Warbird Information Exchange

New Mustang owner, Andrew McKenna arrived Saturday morning at the Lehigh Valley Air Show with his new mount, Jack Croul's P-51D! Beautiful aircraft and he has no plans to paint it. He said he's gonna keep it that way as a tribute to Jeff Harris.

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

That is the most beautiful Mustang I have seen! Wow!

It's a gorgeous aircraft! I believe it's one of the limited number of Mustang restorations that has the wings 'profiled' - rivets/panel lines carefully filled, wings sanded smooth, and painted - as done in original production.

On a slightly related note, Jack Croul's other formerly owned P-51D (the second one he had restored) is also based on the east coast, more specifically North Carolina, since being sold to Robert Dickson last summer. This aircraft, however, has since been painted in the markings of a 357th FG Mustang, "Swamp Fox" (and won "Best Fighter" at Oshkosh this year). Some photos were published last summer of the two flying together, around Chino, both in bare finish/factory markings.

I love that one! Looks factory fresh.

The profiling is gone. Some filler departed the lower wing surface a few months ago and they elected to remove all the paint and filler prior to the decision to sell.
We are scheduled to get it into the paint shop soon to get the wing painted but it won't have the filler/profiling like before. Just a nice paint job.

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Rich Palmer

Remember an Injured Youth
benstear.org
#64- Stay Strong and Keep the Faith

BOOM BOOM, ROUND ROUND, PROPELLER GO

Don't Be A Dilbert!

Beautiful Mustang! Love the factory finish! Will miss seeing it out west but very happy it has a nice new home and owner! Does anyone know the status of Allied Fighters other plane....projects?

You're going to paint McKenna's wing? Is it already painted? The factory look is gorgeous!

Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

YES, the wing will get painted!
It will look pretty much like it did before.
As far as factory look, I don't believe they had the masses of workers polishing the parts to shine like it looks today.
New metal as it was coming out of the factory doesn't look like it does after many hundreds of hours of polishing.

_________________
Rich Palmer

Remember an Injured Youth
benstear.org
#64- Stay Strong and Keep the Faith

BOOM BOOM, ROUND ROUND, PROPELLER GO

Don't Be A Dilbert!

I realize they weren't polished during the war, but being near-factory is terrific. Serial number and national insignia is just perfect.

Chappie

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Brrring. Dispersal? TWO SECTIONS SCRAMBLE!!

Ah, Rich, I see now how the star/paint is missing from the lower wing surface. As you say, it will look just as nice just re-painted - going through the means of filling the wings really isn't practical. (For those that might not know, having the wings painted silver is part of the 'factory look', since it was the standard practice by NAA to fill, sand, and paint the wings (dull silver) in an effort to increase the effectiveness of the laminar flow airfoil. The ailerons, flaps, gear doors and wing fuel tank access panels were left bare metal.)

BTW, it of course is not a NAA-factory 'detail', but I love Mustangs with Spitfire mirrors fitted!

Also, for those who might be interested and have not seen it before, here is an old video with some clips of "Upupa Epops" (including air-to-air flying) when it was, for a short time, finished in only factory markings and finish before being delivered to FHC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_QBwtaWWY

Spoiler- Don't get too enamored with the mirror. It won't be on there too much longer.

_________________
Rich Palmer

Remember an Injured Youth
benstear.org
#64- Stay Strong and Keep the Faith

BOOM BOOM, ROUND ROUND, PROPELLER GO

Don't Be A Dilbert!