Found a set of spare rudder pedals on eBay for cheap so that I could refurbrish them without taking my existing units out of service.

Although there are several methods of spiffying them up, I chose to powder coat the set of four since they are fairly easy to do (for me anyways – spent about a day on them).

To get them off, you’ll have to assume the “Grumman Position” and remove a cotter pin and washer at the pivot point as well as the connection to the brake reservoir. Since these qualify as Flight Controls, consult with your local A&P prior to removing/refurbishing them to make sure you are legal to do this as an owner-assist type of thing – otherwise, have your A&P take them off/install them.

Well, with that out of the way, let’s have a look at what they looked like more or less “out of the used parts bin”, albeit cleaned with soap and water first:

Right side is shown as-received, left side has been masked with hi-temp tape for powder coating to keep the coating off of the raised portions:

After powder coating in a high-gloss black, here is what it looks like out of the oven with the mask removed:

and the back-sides also done for corrosion protection:

They look fine, but thought I’d throw them in the laser engraver and really jazz them up a bit:

variances in the lettering are due to the lighting although I really wish I had taken the dremel and wire-wheel-polished the areas under the lettering to really make it stand out. Never intended on engraving them so lesson learned!

A few more…

and

So there you are. If you’re looking for a project on a lazy Saturday, then have a look at your rudder pedals and see if a can of Krylon, a little masking or even powder coating might spruce them up a bit.

Just because our aircraft are 40+ years old doesn’t mean they can’t be jazzed up a bit!

Tracy Norris
AA5A – N9683U