Rebuild of the CAF's P-51C By Request

[Warbirdnerd]

With the creation of the maintenance hanger, I decided to put together a tread showing the work done on the CAF’s P-51C By Request.
As many of you are aware it was heavily damaged in a crash at an airshow in Red Wing Minnesota in May of 2004. This crash took the life of pilot Don Hinz. The airplane is in North Dakota being rebuilt. The Fuselage is in Wahpeton at Tri-State Aviation and the wings are in Kindred at Odegaard Wing Inc. I am part of a crew of volunteers that drive to Wahpeton from the Minneapolis-St Paul area to work on the plane about once a month. I did not take pictures every trip (dumb I Know), but here is a smattering of shots to show the progress so far.

My first trip up to tri-state to work on the C model was 12/18/04.
We worked on mounting the wing in a stand so we could begin removing the landing gear, hydraulic lines, wiring, brackets etc.




January 8, 2005.


The Fuselage was in the jig, here is John B. checking out Tri-State’s amazing work


Tony P. under careful supervision beginning his little wiring project:


February 5th, 2005.
The Fuselage was out of the jig, Mark T and Neil P pose by their fine work:


Steve K. and John B. attaching the fuselage to the tail section.


Gerry Beck designed the Hinz filter to give Mustang operators more warning if the Merlin is making metal. This is the one Tri-State installed on the P-51D Little Horse.


8/27/05:
More progress on the fuselage

Prepping the wings for rebuild




This shot from 3/25/06 shows some progress on the fuselage, but does not show the many “goodies” that have been re-installed:



MORE TO COME

[Warbirdnerd]

Progress as of 10/21/06.








John and Neil working on the windscreen: (Some of these were taken by Tony P)


Tony still working on his ‘little’ wiring project.



Steve installing the trim jack:




MORE TO COME

[Warbirdnerd]

9/22/07-A big day for the project sending the wing to OWI:
Ace Forklift pilot Mark T. maneuvering the wing onto the trailer.








Eric, Mark, John & Steve securing the wing parts to the trailer for the trip North to Kindred.





Work Progressing on the Fuselage:

Last edited by Warbirdnerd on Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Warbirdnerd]

1/26/08
The rebuild of the canopy framing and lower fuselage has begun:
The Office:

Left side:

The landing gear ready for reassembly even though the Cat did not like giving up this spot:

One of my jobs for the day was to reassemble the lord mounts:

Steve (Slick), John, and Mark reassembling the landing gear:

The engine mounts are back from OWI.
Mark was kind enough to paint them yesterday so we could attach them today.
Eric, Tony, Mark and John prepping the mount:

Mark tightening the bolts:

There would have been far fewer Mustangs produced if I’d have been in charge of installing these 12 bolts on the engine mounts at the North American factory. The forward most 4 are agonizingly just out of fingertip reach:

It is really starting to look like a Mustang now!

[Warbirdnerd]

3/30/08
The Red Tail Has a Red Nose:


Check back for updates

[MKD1966]

Bryan,
WOW, hats off to everyone involved... She is looking great... With all that new skin has there been any thought of polishing the fuselage ? Just curious as it's gonna be a beauty either way !!!
Keep up the great work, Mike

[JohnTerrell]

Thank you Bryan for starting this thread, and I look forward to seeing further updates! You mention that you and several other volunteers drive up from the St. Paul-Minneapolis area to volunteer once a month...do you car pool or do you all go individually?

[Django]

Has it really been four years?

Looking really really nice! Can't wait to see her completed.

[Warbirdnerd]

Thanks Everyone.
It is hard to believe it has been 4 years
Stringing all these old pictures together has really helped show our progress.
I can't stress enough how the generosity of the Beck Family and Everyone at Tri-State Aviation have made this all possible.

As far as the finish goes- from what I hear the plan is to finish the Red Tail as it was, with maybe a very subtle change. Polishing it would be cool, but we need a finish that is easier to maintain.

John- We carpool and some of us drive solo.

We are hoping I'll be able to post a picture like this one during the summer of 2009.

[Jim MacDonald]

Bryan,

Thanks for starting this thread, I'm looking forward to following the progress. Kudos to everybody involved.

Mac

[JOHN MILLER]

I am new to your site but I am impressed. I have seen a few warbirds being restored myself, a D model mustang, a B25J and many others that are in static display with the museum I belong to in NO. CA. I read a few notes about the feelings about static displays, and I agree to a certain degree. Our museum consists of manly LOANED airplanes from the govt. they are ours as long as we don't try to fly or even start them. BUT, we allow the public to sit in all of our planes that have a complete cockpit. We have a F-16 is as far as we know is the only one that the public has a chance to climb aboard. Thats about it, thanks for a great site again and good luck on RED TAIL.
JOHN

[retroaviation]

Fantastic array of pictures Bryan! Thanks for posting. Now, you just need to keep the updates going! We love it!!!

Gary

[retroaviation]

Another double post.

Gary

[John Beyl]

Bryan,
WOW, hats off to everyone involved... She is looking great... With all that new skin has there been any thought of polishing the fuselage ? Just curious as it's gonna be a beauty either way !!!
Keep up the great work, Mike

Mike,

Although a fair amount of the skins were replaced, a lot of the old originals remain so polishing is not really an option unless you like the patchwork quilt look. I like the look of a polished airplane but in the end, it's just way more work (Time consuming) than it's worth, especially if the airplane ends up flying as much as it did in the past. The paint scheme will remain the same albeit with one correction and one minor change just to see if folks are paying attention! See how we are?

Bryan is right on about the Beck families contribution to the project. The Red Tail Project would still be on square one if it wasn't for them. If the right words exist to properly express that kind of "thank you", I'm not aware of them.

John

[DougR]

Thanks Everyone.

We are hoping I'll be able to post a picture like this one during the summer of 2009.

Now guys........

That would be SPRING of '09!

Tailwinds,

Doug Rozendaal