AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2013 - 32

BRIEFING

AOPA SWEEPSTAKES
AOPA sweepstakes coverage sponsored by BANK OF AMERICA

AFTER

AirMod cleanup
From grime to shine
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

AT THIS WRITING, INTERIOR SHOP AIR MOD is smack
dab in the middle of its renovation of the sweepstakes
Debonair. The old interior is long gone, new seats
have been fabricated (thanks very much to longtime
sweeps contributor Garrett Leather, of Buffalo, New
York), new side panels have been built, new floorboards created, and perhaps the biggest of the work
package—locating and treating corrosion—draws to
an end. Referring to corrosion treatment, Air Mod’s
Dennis Wolter says that, “Of all the work we do here
in restoring old airplanes, corrosion control is by
far the most important.” Listen to him long enough
and you hear a recital of horror stories: spars rotted
through by mouse urine, wing skins corroded beyond
repair by trapped moisture, salt air causing entire airframes to rot through. You get the idea.
Luckily, the Debonair hasn’t shown any untreatable corrosion. What has been detected has been very
light—a true shock when you consider that this airplane is 50 years old. But there has been a lot of dirt.
That’s bad, Wolter says, because dirt can hold corrosion-causing moisture. So a big part of the Debonair’s
time at Air Mod has been spent cleaning up the dirt—
a total of four pounds was found in the airplane’s
belly—then treating the now-shiny aluminum with
zinc chromate to inhibit any future corrosion. By the
way, the dirt removal alone took 80 man-hours of
painstaking labor.
Air Mod is performing other work. The Debonair
has an overhead pushrod control that opens a freshair scoop on the airplane’s dorsal skin. The scoop’s
air box had developed cracks that leaked air and also
made operation of the pushrod difficult; now it’s
fixed. A tail-mounted beacon/strobe assembly from
Knots2U has been installed. And an Airwolf Filter
Corporation remote-mounted spin-on oil filter has
been installed. So yes, the aircraft is getting a new
interior, but that’s not all that Air Mod is doing for
the Debonair.

32 | AOPA PILOT November 2013

BEFORE

Those who have been following the
Debonair’s oil-analysis saga—and there
have been a lot of you—no doubt welcome
the addition of the Airwolf filter. The original engine comes with a mere oil screen,
so having a proper oil filter will help us do
two things: Check the filter element for
contaminants at oil changes; and hopefully aid in reducing the amount of metal
particulates that have been showing up in
the recent oil analyses. To see a more thorough discussion of the oil-analysis issue, as
well as feedback from members, check the
Sweepstakes Logbook blog (http://blog.
aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/).
Believe it or not, folks, we’re nearing
the end of the Debonair’s restoration. Yes,
we’ll be keeping a close eye on any engine
issues, but once the final paint scheme has
been applied the job will be done! Then it
will be time to show off the Debonair in its
full glory. As always, stay tuned, and watch
the blog for the latest developments.

DAYS OF SCRUBBING the

interior skins with rubber
gloves, Scotch-Brite pads,
and lacquer thinner pay off
big time when the skins come
clean (above). Eventually all of
the interior skins, including the
belly (left) turned out flawless,
and with no corrosion. For a
50-year-old airplane, that’s
remarkable.

Three ways to win
one of 76 prizes in
AOPA’s Debonair
Sweepstakes
Join or renew AOPA
and you will be entered
to win AOPA’s Debonair
Sweepstakes. AOPA is
giving away a completely
restored 1963 Beechcraft
Debonair B33 with an
all-new ergonomic
interior, the latest
avionics, and up-to-date
airframe as the grand
prize. Plus, you could
also win one of 75 other
great aviation prizes. Visit
the website (www.aopa.
org/Membership/Sweeps.
aspx) for ways to enter.

EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

ON THE

WEB

FOLLOW Tom Horne’s sweepstakes blog (http://

blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/) for
updates on the renovation and related news.

http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/ http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/ http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Membership/Sweeps.aspx http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/ http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/ http://blog.aopa.org/sweepstakes_logbook/

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2013

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