Warbird Information Exchange

A gentleman on the east coast contacted me looking for information on Texans. He's looking to beg, buy or borrow steel parts (or perhaps an unserviceable salvage/wreckage) to do some non destructive testing. If anyone has a pile of T6 wreckage, particularly the steel rollover cage, motor mount and gear legs that they want to either let this guy inspect, or sell to him outright, it would be for a worthy cause. If you know of salvage, insurance, restoration or other sources where he might look, I would greatly appreciate passing that information on to me by post or PM. He's been trying to join WIX, but for some reason his computer or the servers won't give him access. Hopefully he'll get on board soon and chime in himself.

Thanks!
Matt

With a copy of the structural repair manual he should be able to identify all the tubing sizes and gauges. From there he can go to any retailer of 4130 seamless tubing and get representative samples. Aircraft Spruce & Specialty comes to mind as an example. They will sell tubing by the foot. The specifications really haven't changed since WW2.

Now if he is looking for "seasoned" WW2 vintage tubing or specifically tubing actually used by North American Aviation, that is a different story. Old tubing may have corrosion or fatigue accumulation that would change the material characteristics.