Pacer restoration, one area at each year

Pacer42Z

SPONSOR
Winchester, VA
I started the restoration of my Pacer in 2020 after 21 years of ownership. In 2020 I restored all metal firewall forward and in 2021 I did the same from the doorpost forward to the firewall, refurbished or replaced the metal on the belly and also installed all new windows. In 2022 I did the left wing (Recovering the left wing on my Pacer (shortwingpipers.org)) and in 2023 the right wing (Recovering the right wing on my Pacer (shortwingpipers.org)).
This week I started to take care of the doors. The doors came off after I returned from Sun & Fun and I will reskin and repaint them. So, it will be a relatively short project this year. I was also going to do the tail, but I will have to wait until we know what comes out of the rudder post AD.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z
 

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Juergen,

Was wondering how your trip to Sun N Fun went this year. Any videos from your trip coming out? Enjoy seeing what you will restore next. Any consideration to doing something like a seaplane or patrol door and just covering with lexan? Would that be difficult to do?

Greg
 
Greg, I didn't shoot a video this time. I already have two or three Sun & Fun videos on my channel. After a while they all look the same. However, I did make the 711 NM none stop this year from OKV (Winchester, VA) to LAL in 5 hours 41 minutes and still had 11 gallons of fuels left in the left main tank.

I'm not doing anything special to the doors. I like the original look. I'm just reskinning the doors with fresh aluminum panels and repaint to make them look like new. Of course, you never know what you find on a 64-year-old airplane. I knew my front door had some corrosion on the front bottom corner and I fixed that. However, when I wire brushed the rear passenger door I found that someone "fixed" some corrosion on the doorframe using bondo to fill the holes.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z

Picture 1: Bondo in the door frame
Picture 2: Front door fixed with the part I cut out
Picture 3: New door skin going on
 

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You've talked about one legging it down to Sun N Fun in the past. Pretty awesome you made it this time. Not sure I have the bladder to accomplish that far of a distance. The restoration is looking great. Understand about the original look of the doors. Great catch on the bond filler and the repair. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Greg
 
I also enjoy watching you progress. I am pleased to
see that you haven’t found any big ugly surprises.
Your videos are really good-I just watched your
Hudson River night flight again (4th time I’ve seen it)

AL
 
I have made a lot of progress. The new door skins are done, and everything is primed. The door frames and interior trim pieces are painted smoke gray, and the door skins are painted in Daytona White. Today I spent some considerable time masking off the red stripe on all the doors plus the "Z" on the baggage door. I hope to be flying again by the end of the week.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z
 

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I agree, it will be the biggest part of the project. I hope to get it done within six months. My plan is to get the fuselage powder coated, but my mechanic is not so much a fan of powder coating. He is afraid that cracks will be hidden under the powder coating in the future. I think these days all the manufacturers like Maule, Husky and all the different versions of Super Cubs use powder coating. However, he is the one signing the logbook.

Juergen
Pacer N3342Z
 
How many cracks have you found? If you get a crack the fabric is going to start working and tell you. I am not a powder coating fan but only because I see where they don't get it and I can get epoxy primer and catalyzed polyurethane.
 
I had mine powder coated, and I did not find any missed spots. They also did a pre top coat zink primer. Very happy with the results. There were no cracks that needed to be repaired after blasting for what it's worth.
 
I find a lot of light areas in corners and edge on flat Sheetmetal pieces on powder coated fuselages. Worst is up under float fittings where there is a Vee.
 
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