Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Possible Purchase with Corrosion and Radios

Old radios, but reliable! The Nav 121's and 122's still pull a respectable price on Ebay. I like the "component" approach to a panel. If a com radio fails, you don't loose half your nav capabilities while it's in the shop (or vice versa). The ADF and DME are still very useable, and later the space can house a respectable GPS.

Is that ALL the corrosion you found, or just a representative worst example? How old is the paint? It looks like filiform corrosion under the paint, which started at the edges of the metal. Quite common, and easily repairable, if not allowed to progress. Your real worry is where you can't readily see it, such as the wing spars or carry through spars in the cockpit, or stabilizer spar.

The radios give you good capability, but are old, and don't add much to the value. The corrosion (if that's all there is) is light, and not a deal breaker if confined to small areas that can be touched up. Similar corrosion throughout will require stripping, treating, and repainting (big bucks). You do need an impartial mechanic experienced on 150's to do an annual (or at least a detailed pre-buy) before anything is signed or money changes hands. Emphasize your concerns about corrosion.

Are you satisfied with the aircraft's price, history, logbooks, total times, etc.? Have you done your homework and know what to look for?

The folks on this forum have all been through it and will be glad to advise!

Tim:

I can tell you from recent experience that Carl is on the money when he says that it is not what you see, but what you don't. Look at the "New Plane" in this forum if you want to see a nightmare.

Some advice...set your priorities to buy in this order: 1) Safety, 2) Performance & Past Maintenance; and, 3) Beauty.

Copy every page in the logs or take them home and put each entry into Excel and then re-examine what you have. Look for long down times, missing entries, excessive times between required maintenance, and AD compliance. Assume that many of the entries are lies just to give you some wiggle room.

At least have the seller pop off the wing tips and look inside with a flashlight and see if you like the view.

I am particularly anal and had everything replaced. I should have been more anal at pre-buy. Also, never assume anything on an airplane is inexpensive, even buttons for your comms.

Good Luck.

[color:"red"] Truer words have NEVER been spoken.[/color]

Be anal. VERY anal. Even if it means being an as****e.

No kidding. Seriously. I wish I was.