The wings are in really good shape after being covered for 50+ years and stored since then in the old barn lean to and for 40 in Doug’s building. Keeping them high and dry and out of the weather kept them in great shape.

With that said, it also kept any pest infestation to a minimum. I have found just a few mud dauber nests and one bird nest. None caused any corrosion.

Removed the wingtip and cleaned out the bird nest. Removed some corrosion from the rib and applied some zinc primer.

And just that quick the old fabric is coming off.

We tried the wings on for fit this morning. Sure does cause a stir in the neighborhood when there’s an airplane in the driveway.

They fit fine with no issues and after 50+ years they were back on the airplane, even if only for a short time.

Now I get to take off the old fabric and put on new.

Wanted to remove the bird stuff and 40+ years of dirt. They actually look really good under all the dirt. It’s too bad I have to remove the old fabric.

Probably the closest they’ve been in over 50 years. I will be mounting them in the airframe this weekend to make sure everything lines up so I will get lots of photos of them together again.

I brought the wings home on Sunday. It took a village, or family to get them down and load them. Well, it only took two people to actually load them but a bunch to get them down from the ceiling of the building after hanging there for 40 years.

I had some difficulty getting the circles around the instrument panel to be circles. Taping off with blue tape didn’t give me a “perfect” circle as you can see in some of my previous photos. So I designed some paint plugs to fit in snugly in the holes so I could paint them. I used my 3D printer to make enough to blank out the holes. I think it looks much better.

Have to make sure you have the correct nut behind the wheel.

I didn’t have the originals so I wasn’t sure if the correct size. It’s not listed in the parts manual or service manual. They are 3/8”-20 if anyone is interested.