Fabric, paint, upgrades and engine

[andy]

My 1986 MX7-180 has been hangared since 1998 when I purchased it. It had 1,242 hours when I bought it. The fabric was in fairly good shape but the paint was cracked in a number of places. I tried several different techniques to repair cracked spots but nothing worked well enough. The seam tape started to come loose on the horizontal stabilizer in 2009 so I decided it was time to re-fabric and paint.

In 2010 Maule Flight completely rebuilt my airplane except for removal of the instrument panel and engine. They replaced the fabric and painted the airplane with DuPont Imron rather than the original Sherwin Williams acrylic enamel with flex agent. The Imron cost me $1,000 more but it has lasted 10 years with no cracking, fading or chalking. It cost me $35,000 to re-fabric and paint my airplane in 2010 but Maule Flight did a very good job. I had them do a lot of other things to the airplane during the 7 month re-build, such as: new interior, new style door and window latches, front observer doors, new style fuel selector, vortex generators, dual tail struts, seaplane lift rings, welded-on seaplane rear float attachment points. Maule Flight also replaced all hardware that needed it.

I had a major overhaul done on the engine and a new Hartzell 76-inch propeller installed in 2004. I put 4 new Superior Millenium cylinders on the engine during the overhaul (not the problem serial numbered ones that came out later). I haven't regretted the cylinders. They run cooler CHTs than the Lycomings and my compressions are all still above 72 sixteen years later. The next time spark plugs need replacement I may go with fine-wire plugs but so far the regular plugs have lasted very well.