Floorboards and more Wood

Our floorboards needed replacing so I got some 1/4" aircraft plywood from Wicks, one 4 x 8 sheet of plywood was enough to cut out all the pieces I needed.  The front 2 floorboards especially needed replacing since they have easily breakable pieces.  In addition, I added a dual brake system which had the rudder pedals moved slightly to one side.   I began by taking all the old parts of of the old floorboards and laying them on the new plywood, tracing them, and then cutting them out.

I spent $7 on clear pine for the small pieces on the edges.  To attach these, I used a pneumatic stapler with 5/8" staples and wood glue.  I think this method made the attachment of the pine pieces much stronger than the 3/8" brads I pulled out of the original floorboards.  I then coated the floorboards with satin polyurethane, but found the cold weather even in California was so cold, it took forever to dry so after the floorboards tacked up, I would move them into my attic to dry and the hot air from the furnace in the attic got them dry in a couple days.  The rear floorboard has one pine piece that has an angle which is about 25 degrees which looked right to me after trying several smaller angles.

I even liked it so much, I got the carpet out of the boxes and put it in to see how it looked.

I also decided to replace the wooden wing root pieces that the fresh air vents and the headliner attach to.  The pieces I got with the airplane were so fragile, they were like the books in the books in the future in 1960 version of The Time Machine with Rod Taylor.  They crumbled at the touch and were only held together by the vynil headliner material that was stapled to them.  I got a better sample of this wooden piece from Earl Allen and used that as an original to copy along with a great diagram and dimensions from Gary, badrivermusic, on the Stinson Yahoo group.  I cut these pieces on a band saw from aircraft grade 3/4" spruce.  I glued them using T-88 structural epoxy glue I wanted to try.  I then coated them with laquer.

Lastly, I wanted to install the last instrument in my panel which was supposed to be a digital Astro Tech clock/timer that came with this project.  Unfortunately when I got it out of the box I couldn't get it to work and when I took it apart, I found a 20+ year old AAA battery inside which is probably what contributed to the LCD crystal to bleed out.  Astro Tech was bought out years ago and an inquiry email about repair was not responded to.  I also thought that maybe it wasn't in harmony with the rest of the original (or near original) gauges on the panel, and I read a post about 8-day clocks on the Stinson Yahoo group so I purchased an 8 day clock from Earl Allen and installed it on the panel.  It looks and works terrific and I am very happy with it.

Not shown is that I bead blasted the rear cabin heater vent and the battery box.  I am ready to paint these along with some more parts when I get a warmer day.  I also installed the "C" clips which I painted previously in the floorboard locations so the floorboards are ready to be attached.  Now I am working on getting the scat tubing and hardware for the cabin heat system, and I am finishing up the mounting of the cabin ceiling light and speaker grill along with a new speaker.