2nd happiest day of airplane ownership.

The nails do like to back out of the wood spars if you're pulling Gs. And they seem to do it regardless with enough age. That's the only downside I've seen.
Ah, screw it! :p
 
IMHO, the wood spars are superior to the metals ones. I'd keep 'em if they're in good shape.

Wood spars are not inherently bad or weak. It's easily arguable they are better than metal and stronger. The problem is that most wrenches (and pilots) no longer know how properly to inspect wood.

On the east coast, there's a shop at Pottstown, PA - Pasquale Aviation - who specialize in this kinda thing. There's another shop, I believe, in TX that also does but the name escapes me at the moment.

If they're in good shape, yeah keep em, because a new set of spars/wings as a turn-key solution from ACA is around $28K which is anywhere from 30-50% of the value of a lot of Bellanca Citabrias.

The Bellanca-Champion club did a really interesting and detailed analysis of what compression fractures look like and where in the wing they're most likely to happen. Fascinating reading and discussion of how the thing is put together and what can happen.
 
On the east coast, there's a shop at Pottstown, PA - Pasquale Aviation - who specialize in this kinda thing. There's another shop, I believe, in TX that also does but the name escapes me at the moment.

If they're in good shape, yeah keep em, because a new set of spars/wings as a turn-key solution from ACA is around $28K which is anywhere from 30-50% of the value of a lot of Bellanca Citabrias.

The Bellanca-Champion club did a really interesting and detailed analysis of what compression fractures look like and where in the wing they're most likely to happen. Fascinating reading and discussion of how the thing is put together and what can happen.
some spar tests
 
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