Free 1956 C-172, is it worth the price?

Why are pilot so negative:mad2:
The plane is FREE, it can'"t get any better then that.
 
You know guys aren't most hobbies something you never really get what you pay for in return monetarily? The way I see it it would be like restoring an old car. You do a ground up/frame off resto and in the end it's still not worth as much as you put into it. Well, unless you have a numbers matching car perhaps. However you get my idea.
 
There is no such thing as a free lunch.If anything I would part it out and spend my money on an older bird that someone has already done the work to,with maybe some updated avionics.
 
I got a free jet ski once. One of the old stand-up skis. It was seized. $250 in parts/machine shop to get a fresh top end in there. I rode it frequently for 3 years and sold for $500. Came out way ahead there.
 
KeithASanford said:
If I had the space, I'd keep it. Talk about your learning experiences. It would be like a medical student having his own cadaver in his dorm room. :yes:

Besides, I'm kinda sweet on straight tail 172s. I'd keep it if it turns out to be nothing but a lawn ornament on my property. With my last name, I've got junk in my DNA anyway.
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:yeahthat:
 
Let us say you did a complete restoration, and invested $30k, how long at the regular rental rate will it require to recoup your money?

don't forget to deduct the money when you sell.

The other consideration is the oooh and ahh factor you get when you go to flyins. what is that worth?
 
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Back 25 years or so I wanted a vintage 182 that would get me priority parking at OSH, Merced, Watsonville, and all those shows. Found one (literally) in a farmer's field with (literally) chickens roosting in the back seat and wings off and stored in the barn rafters. Knock in the engine. Paint total trash.

Bought it for $5k with 900 smoh on the engine, but hadn't been run for ten years. Did the old Marvel Oil in the cylinders for 24 hours (per cylinder) soak trick, had a Navy painter that wanted to make a few bucks on the side rig up a paint booth in the hangar with plastic visqueen type sheeting, fans, and all the rest of it to paint and corrosion-control the entire airframe (which by this time had been totally stripped of any and all interior/exterior stuff.

Spent the next year on seats, headliner, carpet, and every nut and bolt on the airplane removed, and either plated, chromated, or replaced.

Every Christmas Snarly Charlie gets a new toy. Be it strobes (last CHristmas), oxygen (a few years ago), GPS, and all the rest of it.

Now that was my fun. THat may not be your fun. But it was rewarding as hell, knowing that even Wichita couldn't turn out a better product. And yes, the N-number was a creation that I couldn't have gotten any other way. 2-meter rig plumbed into the audio panel for headsets with antenna in the plastic wingtips.

Forgot to say: My widow is the only person who will ever sell that airplane.
 

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I've got a '75 Bronco that my wife bought me while I was deployed to Iraq. She paid about $4k for it and gave me a budget of $6k to buy stuff for it. I've cut rusted panels out and welded new ones in, sprayed the interior with bedliner, lifted it, painted it, and installed power brakes on it. I've completely rewired the electrical system in it, installed a much larger gas tank on it, and added a rollbar. Did all the work on it myself. I've put maybe 3000 miles on it in 6 years and I'm probably $15k into it yet it's worth about $9k. It's been in my garage 2 months getting an upgraded power steering pump put on it.

Toys are expensive, but in my opinion, working on them is therapy. Monetarily they don't make a lot of sense, but they can be great for your soul. Now, if I could just find someone to trade it for an RV or Sportsmen or some other 2+ seat airplane kit, I'd be in heaven!
 
Oh, almost forgot a pic of my little Tonka truck...
 

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pbramlett said:
I'd take it. Put it in the backyard tied down and let my kids fly the **** out of it.
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What a cool idea!

I would have loved to have something like that as a kid. I was always playing with, and taking apart, old things like lawnmower motors, etc. My Dad worked at the "electric company" (the local municipality where I grew up, which also covered the electric company) and I was always begging him to bring home old traffic lights, parking meters, and all kinds of odd things for me to play with.

To have a plane in the back yard...OMG. That would have provided years of fun to a kid. Can you imagine being a kid and telling your friends, "Hey, wanna come over and play in MY PLANE?"
 
weirdjim said:
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Forgot to ask ... if anybody has a '58 pickemup truck of any brand I'm in the market for a basketcase so I can paint to match, gut, and rebuild.

