F4U undercarriage placards

[greatgonzo]

You can see them sometimes as vertical rectangles starting with F4U-1D , placed on the front cover of the leg. On later versions there are even three of them. Have anybody seen the close ups of them, or drawings, or maybe learnt the text by heart?
I belive there were similar ones in the wheel wells too.

And what were they? Plastic stickers? Paper stickers?

Like here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kemon01/5059501434/sizes/l/in/set-72157624803623213/

[cco23i]

I alwyas thought they were painted on.

Scott

[RMAllnutt]

I believe they are painted on too. The Fleet Air Arm Museum's example had the original painted on in red. You should get Dave Morris's book to see the details. Like all things Corsair... they did vary a lot. I've seen plenty with no writing on them whatsoever. The markings do vary significantly from example to example. I guess it depends which factory run they come from, and also, what time they came from the production run. Templates did wear out, and they'd make new ones... often completely hand drawn. As an example, I've seen two drop tank switch placards which upon distant reflection looked identical, but when both were scanned, the only things that lined up were the mouting holes, and the indentations for the switch positions. The lettering, while it looked the same, was way off (in position, letter spacing, etc) and even the shape of the placard (sorta like a kidney) was radically different.

Cheers,
Richard

[greatgonzo]

I would think the painted ones were only the wheel pressure data in quite large stencils, as they can be seen on the pics. These rectangle placards have letters much too small for paint job in my opinion. There is a pic of -U4 with them things looking white with red letters but quality is to small to be sure.
What's the Morris book? Looks there's another one I need to buy over the ocean .

Thanks for help.

[whistlingdeath77]

I'm pretty sure that they are stickers which were attached with information about wheel psi information and strut compression ect. The bigger numbers are stenciled paint. Sometimes just the number of the aircraft, so when you looked at it head on and on the ground, you would be able to tell what aircraft you needed to work on without running around the plane. And very true about which company and what model made up the difference about why and why not that sticker is on some planes and some planes not. It wasn't uncommon for any wartime company to make changes from one plane to the next. It was whatever worked the best at that time. If i'm wrong, i'm sorry. But this is what I think we have here.

[RMAllnutt]

I would think the painted ones were only the wheel pressure data in quite large stencils, as they can be seen on the pics. These rectangle placards have letters much too small for paint job in my opinion. There is a pic of -U4 with them things looking white with red letters but quality is to small to be sure.
What's the Morris book? Looks there's another one I need to buy over the ocean .

Thanks for help.

Ahh... now I know what you are talking about. It's a decal on the oleo strut. I forget what the details are about it, but it's to do with the various settings for the main gear if I recall. Wish I'd thought of it before hand, as I was in the Vintage Wings hangar this evening, helping apply the markings on the Fleet Finch. The Corsair was in the corner... looking beautiful as always.

The Dave Morris book is as follows...

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-KD431-Tim ... 075094305X

It is a must-have for any Corsair enthusiast. Simply brilliant!

All the best,
Richard

[greatgonzo]

Thanks. If You happend to be somewhere near this F4U again You could get some pics maybe, please? There is no rush. I can wait with patience.

[RMAllnutt]

Thanks. If You happend to be somewhere near this F4U again You could get some pics maybe, please? There is no rush. I can wait with patience.

Will do!

Cheers,
Richard

[whistlingdeath77]

Thanks. If You happend to be somewhere near this F4U again You could get some pics maybe, please? There is no rush. I can wait with patience.

Will do!

Cheers,
Richard

Richard,
did you come up to Conn. last year for the Corsairs event? I don't remember if I ran into you or not. I haven't seen your work yet if you did. Any place I can view it? thanks,

Frank