FM-2 Wildcats!

[Warbird Kid]

Mustanglover,

Can you give us a brief description on your shop. How many people work there, how big is your hangar(s), do you have a lot of the new high tech CNC machines or are you guys old school?

Thanks,

Mac

The "Wild Warbirds" shop is a total of about 8,000 sf and we have 3 full time employees and one part time contract.

Keep in mind that this is very closely connected to our main facility which is about 90,000 sf and has about 80 total employees. We perform major structural repair, maintenance and modifications to corporate jets and own about 400 Supplemental Type Certificates and 1 Type Certificate. Our manufacturing facility is about 15,000 sf and employs about 10 people and is the largest FAA PMA facility in the Southwest Region.

Sounds like an ideal place to restore some warbirds and build some new parts too! You guys interested in producing some Corsair parts by any chance?

[Russ Matthews]

Thanks for the info, Mustanglover.

Are you guys still going to put one on floats? If so, are you going to use an off-the-shelf float or scratch build new ones?

It is still just a study at this time, but if we did build a Wildcatfish we would probably alter an off-the-shelf set of floats.

Cool .. I'd never even heard of the "Wildcatfish" until reading this thread. A quick Google search turned up a photo on the Air & Space website...

http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/files/2009/06/2326l1.jpg

[Jim MacDonald]

Thanks for the info, mustanglover. Sounds like you'll have all the resources & assistance you'll need.

Thanks again,

Mac

[mustanglover]

Mustanglover,

Can you give us a brief description on your shop. How many people work there, how big is your hangar(s), do you have a lot of the new high tech CNC machines or are you guys old school?

Thanks,

Mac

The "Wild Warbirds" shop is a total of about 8,000 sf and we have 3 full time employees and one part time contract.

Keep in mind that this is very closely connected to our main facility which is about 90,000 sf and has about 80 total employees. We perform major structural repair, maintenance and modifications to corporate jets and own about 400 Supplemental Type Certificates and 1 Type Certificate. Our manufacturing facility is about 15,000 sf and employs about 10 people and is the largest FAA PMA facility in the Southwest Region.

Sounds like an ideal place to restore some warbirds and build some new parts too! You guys interested in producing some Corsair parts by any chance?

We would be interested in looking at whatever you may need built.

[george]

Mustanglover - Is your third Cat in house, or are you still awaiting its arrival?

Really looking forward to your next update.

[RyanShort1]

Well, my first Saturday afternoon stop happened today. Thankfully one of the crew was there and was very considerate to show me around. Neat setup, and it sounds like they're fairly ambitious, which I think is very good. If any of you know of good wing parts for folding wing Wildcats - definitely let them know. Here are a few shots from the hangar, and one of the Cub I dropped in on them with. It was a really nice afternoon for a NORDO cross-country hop in the Cub. It IS annoying seeing traffic pass you, but fun all around.


Wings and more wings. Lots of damage and corrosion however.


Some of the skin cleans up VERY nicely!


You can see some of the old markings - here is part of the "Stars and Bars"


The ALS Cub on the ramp. I've finally overcome my fear of cross country flights in it - now that I've figured out that I can safely hand prop it. Before this past week, I always let someone else do it, mainly because I just flat out didn't want to get anywhere near it.

If any of ya'll Texas folks are interested - they're having a pancake breakfast and Pearl Harbor remembrance on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 from 8 am to 10 am there at the Uvalde airport. They seem a friendly lot, and I think they'll be good hosts. There is no charge for the pancake breakfast - but they will accept donations... HINT, HINT, HINT. Some warbirds will likely be on the ramp as well. Don't know that I'll be able to make it as I have a student in a nearby time slot, but may try. It certainly sounds like a good breakfast event.

Ryan

[fighter_ace06]

Hello this is Conrad Huffstutler. I was asked by mustanglover to add some detail and
pictures to the project so here it goes.

First off, the crew consists of myself, Dale Hoffman, and two other helpers who are quickly
learning the trade. It’s a small crew but you have to remember that I have many other
people working from the manufacturing side. The plan is to build up the first Wildcat
(55585), and in the process build enough parts for a second in the near future (86774).
We must document and manufacture any parts missing from the second before the first is
finished and gone.

Currently we are stripping down the fuselage in preparation for paint and rebuild. We are
using soda blasting to remove most of the paint. The fuselage exterior was first stripped
with aircraft stripper, then soda blasted to remove the last layer of zinc chromate. The
interior will be soda blasted, then painted. The soda blasting does not remove the original
anodizing that Grumman applied on most of the skins.

The first airplane will be restored completely original because of its pristine untouched
condition. We found the original placarding in the tail and grease pencil marks on the
formers. While disassembling I found a coke bottle from around 1957.

Here is the vertical being reskined.

Needed some ribs.


finished next to #2's

Before

After

Original Armor for the firewall.

firewall

Oil tank about to go together.

a bunch of parts back from NDT and paint. This is the original "Grumman Grey"
color, notice Grumman tools made from drawings in the background.

[CraigQ]

Conrad, was that your or mustanglover that called me today? With the B-25 running it's engines I was having a hard time. I emailed mustanglover but if it was you than give me a shout at 757-686-4635 (home) or 757-739-9188 (cell) and we'll talk. Home is better right now as our house is a signal killer on teh cell for some reason. Looking good man.

Craig Q

[warbird1]

Excellent, thanks for your new involvement in this thread, Conrad! I'm looking forward to lots more info coming from you down the road! Be sure to tell us about the ups and downs of the project - what are the challenges, maybe throw in some interesting tidbits of info about the Wildcat, what makes it unique or different to other restorations, etc. We want to live vicariously through you guys with your storytelling and photos!

[fighter_ace06]

Yep it was me, I will give you a call later.

[Chunks]

So, I'm very interested in the soda blasting. Do you mind sharing some details of your setup? It seems there are a number of them available, some with significant investment required.

Chunks

[mustanglover]

The interesting part of the firewall photo are the brush marks around the holes. After soda blasting these marks became visable. These are factory markings not done by us.

It appears that they would deburr the holes after installation of nutplates, etc. with a pneumatic/electric tool.

I thought that was kinda cool to see these marks.

[fighter_ace06]

If you look closely at the bottom of the firewall you can still see the ink marking on the aluminum that tells the type of material and thickness. .064 a little odd.

[sgt hawk]

I have always been fond of the F4F/FM2 and wondered if the landing gear (rather unique and a "hand crank" kinda deal) was easy or difficult to restore?

[mustanglover]

Yes.

I have always been fond of the F4F/FM2 and wondered if the landing gear (rather unique and a "hand crank" kinda deal) was easy or difficult to restore?