After moving the Swift to The Aeroplane Factory in Gardnerville, NV it was stored "out back" until June, 1998 when the restoration was started. At that time we moved a 26' travel trailer to the site and started work.
The Swift was stripped of its paint, engine and other appendages. Everything was checked for corrosion or hidden damage and all was found to be in very good condition. This could be attributed to the dry climate in the Southern California desert. Of course being painted helped although the painting made the polishing more difficult.
We did discover an excellent way to strip the bottom of the fuselage and the wheel wells. This stripping project took a long time and was difficult due to the dirt oil and paint involved. Besides it was a nasty job. Visible in the photo are two of my grandson helpers, Philip & Eric
By December of 1998 we had part of the Swift polished and the newly remanufactured Lycoming O-360-A1A engine and the baffling installed. Yes, that really is snow on the ground.
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We replaced the original instrument panel with a flat panel and added several instruments and radios. The completed instrument panel in the picture was ready for installation. The panel is overlaid with Rowmark reverse engraved plastic material and the instruments and the lettering are all lit by a fiber optic lighting system. |
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