Bonanza Makeover

About a year ago one of our regular customers brought his F33A Bonanza in for its annual inspection. In addition to the inspection, he wanted to do some major cleaning and cosmetic work himself. Normally, I am not a huge fan of owner assisted maintenance, but the owner of this plane goes above and beyond to make his airplane look and perform better. He is one of the exceptions to the rule.

A couple days into the inspection, he brings in this box with an assortment of silicone seals and gaskets. As I opened the box and sorted through all the “goodies”, I knew a lot of cleaning and prepping would be in my foreseeable future. The owner had that look in his eye, he was super excited to have the new seals installed.

As stated before, I started to get my tools together to start prepping for all the new seals, I knew this was going to be a super tedious job. Like a good paint job, the prep is 90 percent of the work. I organized all the seals into a logical order and set them aside for the time being.

Cleaning decades worth of grease, grime, and old glue was as much fun as could be expected, but it turned out real good. The cement that was sent with the kit was a 2-part kit. This cement is really good stuff. I almost want to just order some to have around, it is that good.

The instructions that come with the kit where very detailed and explained the installation process in-depth. This particular kit contained about every seal imaginable on the exterior of the aircraft and included chaff-seals that a Bonanza originally did not come from the factory with. The finished product turned out really great! My only concern was the durability of the product, how would it hold up after two to three hundred hours of flight and the environment of coastal Virginia?

Fast forward a year, my concerns about the durability of the seals seemed to be a non-issue. The seals held up much better than expected and all of them are still adhered to the exterior surface. Below are some pics of several of the seals after a year.

The wing root seals where a bit of a bear to install, but they held up great along with the rest of the seals. In addition to the seals, the owner purchased some other cosmetic accessories like the Beechcraft non-skid logo on his boarding step and a new silicone intake duct.

I asked the owner where he purchased this kit from, it truly is an all-inclusive for a seal kit. I was impressed with the quality and layout of everything. It was purchased from Gee Bee Aeropoducts. The owner of Gee Bee is a gentleman named Guy Ginby. He is pretty well-known in the Beechtalk forums and the American Bonanza Society. I recommend Gee Bee’s products if you are looking to spruce up your Bonanza a little or give it a full make-over!

Sammy