Introducing Bettie - Original '55 Blue Interior

[skifire42]

Hi all,

First post from a longtime reader, but relatively new member. Last spring, my dad and I bought Bettie, 4489B. My dad has owned several 140s and a 170 in the past and through him, I've become a bit of a Cessna originality fanatic. I've spent more than a few evenings looking through the forums for pictures of original 170 interiors and paint schemes and old brochures.

Anyway, Bettie is a very original 1900 hour '55 170 from West Virginia, that we've brought out to New York. She still has her original paint scheme, upholstery, instruments, generator, starter, and goodyear brakes. Her trim plate number is 5-B-3-CE (maroon paint, blue/grey interior, tan and blue paint). I had never seen the original blue/grey interior before and figured I'd share some photos (I believe the panel cover should be blue instead of maroon and the blue vinyl at the base of the front seats has been added). She needs some cleaning up and some polishing , but in a few years we hope to have her looking like she did in 1955.

Also, interestingly 4489B was the Wings with Springs 170, I'll write up another post on that in a bit.

Thanks for your help in the past with questions I've answered through old posts,
And in advance as I'm sure more questions as we dive into this restoration,
Ryan Harris

[johneeb]

Ryan, nice unmolested 170, Bettie is a Beauty!

[Ryan Smith]

What do you need to restore?

Gorgeous bird! I'm assuming she hasn't had too many owners in her life. Also, I'm surprised that it was delivered with maroon trim and blue interior. I wonder if it was a custom order?

[VFR52170B]

Wow!!! That looks incredible. Any more photos would be quickly absorbed!

- Joseph

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

It's all wrong. They used Oak for the panel overlay.

Very nice Ryan. Thanks for sharing. You can not take enough pictures of every detail from decals to just plain old rivets. Close ups of fabric showing the weave, anything and every thing. In fact I'd love to include your collection in our library of examples. This is one area we are sorely lacking as the old timers remembered what this looked like. Also please share any modern paint formulas you might have done along the way. This stuff is getting harder to find than hens teeth.

I would have never thought maroon would have been delivered with blue interior either. Very nice.

[cessna170bdriver]

What do you need to restore?

Gorgeous bird! I'm assuming she hasn't had too many owners in her life. Also, I'm surprised that it was delivered with maroon trim and blue interior. I wonder if it was a custom order?

I'm guessing that the paint scheme is original but not the paint itself?

[skifire42]

Thanks everybody!

The maroon trim with blue and grey interior was a standard available combination per the parts manual, and is original on 4489B based on the trim data tag. The paint was redone by the previous owner, but we were told it is a decent match to the original.

In '55 Cessna expanded their paint and interior trim options. There were 4 exterior paint colors (maroon, green, turquoise, or chartreuse (I'd love to see what that last one looked like!). And there were two interior trim options (blue/grey or orange/tan). Supposedly, you could get any combination of the 4 paint trims and 2 interior trims as standard. N2935D is a great example of the turquoise paint with orange/tan interior, and played a big role in inspiring us to get Bettie. I'm sure custom options were available as well for a price.

We thought the maroon with blue/grey interior was odd as well, but when we thought about it more, maroon with an orange/tan interior would probably be even weirder. I attached a picture of the orange/tan seats out of '35D for comparison.

Interesting to me is that on the orange and tan seat, material from the door and side panels is reused as the primary seat fabric (I've seen other examples of the orange seat that look like this as well), while on the blue/grey seat an entirely different material with vertical striping is used (matching the '55 brochure page that I also attached).

I've attached the last few good shots I have. The carpet is missing but there are a couple swatches of it left that are a blue/grey color. Bruce, you're welcome to add any pictures to the library. Eventually I'll spend a day getting some good detail shots of the decals, unfaded bits of fabric, etc. We'll be taking lots of pictures as we go, particularly when we repair anything original.

-Ryan

[170C]

That's a nice looking '55 Hope to see it at a convention one of these days.

1955 Exterior Color Options---------What, no RED What do ya think George Guess they just knew it wasn't fast enough so red was dropped Seriously, I am shocked that red wasn't an option. I though all aircraft mfg's offered red as an option.

[170C]

Thanks for the info. Didn't want George to have an attack

[170C]

Haven't seen many chartreuse colored airplanes. Must not have been very popular. Also may have resulted in such fast speeds that Cessna had to delete it as an option

[GAHorn]

Thanks for the info. Didn't want George to have an attack

RED was offered as an exterior color EVERY YEAR the 170 was produced! (Unlike Green, which was offered only 5 out of 8 years.... Guess it was a S L O W seller.)

[DWood]

Ryan:
Does you Dad still have the green 140?
It will be nice to see the 170 at OSH.
It looks really nice.
Dan Wood

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Thanks for the info. Didn't want George to have an attack

RED was offered as an exterior color EVERY YEAR the 170 was produced! (Unlike Green, which was offered only 5 out of 8 years.... Guess it was a S L O W seller.)

Or they couldn't keep enough GREEN paint in stock as it flew out the door.

[GAHorn]

Thanks for the info. Didn't want George to have an attack

RED was offered as an exterior color EVERY YEAR the 170 was produced! (Unlike Green, which was offered only 5 out of 8 years.... Guess it was a S L O W seller.)

Or they couldn't keep enough GREEN paint in stock as it flew out the door.

It's good to know that Joe Harris is still around...

[skifire42]

Hi Dan,

Yea, my dad still has the 140. We hope to get it "finished" before we dive too far into the 170, so it may be a couple years before the 170 makes it out to Oshkosh. She'll be there some day though.

Ryan