Adventures In Baffle Seal Land! (Long)

Annuals Complete, IA was happy with my baffle repairs. I learned allot about
riveting, spacing, and collected a bunch of new tools necessitating the
purchase of a vary large roll around tool box and 2 stage air compressor
24cfm 150psi hahaha...

Now to the baffle seal part:

I removed the baffles from the engine, the seals were in bad shape
deterioration was 100% unacceptable and crumbling they were stapled on took
some time to get them off off the sheet metal non salvageable for templates.

Used 2" scotch bright pads with a air Powered DA necessitating the purchase
a much larger air compressor 2 stage 80 gallon to clean up the aluminum
had some surface corrosion and some cracks and ware marks (combing) Obtained
some pieces of scrap aluminum from Horizon air's scrap pile (dumpster diving
again shame on me!) Got a 8" X 7" and a 5 " X 12" was more then enough
material to do the repairs to the baffles and have lots of extra.

A&P gives me tool list, Snap-on truck and Sears I was bound. Some $$ and
more tools than on the list Later I returned to a stack of papers explaining
riveting and patching techniques and a note, Have fun see you in a day or
so! Well I guess I did o.k. no complaints on my fab'd parts, patches, and
cuts.

I Went on a hunt for some zinc chromate primer hahaha have fun found a local
paint store with a 2 part zinc chromate so it was back to the tool store for
a paint gun and compressor supplies.

Baffling is primed and painted(Generic White)

Grabbed a roll of baffle seal material and misc attachment hardware springs
etc from local store Columbia Airmotive very helpful people.

I get back and unroll it say phuck-it this is not going to look good and be
very time consuming. I did a few Internet searches and ordered from
enginebaffles.com had it shipped 2nd day with Saturday delivery. Decided
cutting them my self without good templates was not such a good idea did not
take me long to find that out it would be to time consuming. The cost was
133.00 + shipping about $32.00.

I awoke to Fedex knocking on the door I answered in my boxers and wife
beater (normal lounging attire) with the sleep still in my eyes I open the
box to see these blue silicon seals. The Coffee is on! Wife is getting
excited she can have her kitchen back in a few hours (I am evil).

I was thinking? (Happens every now and then...)I grabbed a large sheet of
hard card board and a very fin point sharpie my wife is giving me strange
looks as i lay on the floor like a kid with a new toy and my boy says he
wants to help looks like fun :-) well we traced and cut out every piece on
hard cardboard for future templates just in case.... Well they got used by a
friend with sheet of Cowl Saver cut him some baffle seals.

The problems.... Nothing major some pre-drilled holes not in the right spot
(left out of template)and one piece to short by 1/4 inch extended on my
template. No instructions but after some playing with (back to tool store)
clamps was able to figure out riveting order and we to together with ease
1/8" solid rivet's..

The Reinstall.

Simple, Cowling install was a bit more difficult sealed a lot better. And
all new hardware springs etc. The cowl saver material he is using looks like
it will be a better fit...

Was a very fun project....learning experience.... and lots of new fun tools
:-)

Now I need to fly this bird a bit more...... This year....

So anyone needs a template's for a late model 150 with prop spacer I have
them and will make or loan you them to you If I had to do it again I would
use cowl saver material easier to work with rather then silicone.