Time for another update. I had another early start today (beat my alarm clock by an hour and fifteen minutes), so I'm starting to drag a little bit and will be heading out after I make this post.
Y'all saw a picture in an earlier post I made today of Dave working on the radio operator's windows. Well, he's been working steadily on them and is making great headway. I also had Andy prepping the upper portion of the aft fuselage for me to paint in the morning.........
Shorty DeWitt has been working on replacing the wooden floorboards in the cockpit.......
The High Sky wing has continued to work hard on stripping our elevators and rudders. Lance Sommers had me come over the other day to look at a couple of cracks that I had missed in my initial inspection of one of the elevators. It's embarrassing that I missed it. I try to pride myself on catching even the smallest imperfections in things like that, but I'm far from perfect. Even when I ran my own shop several years back, I always wanted someone to come in behind me to check my work. I don't often have that luxury here, but I'm glad Lance gave the surfaces a good looking over. Scott has been working on repairing cowling nosebowls since he's been here, but this afternoon, he's been working on repairing the elevator for me so that we can get it back to Lance to cover.......
In the meantime, Rich was cutting out and shaping the Lexan windows for Dave......
This is a good example of why we wear goggles (even if you wear glasses).
......
So what did I do today? Well, I started at 2 a.m. or so, painting the upper surface of the horizontal stabilizer, along with the inboard portion of the R/H vertical stab, and most of the L/H stab, before our volunteers started coming in around 6 a.m. Once they got here, I kind of jockeyed back and forth between them to insure that they had what they needed, answered questions, gave some instructions, and so on. I have a really good group of volunteers here right now, but unfortunately, they will only be here for a few more days.
After that, I installed the pitot tubes and took care of some more clerical duties (still trying to work some deals on parts). Then, I actually got to get my hands dirty for the first time in a while! Several months ago, you may remember me mentioning the fact that we're doing away with the old "wet" vacuum pumps. Rather than go back with the standard "dry" pumps, which are typically of the carbon vane style, we went with the new Sigma-Tek piston style pumps. They cost a few bucks more than the vane type, but are guaranteed for 2,000 hours or 60 months. Worth every penny if we don't have to replace pumps while out on tour for a while.
The vacuum pumps on this airplane are on the #1 and #2 engines only. The old wet pumps have the large bolt pattern for it's pad and the new pumps have the small bolt pattern. So I had Jeff Abbott send us a couple of adapters, and the installation went as follows...
The first thing I did was to lay out the pump, adapter, and both gaskets.......
Then I slid the small gasket (installed dry, with no sealant) onto the adapter, followed by the vacuum pump. After that, I just put the washers and nuts on the studs and tightened them down.....
For the large gasket (the one that goes between the adapter and the engine), I applied a thin coat of EzTurn. Everyone has their own favorite product for this type of application, but his gooey stuff is a great replacement for the old Fuel Lube product and insures a nice seal between the gasket and it's mating surfaces, and it's what I prefer. The reason I used the EzTurn on this gasket is because this one will seal off the old oil port on the engine that lubricated the old wet vacuum pump and I need a good seal there to keep the leaks to a minimum.
One last step before installing the assembly to the engine is to get some Lubriplate (a thin, paste lubricant) and apply a small amount to the drive gear. This simply helps the longevity of the drive gear while in it's housing in the engine....
Do you see where it goes on the engine?
When installing engine accessories, such as this vacuum pump, I have gotten in the habit of using close tolerance nuts whenever possible. A lot of old timers just roll their eyes when I suggest it, but I can assure you that this little trick will save you lots of time and dirty words when you're having to replace an accessory while out on the road. What these nuts enable you to do is to use a smaller wrench or socket in the same space that a larger tool would normally have to go. For example, in a "normal" situation, this vacuum pump would be held on with nuts that require a 1/2" wrench. They would be too large to use a socket and you could only get a fraction of a turn at a time with the wrench, due to the close quarters. With the close tolerance nuts, I was able to use a 3/8" socket and tighten them up in just a matter of minutes........
And here it is installed. I will fabricate new vacuum hoses for it later.....
Here's a view of it from a little further out to give you an idea of where it's located on the engine and how tight the quarters are (although it's really not all that bad on this engine installation).......
Well, as I was typing this update, my boss came in and we gathered everyone up and had a little meeting. I won't get into all of the drama, but the bottom line is that we were told that we WILL have the airplane ready for our May 12th Gathering of Twin Tails, regardless of how it ends up looking. It breaks my heart to know that I'm going to have to just throw together many of the final touches of the cosmetic portion of this project, but the fact is that we have to get it done. The airplane WILL NOT fly until it is ready, nor has anyone suggested to me that it will. I just need to make it clear that any rushed work will be only on cosmetic issues, not safety or airworthy issues.
That being said, the airplane WILL have the guns that the WIXers purchased in it and on display, along with any other items that I can squeeze in during this time frame.
Andy and I are going to continue working as hard as we possibly can to get this project done that everyone has anxiously awaiting, but we can only do so much. If any of the skilled laborers out there that have even been considering helping us in the past are reading this, please come and help us NOW, so that this won't be as embarrassing for me as I'm forecasting it to be.
I'm going to go home and throw up now.
Gary
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) once things are all done on the B-24? I'd donate to that. Some folks could donate air miles, hotel miles etc. I think it would be a well deserved reward for someone who has given so much.
