Lake Michigan F6F recovery and restoration thread

[Pat Carry]

Interesting photograph. It kind of reminds me of a very large fish hanging fom its fins after being brought to shore. Nice blue background also. Not sure just what that is.

[rcarleen]

Discovered this forum and thread, and thought I'd add my nickel's worth. First of all--I'm Rob, and I am the crew leader for the Hellcat's resurrection. The plane is now in the hangar--still on it's nose, and we're continuing the dissassembly process (and still mucking out ton's of silt and lake bottom deterius.) My previous project was the Dauntless (36177) that headed off to Pearl in December. There are a lot of differences between the two projects--the most obvious is the difference in the material condition of the two planes. The Dauntless was recovered in '95, prior tothe mussel infestation and it had relatively minor corrosion on most ofthe aluminum--Only where the alclad coating was disturbed (severe bending, or stretching) was the aluminum corroded--and then it was nearly eaten away. The SBD used a 24ST metal in most of it's sheetmetal--this has a copper component, which adds strength--but when exposed to a dielectric, produces galvanic corroson. The SBD's brought up this summer (currently in storage in our warehouse--awaiting restoration) were infested with mussels, and everywhere on atttached it self, was a little oval of corrosion from the slightly acidic secretions. On all the aircraft--all steel parts were badly rusted: major things, like struts and arresting gear could be cleaned, treated and repaired--but springs, linkages and such nearly always had to be remade from scratch. The inboard flap mechanisms on the Hellcat are so fragile (steel) that I'm not certain I'll be able to remove them in one piece--or in good enough condition to use as a pattern to duplicate. Likewise,all the est of the smaller steel parts. Anything magnesium is completely gone--just a white slime that hardens to the consistency of stone.


PREVIOUS PROJECT--SBD-5 36177




Concerning the Hellcat: we brought the cowling in right after it was removed. The lower part--the air scoops, were crushed pretty badly, but the rest only needed some hammerwork to bring back to true. We cut the outer skin off, and straightened the underlying structure and the inner skin--then straightened the outerskin and welded it back in place. The skin on the F6F fuselage is a 52 series alloy, and is much thicker that the Dauntless's skin--so, even with the mussels--the skin is usable in a non-flying status. If it were to be made airworthy--it'd likely need most of the skins relpaced. The horizontal stabs are a different story. they were built light--out of what appears to be 24ST--about .032 thickness and the skins are like swiss cheese--definitely not restorable--even where there's metal left--it's no more that .010 or so in lots of places. Underneath, the structure is the same, and we're currently remaking 1/3 of the ribs on each side due to severe corrosion.

We've removed the main fuel cell, and are in the process of removing the wing cells, so we can clean out those areas. I don't believe that thes items were ever intended to be removed--they sure don't want to come out--they're pretty much bonded to the airframe, after all this time. the oil tank ws crushed from water pressure, and we cut it apart along the original welds and reshaped it and welded iot back together.

So far the work has been a bit random--until Monday--the plane was still on the washrack, being cleaned and we worked on whatever assemblies we could bring into the hangar. Some, like the cowl and oil tank are nearly finished--others, like the stabs, have a long ways to go. Some, like the seat, will have to be remanufactured.

The wings: Bad--less that three feet remain of one side, and about five feet of the other. They'll have to be completely rebuilt--probably less that 10% of the original structure on either side is useable. Verical fin, rudder, ailerons, stbd flap, canopy, landing gear doors, controll linkages and cables, and a host of other things (and we're not even talking R-2800, yet) need to be found, scrounged or made from scratch. So these planes end up a lot like my great-grandfather's axe--(it's gone through three handles and a new head)-- a lot is not original by the time the project ends. Just the spirit of the thing.

Not sure on where the plane will end up yet--not a major concern down on the deckplates, here. We just look forward to the challenge of making it look like it could fly.