Got lots of older radios to swap if you prefer those to pictures on green paper of old dead men.

Jim
 
I'll take it - donate to a local community college that has an A&P program and deduct $20,000 of my taxes . .. .
 
weirdjim said:
Now that was my fun. THat may not be your fun. But it was rewarding as hell, knowing that even Wichita couldn't turn out a better product. And yes, the N-number was a creation that I couldn't have gotten any other way. 2-meter rig plumbed into the audio panel for headsets with antenna in the plastic wingtips.

Forgot to say: My widow is the only person who will ever sell that airplane.
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I love that N-number. Nice touch.

73

N6TPT
 
KeithASanford said:
If I had the space, I'd keep it. Talk about your learning experiences. It would be like a medical student having his own cadaver in his dorm room. :yes:

Besides, I'm kinda sweet on straight tail 172s. I'd keep it if it turns out to be nothing but a lawn ornament on my property. With my last name, I've got junk in my DNA anyway.
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Lol, there's a rancher in N.TX with a corroded C-170 as a lawn ornament. One of our customers had an engine failure and landed on the road in front of his house with a 172. He was super nice, drove some t-posts for tie downs, we worked in his front yard for a couple days swapping out an engine, his wife fed and watered us. When I was about to fly it out and bring it to the airport he said "I'm gonna miss having that here, I kinda liked it" I told him I'd bring him a replacement. So I brought out an old 170 that was corroded beyond economic recovery and we stuck the wings back on it as a lawn ornament.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Yes, definitely not worried about pretty. Safe and useable is priority.

Any estimates on cost of Annual INSPECTION (with goal of inspecting and generating a ToDo list on just the airframe)?
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The last annual i had on a Cherokee was $600 for the inspection and oil change plus oil and filter. Everything else cost extra.

You might think about this project more as a way of getting your airframe or power plant license and then just start by one system at a time and inspect and repair as needed. It could take the 18 months that you need to get a sing off to take the A or P license.

At the end of such a project you could end up with an Excellent condition airplane and an Airframe license. 12 more months and you can get the power plant to boot.

I personally do not enjoy working on these sorts of projects but there is more to this than just the Vref of a 1956 172. Not to mention if you did it right you wouild end up with a 2014 Refurbished Cessna 172 which in my book can be quite different than a 1956 Vref.

I am feeling a bit emotional today but we got to consider whether we are caretakers of classic Americana with our aircraft. Are we museum keepers, rest orators, in addition to aviators?

Aviation in America is changing and maybe we need to change too.
 
Brad Z said:
It would be nice to actually see an older Cessna restored to style appropriate to it's vintage. A stock '56 172 would be pretty neat to have, even if it is still only a $25k plane when all is said and done.

Of course, there's no such thing as free. Ask around...there are plenty of "free" boats out there...
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I own a 1972 Lemans with a 400 engine and 350 turbo trannie (same as GTO). Depending on its restoration it could be worth from $15k as a driver to $45k as a collector.

At what point does our aircraft become the same kind of thing?
 
Shepherd said:
A wise man once said of free (old) airplanes "It's worth exactly what you paid for it, but it will never be worth what you put into it."
That being said it might be a great learning experience. Sort of like Harvard, but with no degree after all your money is spent.
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That only looks at the balance sheet and vref.

How about the satisfaction of doing a good job on refurbishing it? Or the 1000s of hours his family can enjoy once they have got it air worthy? What if it is not that bad to bring back to life and he is able to fly and use it while he completes the restoration? Or uses that experience to take his A&P license.

Its a better use of our time than beer and football games.
 
steingar said:
I'd' probably do it on the proviso that I authorize a wings off restoration and I keep the airplane for a long time. Yeah, I'll be in for way more than the aircraft is worth, but way less than a new Cessna.
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I was at an airshow two weeks ago and an old, old 172 was freshly restored and it shined above all the other aircraft.....couldn't take your eyes off of it. Nothing special with fancy avionics just a back to factory complete restoration with some zinc anatizing the inside aluminum and good classic paint job the owner did himself. The pride showed through like being at a Model T club meeting.
 
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