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1956 Cessna 182

Bacho

Yellow Skull
Joined
May 26, 2020
Member Number
1536
Messages
377
Loc
Greenville SC
Been wanting an airplane project for some time. I enjoy tinkering/flying the 172 but I have been looking for something to replace it. The 182 hauls more weight and is considerably faster. This will be a very slow build. I have a strategy of working one area at a time as to not get over whelmed with the whole thing. I have an A&P, my day job is fixing CRJs which are a little different.

Airframe first, then engine/avionics.

I had been watching salvage auctions for a project and placed some bids. All of these auctions are sealed bids and the winning bids are not made public. I had no idea if I was in the ball park. Then I came across this 182 that had been parked at a nearby airport for 20 years. I had a quick look and seeing nothing major wrong I reached out to the owner who was interested in selling at a very steep price. He did agree to let me do a major inspection. I pulled all panels and was pleasantly surprised by what I was finding until I got to the firewall area. There were some corrosion issues in the boot cowl and firewall interface. Otherwise most of the plane appeared to have very good bones. I reported an honest assesment of the current condition to the seller and made him and offer. A couple weeks later we had a deal.

First order of business was to get it home. I pulled the tail and interior in one afternoon. The next afternoon a couple friends helped pull the wings and load it.

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The next day our daughter was born a couple weeks ahead of schedule. I had gotten this home just in time!

Moving it into the shop was a bigger job than anticipated. Main gear had to come off and go onto a foam cradle.
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My plan was to start at the front and work my way to the back. Engine came off and pulled some skins.

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I found both engine mount stringers damaged. Finding replacements took some time. This airplane style goes up to 1962, so all salvage parts tend to be very old! Started fabricating new skins.

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This brings us close to where I am at today. I also have to do a repair to the tunnel cutout that can be seen here. There are springs in there which are normally very hard to reach. Someone decided to cut a larger hole which is not acceptable.

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Awesome :flipoff2:

Thank you for taking the time to post your progress. I love the mechanics of a airplane.
 
bad ass. will be following!

my first small plane flight i was 13, local Dr's 1956 beachcraft bonanza, he let me on the controls. something i'll never forget. its a dream to fly, will probably be ppg first, then?
 
Love this, I am pretty new to aviation at this level but I am catching up.

LS Swap it seems appropriate response for the IBB. :flipoff2:
 
I think this is a cool project! Just flew a 182 last weekend. I was by myself, fuel was only 50 gallons, temp outside was in the 20s and pressure was like 30.36. Airport is at 4500 msl. I was over 600 ft agl before the end of the runway. You'll like flying a 182 over a 172, they climb so much faster. I only have a few hours in each but I didn't like climbing at 6-700 fpm in the 172. Maybe its not so bad where you are though.

CarterKraft said:
LS Swap it seems appropriate response for the IBB. :flipoff2:
Click to expand...
Youtube where a guy put a chev v8 in a 172
 
Yesterdays progress, the heat duct came off and all corrosion removed. Also removed the heat/air control valve, disassembled cleaned and alodine treatment. I did not have appropriate baffle material for the flapper. Maybe I can get my hands on that tomorrow.

Wearing gloves and I haven’t been doing too good at taking pictures of anything smaller projects in progress.

I hate painting but the next step is priming a bunch of parts before they go back on. Maybe this afternoon.

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aczlan said:
That's what it says in the first paragraph of the first post.

Aaron Z
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I have an A&P, my day job is fixing CRJs which are a little different.


You referring to this part Mr Snarkey?

Seems like OP is doing the work himself, thus my question:flipoff2:
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
I have an A&P, my day job is fixing CRJs which are a little different.


You referring to this part Mr Snarkey?

Seems like OP is doing the work himself, thus my question:flipoff2:
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I mean he clearly says he works on CRJ’s, (Canadair Regional Jet) so he’s an A&P. I’m sure he was referring to having his A&P license.


Pretty sweet little project, what’s your planned timeline like for having this thing complete?
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
I have an A&P, my day job is fixing CRJs which are a little different.


You referring to this part Mr Snarkey?

Seems like OP is doing the work himself, thus my question:flipoff2:
Click to expand...
No, I was referring to the part of the first post that I underlined where the OP states that they have an A&P :stirthepot::
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I look forward to seeing this build progress...

Aaron Z
 
aczlan said:
No, I was referring to the part of the first post that I underlined where the OP states that they have an A&P :stirthepot::
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I look forward to seeing this build progress...

