Warbird Information Exchange

What is that rectangular hole in the side of the fuselage? Did you leave a bucking bar in there and have to cut the fuselage open to get it out?

Naw, I was stuck in there while holding the bucking bar. And that was cut in there to pass in the liquid refreshments without spilling!
Rich

Vlado,

Are you doing serious work to Moonbeam, or is this a different project?

It is Moonbeam in rebuild this winter.
VL



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More Moonbeam pics (Sorry, I am "learning" photobucket.)

Vlado,
I speak Photobucket.
Since your wings have entered my thread about horizontals I need to counter with these;



Images provided by Carl Scholl at Aero Trader of Frenesi's wings.
Rich

Wow, looks like all new skins.
He certainly does great work.
Thx,
VL

HOLY C**P Batman! Were the wings on Frenesi that bad that they needed a total teardown or was this just a major restoration that was going to be done whether it needed it or not.

_________________
The more I learn about aircraft, the more I realize I still have to learn.

Chris,
Was it ready to fall out of the sky- No, not yet.
Was it hurting- absolutely.
Aircraft's past includes crash landing at 46 (IIRC) Cleveland Air Races which tore out MLG and Radiator. Rebuilt by Jack Hardwick and converted to Dual Controls. Tried to export to Israel but ended up in Dominica Mid-1950s.
Rebuilt mid -1960s by Trans Florida.
Imported by Brian O'Farrell mid 1980's.
Along the way it suffered above damage, 30 years of 3rd world operations and the island climate.
R/H Wing had a wet wing area built into the Ammo bay at some point. Maybe from it's racing days. Tons of nut plates installed around lightning holes. Someone used a drill to remove sealing compound from this area. They drilled into the lower spar flange at a 5-10 degree angle going forward across the flange.
Typical corrosion removal was to sand the bumps level and then apply multiple coats of epoxy primer. You couldn't exactly see the corrosion but it really wasn't removed so you really didn't know how much good material was left.
Outer rear spars had been changed but were undersized so shims between spar flange and skin travel the length of that area and it was still not thick enough.
Despite all of this and more it wasn't going to fall apart but I like to sleep nights.
Carl changed out Spars and skin along shat ever else was needed on the wings.
Previous discussions have mentioned other fun things found.
Chris, you should come back to Philly for the Palmer School of Indepth Mustang Knowledge. We'll learn you real good!
Rich

Rich,

Doing any internship? I'm 16 years old and sweep floors real real good.

Vlado,

Who is rebuilding Moonbeam?

Trey

_________________
"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

Trey:
It is up in Wisconsin at Sam Taber's shop. You may want to call him for that internship. He has 4 Mustangs, 2 T-6s, 3 L-5s, a TBM, a Stearman up there right now.
..............Wow,16? You're a big guy for 16! Play football, too? (Your Dad might enjoy my comments!)
VL

Never heard of Sam Taber, but man, what I'd do to get to Wisconsin... I miss working on Wood's Mustang. Why did Moonbeam need to get rebuilt? Just a tired old bird would be my guess.

And yep, only 16. I'm a big dude, but I'm one of the smaller guys in my school I used to play football, but the doc wont let me anymore. Too many concussions. Now I just take pictures and fly, could be worse I suppose...

Rich: can you point out where the splice is in the fuselage? I'm pretty green when it comes to this stuff, but you gotta ask questions to learn. What exactly was the factory splice for?

_________________
"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

Trey:
Sam is at East Troy WI, just north of Burlington and Lake Geneva.
The concussions have not affected your photo talent! Keep up the good work.
VL

Bump



Hope you just missed this! Did I ask something I shouldn't?

Steve

_________________
"Any excuse is good enough if you're willing to use it!"

There are early and late horizontals built.
We have decided to keep the original rather than install the later built style.
NAA had changed the angle of incidence late in the war. This change in incidence was rarely retrofitted and almost all the P-51's I have worked on have had the early horizontal.
We want to keep it the same as before it was rebuilt. Its what the owner wants.
The new build late style one will be for sale after this one is rebuilt if you know anyone interested.
Rich