BTW--standing the plane on it's nose makes it real simple to work on the underside of the aircraft. If you've ever spent much time working underneath one, drilling cutting, fitting, riveting, etc--you'd know how difficult it can be. Those tools get mighty heavy, the shavings and such continually rain down onto your face, and you get a real crick in the neck from facing upwards. We can pull the landing gear, and do lots of other things, too, eliminating balancing the bird on cradles or jackstands, as well. Cockpit access is great--you can work from outside--your body doesn't get in the way, either. We make stands for each specific aircraft, and attach them to the engine mounts. Too bad we can't do that for the Coronado, in the next spot over.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Welcome aboard!
Glad to have someone who is involved in the restoration of these historic aircraft.
You find a lot of people on this site might be able to help if you are looking for parts.
Keep up the great work and I hope you can continue to update us on the F6F's progress.
Blue skies,
Jerry

[Django]

Thanks for the insight Rob, and welcome aboard! I look forward to you hopefully sharing your trials and tribulations with us!! How's the Coronado coming?

[Holedigger]

Yes indeed! Thank you! Inside details of what is going on is always welcome, as are more pictures!

[Pat Carry]

Rob, Welcome to the WIX and thanks for all the great info you provided. Keep the updates coming when you get a chance.

[shepsair]

Rob

Hopefully you will be able to post photos on occasions to see how it is all progressing.

Lets hope they find the wings/fin on a search later in the year.

regards

Mark

[Hal B]

Rob,
Thanks for the update and welcome to the WIX. Having been involved in the restoration of an a/c recovered from a lake I have a pretty good understanding of what you're going through. Keep up the good work!

[Sutts]

Thanks for all that info Rob, really appreciate you taking the time to keep us up to date.

Quite an eye opener really. I thought the mussels gave you extra work in the clean up but didn't realize they actually damaged the metal. Hope someone out there has some parts for you.

[ZRX61]

The inboard flap mechanisms on the Hellcat are so fragile (steel) that I'm not certain I'll be able to remove them in one piece--or in good enough condition to use as a pattern to duplicate.

These things are handy if you can get access to one....
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/ar ... d-parts-1/

[rcarleen]

My mother used to say--"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

We opreate on a ragged shoestring down in restoration--just obtaining hardware, like Dzus fasters, or paint is a challenge. CNC tooling would be nice, but fortunately, we've got the next best thing--a few retired machinists with old-time skills.

The only computerized machine we've got is a Calypso Water jet cutter--and it's a true lifesaver for cutting out parts from heavy stock, or repetious cutting--like a series of blanks for identical ribs.

Most of the money seems to be targeted to complete the Flight Academy and to build the new hangar to display our cold was era aircraft.

[ZRX61]

My mother used to say--"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

We opreate on a ragged shoestring down in restoration--just obtaining hardware, like Dzus fasters, or paint is a challenge. CNC tooling would be nice, but fortunately, we've got the next best thing--a few retired machinists with old-time skills.

Find the closest university/college that has machine shop and/or Mech Eng BSc courses & go speak with the instructors. You'd be surprised what they are willing to do as a "class project". I needed an unobtainable part for my '37 SouthBend lathe. Intructor at the local university made me the part I needed & did all the heat treatment etc to get it to spec. Total cost: $0.00

In the *if money were no object* category things like this exist:
http://www.gaskrank.tv/tv/motorrad-fun/ ... -10963.htm

[rcarleen]

Thats all wonderful and good--but we can manually make most anything on premises. the problem is making steel linkages and mechanisms--lots of little parts, all welded up into groups. Making all the little parts is easy--welding them all up is simple--recovering the parts intact to duplicate them is the trick. Think dead sea scrolls here.

[Ken]

Rob,

Thanks for all you do. If/when you get time, we'd all love to hear more about what happened to get that SBD looking so good and standing on its gear for the photo you posted. I'd say that sums up what the bulk of WIX is all about.

Ken

[tom d. friedman]

any copper component or copper added alloy stands a good chance of restoration. copper is a great anti-fouling metal but is being gradually phased out for epa & ecological issues. this is a sticky issue & is why i dumped that marine business issue. both the navy & world wide navies along with the marine biz are shifting gears. just to costly$$