive annual we flew the plane for about 75 hours and during that time it proved to be a very solid reliable plane starting right up every time and running really nice the engine is the most important part of a plane this cessna 172m has the lycoming o320 e2d and this engine is actually one of the reasons that the 172m is the most popular 172 out there and the most desired now when it sits on the ground it's obviously not a good thing for the engines they need to be run so the owner of this one he actually did do multiple startups over time and that's not always a good thing unless it's run up to full operating temperature and gets the engine really warm so that it can clean out the moisture and you can tell from the condition of this one that that was done properly because not only does it have high compressions 79 76 78 and 78 it also had a good oil analysis which we had done on it just after we got it as well when we went and refurbished it we did quite a few things we did new spark plugs a newer overhauled cylinder on one of them and then we also replaced other important parts things like the vacuum pump and the voltage regulator up there those were done as well now one of the things that i would do and consider to do is put in an oil filter adapter it has the screen back here which is what they come with standard and it's only a thing as far as doing the oil changes it's a convenience factor for one thing it's easier to put out a different filter and the other thing is that as an owner you're able to do that yourself whereas when it's a screen like that you would have to have a mechanic help you sign off on the oil change a few more things to point out on here they are the original lycoming cylinders and good good compressions on all of them after we got it we've actually put over 75 hours on this engine on this airplane since it was sitting so we can tell you that yes it runs nice every single time just starts right up couple of prime pumps and it just started even in 20 below degrees when we had that engine heater plugged in for a few hours we would set the timer on it warm it up for a few hours before we start starts right off a couple more convenient things here is it's got the quick drain for the oil so you can actually put a hose on here and be able to run it out the back of the cowling so you don't even have to take the bottom calling off to do an oil change so that's nice and then over here you've got your plug in so it's got two little clips on there you just go ahead and take those two screws off and you can actually start it and jump it that way as well since the batteries up front here so a lot of nice convenient things up on this engine we didn't find any leaks or any squawks all of the components seem to be in good condition we even did an engine oil analysis to make sure that the internal components of the engine were in good condition didn't find any issues so we decided time to move on to the next step of the refurbishment process the third step is paint now airplane painting is one of the most difficult things that you will do on a plane first of all it's hard to find a paint shop then you've got to find a good one and you got to check in find their schedule sometimes you're waiting weeks months even years to get on the schedule a complete strip and then repaint with multi-colors and high quality paint can easily cost eighteen thousand dollars yeah aircraft painting is that expensive just on materials alone for this particular paint job we spent over five thousand four hundred dollars because not only is the actual painting of the plane expensive and time consuming but materials are also expensive for example in order to mask any of the plastics and windows you need to have a special aluminum masking sheet as well as aluminum tape and not only are materials expensive but it also requires high quality hvlp guns pressure pots a proper air filtering system there's a lot of components that have to be invested in when you're doing aircraft painting the paint shop we used was actually not located on an airfield so we had to transport the plane in order to do that we had to take the wings off for transport i really wish we had needed to remove the wings first we had to make some wood braces to support the wings when we're taking it off drain the fuel disconnect them load them for transport then brought them back and reinstall it after we were done the whole process took about an extra four days so there are two main ways that people paint aircraft there's the sand and paint method where you sand the surface of the paint roughen it up and then you paint over it when you're doing just a sand and paint you usually have to use the original design or it'll show through it is faster and more cost effective but the better option is the strip and paint method now this is an extensive process first you strip everything to the bare metal then you prep it and you paint it in this process you actually use a chemical stripper commercial sprayers to spray the stripper on and then wash off that old paint and primer you have to use a special masking tape and aluminum film to match with the glasses and the other plastic surfaces that you can't remove as for the paint itself there are various types of paint that people use i've even seen some use automotive paint to try and save money but if you're painting an airplane you should use high quality products that are made for the job because they last a long time another thing is is that bare aluminum has to be prepared very carefully otherwise the paint's going to start to peel as we've seen on some airplanes when we've looked now one of the steps no matter how you do the painting process is that you must remove all control surfaces it's actually required by the faa to re-weigh and balance any control surfaces after painting or other modifications obviously you have to mask everything as well so the glasses again have to mask with a special aluminum foil because the stripper can damage glass or other plastic components so when you're removing the surfaces once you get them ready to put back on there you actually go in and you grease everything and you put in new hardware and that actually makes it in better condition than what you'd find just from doing basic maintenance on it so that's one of the nice things about having to remove all of those surfaces is that you get all of those new components put back together on it so again you need to mask everything and the glasses have to mask with a special aluminum foil because the stripper that you use on the aluminum can damage glass and other plastic components and that foil roll alone costs about four hundred dollars so typically they use a commercial sprayer to spray the stripper on and then a pressure washer to remove it sometimes you have to do multiple applications in different areas just to get everything off once the metal is completely clean you use an allodyne etch and that alidine etches the metal which makes the bond between the aluminum and the primer stronger when you spray it so then you go in you prime the whole plane and it's best to use a high build corrosion resistant epoxy primer that thick green stuff that makes a good base to apply the base coat of paint you mask the accents you want to spray then you paint those and of course it doesn't sound all that bad but it requires very good skills and experience and it also takes a lot of time i actually spoke to the owner of a large aircraft paint shop and he mentioned that they will allocate about 300 man hours to paint a small airplane i don't know just the exact time frame painting brings a new life to a plane though when you look at this plane it looks fantastic buying a newer plane with this nice of look will cost at least four times as much i have to apologize it is getting so windy out here hopefully you can still hear me now i mentioned about that stripper having an issue with plastics so unfortunately when that was being applied somehow some of that stripper did get on the windshield so we actually had to go in and we had to replace the windshield on