Aaron Z
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having one and knowing a guy are two different things
so you win man, whatever

it was just a question, neat project
 
tribal4krawler said:
I mean he clearly says he works on CRJ’s, (Canadair Regional Jet) so he’s an A&P. I’m sure he was referring to having his A&P license.


Pretty sweet little project, what’s your planned timeline like for having this thing complete?
Click to expand...

Thanks for helping sort that out. :laughing:


Timeline, loosely hoping on a year. There are a few considerable variables I have not decided on yet. Most immediate decision is trying to decide a possible Taildragger conversion. Unfortunately it’s completely unaffordable without buying a parts fuselage. The appropriate parts plane (pre 1962 cessna 180) is very rare in this part of the country. Ii I had to bring a parts plane from the West Coast I’m looking at 15k or so.


Some parts that need replacement along the way could really complicate things as well. Example one of the stringers I’ve already replaced took me about three weeks to secure.
 
Bacho said:
Thanks for helping sort that out. :laughing:


Timeline, loosely hoping on a year. There are a few considerable variables I have not decided on yet. Most immediate decision is trying to decide a possible Taildragger conversion. Unfortunately it’s completely unaffordable without buying a parts fuselage. The appropriate parts plane (pre 1962 cessna 180) is very rare in this part of the country. Ii I had to bring a parts plane from the West Coast I’m looking at 15k or so.


Some parts that need replacement along the way could really complicate things as well. Example one of the stringers I’ve already replaced took me about three weeks to secure.
Click to expand...

Stupid question I’m not a airplane guy. Can you fab a new stringer or do they all have to come from parts planes? I can’t imagine it would be too hard to make some of these parts.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Stupid question I’m not a airplane guy. Can you fab a new stringer or do they all have to come from parts planes? I can’t imagine it would be too hard to make some of these parts.
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As I understand it no, have to documentation that it's an actual "aircraft grade" part intended for that particular model (for anything other than hardware which still has to be "aircraft grade" hardware).

Aaron Z
 
aczlan said:
As I understand it no, have to documentation that it's an actual "aircraft grade" part intended for that particular model (for anything other than hardware which still has to be "aircraft grade" hardware).

Aaron Z
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So then how does scrappy work? Experimental?
 
aczlan said:
Experimental gets rid of a lot of that paperwork, if you do your own work you can probably get away with a lot, but if you go to sell it and the person doing the inspection catches it, good luck.

Aaron Z
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Are you an A&P or have any direct experience with any of this?
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Stupid question I’m not a airplane guy. Can you fab a new stringer or do they all have to come from parts planes? I can’t imagine it would be too hard
Click to expand...

Yes I can. Owners can produce parts for their own aircraft, they can later be sold installed on the aircraft but not sold as a part.

The stringers in this application are rather complicated, at least for my very basic sheet metal skill. Hopefully I will be able to make most of the parts needed along the way. The issue with the tail dragger conversion parts is never having seen them before.
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Something else I thought was kinda cool. The trim ring around the firewall needs a joggle in it. I bought a used bead roller but the included dies would not create this in the .040 aluminum. I drew some up and 3D printed them. I built in 2.5 degrees of spring back. They worked perfectly!

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ChiScouter said:
Are you an A&P or have any direct experience with any of this?
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No, that is just what I recall from when I was bored and went for a dive down the rabbit hole of homemade planes and building an "experimental" plane vs buying a plane a few years back and talking to a friend who (in the 1980s/1990s) was ferrying single engine planes around the world and now flies private jets.
Very possible that I am misremembering, feel free to point it out if I am.

Aaron Z
 
aczlan said:
No, that is just what I recall from when I was bored and went for a dive down the rabbit hole of homemade planes and building an "experimental" plane vs buying a plane a few years back and talking to a friend who (in the 1980s/1990s) was ferrying single engine planes around the world and now flies private jets.
Very possible that I am misremembering, feel free to point it out if I am.

Aaron Z
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I only worked as an A&P for about 5 years and that was about 30 years ago so I forgot most of what we were able to do without an IA and all that could have very well changed since then anyway but I knew that you were talking out your ass.
 
aczlan said:
Experimental gets rid of a lot of that paperwork, if you do your own work you can probably get away with a lot, but if you go to sell it and the person doing the inspection catches it, good luck.

Aaron Z
Click to expand...
Slapping an experimental type cert on something that's got a higher cert doesn't remove the part sourcing and maintenance requirements.

If it were that easy literally every GA plane that mostly sits would be registered experimental in order to waive the maintenance requirements that are mostly nonsensical for aircraft that mostly sit.
 
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