I saw one get "flipped" by an unscrupulous acquaintance about a decade ago.
I don't think he realized how bad it was until he dug into the project. And
he was an A&P.

This airplane had a rotten wiring harness (the original cloth covered
wires). It had corrosion through some of the magnesium surfaces (a little
bondo and paint fixed that right up). It also had a fair amount of
corrosion elsewhere, had an engine the guy frankensteined together, and had
several other firewall forward issues that were fixed in the cheapest baling
wire and duct tape manner possible. The one good thing he did was to
replace some of the attach fittings for the fixed portion of the V tail.
Lots of corrosion there.

Based on what I saw with that airplane, you need to make sure the wiring had
been replaced. I'd check the magnesium surfaces VERY closely. If they have
been painted recently, I'd walk away. Also, I'd check the stabilizer attach
fittings very carefully.

And I'd do a heck of a pre-buy inspection beyond that.

Also, I'd make sure the airplane hadn't been a hangar queen or ramp queen
for the last decade. Sitting out on the ramp and not flying much, if any,
probably tells you that an airplane probably hasn't seen much TLC recently.

KB



"Jim Carter" wrote in message
t...
What should a Cessna / Piper / Commander driver look out for on the
original '47 BE35 (and I don't mean performance wise)? Where are some of
the corners to be avoided? What special attention needs to be paid to the
airframe? I'm looking at the ABS site now, but could use some additional
input.

--
Jim Carter
Rogers, Arkansas