the front that was a bit of a bummer but to top it off when the mechanic was going to install the windshield i actually ended up cracking the first one and i want to show you here it kind of a bummer because it was just one little spot right in the corner and you can see it just cracked and as soon as something starts on there it just goes and there's no saving it and those windshields cost about 900 dollars so then we had to wait another was it like two weeks to get a new windshield in pay for the second windshield to come in and finally get it installed and when we were doing the front windshield we went ahead and we did the black back one as well so we've got new glass on both the front and the back and then the four side windows are in pretty decent condition but there's a little bit of spots here and there overall fairly clean can still see out of it pretty good on to the fourth step the interior so you take a look at the interior of this one the carpet and the seat upholstery has been completely redone the carpet you can buy for about seven hundred dollars they'll send you out some samples with the different materials on coloring and then what they do is they cut it to match with everything sewn in and it's about two or three different strips usually that has some velcro in between to fasten them together it's as simple as pulling the seats out pulling the old carpet out putting the new carpet down marking a few holes for some of the bolts and you got it so super simple on that now as for the seed upholstery that you need to work with somebody that can make the seeds for you because there's a few different steps to the process and you need to make sure that you're getting the right materials now when you're doing the seats what's actually kind of unique about it is that they designed these seats to make them lightweight when the engineers were doing it what they did is they designed the frame to hold just on the outside edge and then what you do is you use a backing material like this this is some leftover that we had and you cut this to the shape of the frame and then you stick it on with a glue that's kind of like a contact cement and that's your structure that you actually sit on then when you buy it from a company now this is for a different plane that we're doing so not this one you actually get them and they'll come prefabricated to fit with the sewing and everything done the foam already inserted once you have that black backing you basically set this down fit it around the frame tuck it underneath and fasten it in place very simple the one thing you have to be careful of and remember with aircraft materials especially on the interior is they have to be a special flame resistant material so you want to make sure you're working with a reputed company that works on aircraft materials and aircraft interiors so that they've already done the flame testing on it so you know you're getting the right materials for your project the final step of the interior is usually the plastics so a lot of times you can refurbish the plastics on this particular plane almost everything was in pretty good shape so we just went ahead and refurbished cleaned everything up there's a few minor spots throughout that you'll see little spots but even if you needed to replace them they're usually fairly inexpensive to get an individual piece or whatever if you needed to and then you just have to have it painted to match the rest of the interior the main thing you've got to be sure of is you're getting the right part numbers and not just on the big components like the panels in the seats and things like that but each and every single part on a certified plane has a part number including the screws so you need to make sure that you're matching that with or you're getting an approved upgraded version when you're doing replacements and lastly we have the panel so on this one like i said in the beginning the gauges and actually everything were in really decent condition it already had the dual upgraded digital um nav comms in there and the vors and everything like that so we actually didn't have to do anything on the panel on this one just cleaned up the plastics and it was good to go and now for the final step of your refurbishment process obviously get in and enjoy the plane that you've just finished doing all your upgrades on so let's go ahead and get it started up and take it for a test flight we're flying basically hands-free no control inputs and with the turbulence it kind of leveled itself back out smoothes itself out we're using that trim wheel in order to have the elevator trimmed out to maintain the altitude and then it'll pretty much fly itself hands-free even in this little bit of turbulence as long as you don't mind watching it going back and forth just a little bit you get a pretty much hands-free flight [Applause] it's springtime in minnesota so all the lakes are falling out but obviously we don't have any color on the leaves we had any grass starting to grow back yet but it's still a gorgeous view it's a beautiful day to be out flying and using just the screen on the right we can maintain our altitude you can watch the ground speed you can see your bank angle [Applause] able to check your direction and the compass [Applause] of course all of this is including you can watch for traffic both for adsb on there as well as what you're looking for outside so all of your primary information available right in front of you on the right side i honestly can't wait till we have the technology to do a more immersive experience so we have the cabin heat turned on the knob out here but it is honestly so warm in here today that we want to pull that put that in i actually have experience applying this during the winter when it was about 10 below zero and we were basically in just a long sleeve shirts and we were definitely warm enough without any other type of jacket or anything on so it definitely has really warm and heat on this plane shopping center tango three thousand climbs above four thousand uh we're currently going to be holding over joe and it'll we've got both a tachometer and also a hobbs meter on the plane that's beneficial when you're using it for training if flight instructor likes to set up for when you like to set up and use the tenths of an hour for the bombs meter then we've got that very easily suitable on the right hand side and then obviously your attack is down here in your rpm gauge as well so you can monitor both numbers [Applause] so having the screen over here on this side is very beneficial when you're flying from the right seat oftentimes it's hard to see all of the gauges on the left side so you can step right in front of you you have the traffic on the map you've got all of your gauges and the synthetic on the synthetic vision side it's a good backup practice as well for when you're wanting to learn glass panel you've got the layout that you would when you've got a glass panel set up so it's a good way to train in that but still having the primary gauges showing up as the analog so that you can refer back to them when you're in the learning process better notification there 500 agl our landing checklist feel both fixtures full rich car heats on stop settings obviously you can blend with just about any flap settings on the 172. this one is a little bit unique it's still got the 40 degrees of flaps option in there although i hardly ever used i was playing as always i hope you enjoyed watching our video today we'd really appreciate if you take a minute to like our video subscribe to our channel and of course any questions or comments feel free to leave them below we always do our best to answer them whenever we can

Channel: AeroLife

Views: 84,674

Keywords: airplane restoration, Airplane renovation, Cessna renovation, Cessna 172M, Cessna, Aircraft painting, Aircraft upholstery, airplane painting, airplane upholstery, airplane refurbishment, Cessna upgrades, aerolife, aerolife aviation, cessna, aviation, airplane

Id: XOsrCsLsmjU

Length: 25min 8sec (1508 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021