Just aquired L-18

[Shay]

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[GARY HILTON]

The boss...Mac, his Dad, Aubie,...and Potus...the 195

[GARY HILTON]

Saturday....


This is crazy....only able to post one pic per post....

[GARY HILTON]

The rudder comes apart in two pieces...Lower portion removed...


Note the two trim tabs still on the upper rudder..

[GARY HILTON]

The stubborn flap tracks and rollers...

[GARY HILTON]

Sunday...I managed to remove the large fiberglass streamlining fairing from the upper rear fuselage and horizontal stab.
This was a Howard modification that was done sometime in the 50's, I believe...although this L-18 wasn't a full fledged Howard conversion...

[GARY HILTON]

In this view from the port side, you can see the outline of the fairing I'd just removed, and also the outline of the original, smaller fairing that was removed way back when...

[GARY HILTON]

Because of the rain on Sunday, I was able to probably work a total of three hours on the ole girl...Took this pic around 3 PM, you can see the threatening skies inthe background...This was the extent of the weekend labor...

[Warbird Kid]

Keep it up!!! Looks great!

[GARY HILTON]

Made it back Friday...got a little accomplished..

[GARY HILTON]

Rained Saturday, so got a lot of reading done....Sunday I removed the stbd upper rudder and the lower verticle fin..and did a lot of drilling on rusted stainless bolts....

[GARY HILTON]

This is the lower rudder hinge....kinda nasty looking with the massive corrosion....unfortunatately, both sides look like this..Hope this not a major problem with all L-18/C-60's

[mrmoto]

Gary,
just so that you know, the only difference between excentric and crazy is a million dollars. Judging from the way that you spend money on Lockheed stock, you are quickly skidding down the road to financial ruin and will soon be officially crazy.
Jim

[The Inspector]

Gary,
Here's a tip on drilling CRES screws and bolts. First, stop buying your bits @ HOME DEPOT Aerospace or HORRIBLE FREIGHT aviation. A standard 'house' style bit is the wrong tip angle and usually the wrong steel type to drill stainless, you need to spend some bucks on CARBIDE tipped, 135 degree aircraft drill bits or COBALT bits. We use carbide tipped bits on a student project drilling 304 half hard CRES. The tips are very fragile and will not take any horsing around, but if started @ low speed and as the bit starts to produce a curl, the speed is increased to no more than 6000 RPM's you should be able to 'kill them screws'. I would recommend a stick type lubricant like ACITAL Alcohol in very tiny amounts, if you pack the flutes all you will do is cause the bit and the margins to act like boring bars and you will mess up the holes. Acital alcohol is pretty neutral and will not cause corrosion and cleans up with regular old Isopropal Alcohol. Just be very aware that CRES shavings will tear up your hands quicker than running your hand over the cheese grater @ home so resist the urge to brush off drill shavings, get yourself a WELDON deburring tip (looks kind of like a steel rosebud) for deburring, never use a file or the old 1 inch drill bit to deburr holes as you will introduce stress risers @ the edge of the holes which can become cracks @ a later date.
For screws you can also try a LESTER tool, it fits into a rivet gun and holds a screwdriver tip and has a handle so you squirt the screw with KROIL, and the vibration plus twisting will loosen the screw in question about 85% of the time, how do you think MRO's open up access panels for 'C' and 'D' checks?

[GARY HILTON]

Thanks Inspector...I had gone to the local Sears in Texarlana, and purchased a cobalt 3/16 drill. It actually did very well...I have some of the Boe=lube that seems to work well on all the bits, and yes, I have found out the hard way to go slow on the RPM's......I drilled out maybe 120 screws before it started showing signs of wear....Will try to find some better quality bits in future, but for now...looks like another trip to Sears....One question though...can these drills you speek of be sharpened??? If so, could one of those drill doctors work?? THX!!!

Yep, Mr Moto...a touch of madness indeed....

G