The International Cessna 170 Association

Attached are some photos of damage to my rudder and elevator caused went the main tail wheel broke.
I am looking for current information on a source for the skins.

Carl

Here's one source: http://www.aircraftnorthwest.com/ (This is Karl Anderson who has been selling corrugated skins for a long time with happy customers.)

McFarlane, Spruce, and Univair also can help you.

The price for the rudder skins has actually come down since George wrote about it here in 2009. The left lower skin is p/n 0533000-14 and the right lower skin is p/n 0533000-15. Yingling is selling them for just over $50 each. If I was replacing the skins I'd try and get them undrilled. It looks like adding an "S" to the end of the part number indicates "undrilled". I wonder if that is true for all skins? I bought my aileron skins from Karl at Aircraft Northwest and was very pleased with the service and quality of his work. I see another alternative is RJ Dauhn Aircraft.

The lower right elevator skin is p/n 0534101-4. $114 from Yingling.

Make sure your A&P reviews these instructions for installing corrugated skins if he/she doesn't do a lot of sheet metal work.

I had good luck getter the rudder and elevator skins from McFarlane when I was wanting to freshen up the tail feathers. Airframes by Williams in Indiana did the skinning and they returned better then new as now they are epoxy primed inside and polished outside.

Greetings,

Here is an update my rudder and elevator repair.
wheel spring - 103.75
bell crank - 332.37
rudder skins - 310.00
elevator skins - 543.36
paint - 264.63
remove and replace parts 300.00
new skins on rudder and elevator -- 6700
What you don't see is the cost of all new hardware, trim tab rod, travel, shipping, etc.
A lot of work want into cleaning up corrosion, stress cracks, and other issues.
Conclusion - you can buy a lot of wheel springs for the price of the repair. I am
going to make replacement a regular routine.

cvj774 wrote:Greetings,

Here is an update my rudder and elevator repair.
wheel spring - 103.75
bell crank - 332.37
rudder skins - 310.00
elevator skins - 543.36
paint - 264.63
remove and replace parts 300.00
new skins on rudder and elevator -- 6700
What you don't see is the cost of all new hardware, trim tab rod, travel, shipping, etc.
A lot of work want into cleaning up corrosion, stress cracks, and other issues.
Conclusion - you can buy a lot of wheel springs for the price of the repair. I am
going to make replacement a regular routine.

The Assoc'n recommendation based on a poll of owners who experienced failures (around 700) is to change the lowest/main spring every 500 hours or landings. You're correct...it's cheap insurance.

While we are replacing the skins of the rudder and elevator and springs ,we must also radius the edge of the new springs so they do not make a stress raiser on the bottom springs .