PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[wingman1]

what ever happened to that hangar cat that was around?

[Taigh Ramey]

Still here. She has been better lately and has not torn anyone up for a little while now. She was sleeping on all of the Arizona guys bunks throughout Bomber Camp.

Here she is about two minutes ago:



Rough life!

[Iclo]

Hi Taigh,

Thanks for the update: it's incredible to compare the state of the bird when you rescue it from the field and its current state.

Having to restore myself a old fuel jauge for 1928 car, I wonder what type of software was used to recreate the placards in one of your recent update ? I have to recreate a circular scale with labels and have difficulties to find the "good" software to recreate the shape and later print it on decals.
Thanks

[Dan Johnson II]

Thanks for the update. It's not hard to fall in love with this old bird seeing the effort that has gone into bringing her back from the nearly dead

[wingman1]

Still here. She has been better lately and has not torn anyone up for a little while now. She was sleeping on all of the Arizona guys bunks throughout Bomber Camp.

Here she is about two minutes ago:



Rough life!

i wish my life was that rough! lol!

[Chappie]

Fabulous work Taigh. I wish ever warbird was restored to this level of authenticity.

Chappie

[Taigh Ramey]

Thanks for the kind words Chappie. We appreciate it.

For me this isn't a restoration. We were lucky to have found a great project in great shape, for the most part. We have been keeping her airworthy by basically doing a continual IRAN (Inspect and Repair As Necessary).

As for the non airworthy items, like the military gear, we are just fabricating and bolting the equipment back in as we come across it. We aren't able to use the exact finish for the bolts, screws and hardware all of the time but we are trying to stay as close to the original as we can within our means. It is a lot of fun as this is just like a giant puzzle with all of the parts spread all over the country and the world. The fun is tracking this stuff down and if we can't find it we make it which is also part of the fun.

Since we are spending the time and effort to make the parts we try to do the research to make the parts as accurately as possible. It takes about the same amount of effort so why not make it like it was originally. Sometimes we have the drawings and sometimes they are unreadable or not available. We then go to the photos and gather as much information as possible if we have to make a guess at least we can back up what we have done. This is what we do with all of our restoration work. Same effort needed so do the research to your best ability and make it like it was. I really like being able to stand back when the project is done and see that it gives off the same impression, image, feel, smell etc just like the original. Recreating the distinctive smell of a WWII aircraft is quite the challenge but it is one thing that always goes away with any modern restoration but I am bringing it back to 062 slow but sure. all part of the fun.

Another long winded reply to your post Chappie.

Here are a few recent projects that have been going on with the Harpoon in no particular order. Lots of folks have been working on and making things but I have been forgetting to photo document their efforts. Sorry about that.

Here is my daughter Sydney helping me to replace the fixed glass in the cockpit. Nice hat! Kids these days...



Fabricated the brackets for the parachute stowage bin. Now its time to rivet them in place.



Here is Ricky wondering what the heck is going on inside there. Are we going to shoot some rivets or what?!





Lockheed was pretty fanatical about flush riveting and smooth joints etc. What I find interesting is the area around the turret was beefed up at the factory for some reason and they shot it with round head rivets and yet they used a flat rivet set so the factory heads are flat on top as can be seen in these photos. Interesting and I wonder what the reasoning was behind this.

Yes, Ricky is having that much fun. Do we have goofy shots of our people or just a bunch of goofy people? Goofy people is the true answer and I am at the top of the list.



So the parachute bin is in place awaiting two correct parachutes. The one in place is a 1960's nylon container but is the exact size of the original one we need.





I now see I need to tie off the loops on the end of the bungee cords on the parachute bin to make it just like the photo.



Speaking or parachutes; someone at Bomber Camp pulled a D ring on a WWII seat pack parachute so I had to repack it. I pulled out the more modern pilot chute. Inside it looks pretty nice.







So we need Quick Attach Chest pack parachutes to fill the parachute bin. Do any of you all know where we can find some late war chest pack parachutes? The ones we need are square just like the seat pack pictured above. Full Navy QAC's and harnesses would be ideal but we can do with just the seat pack containers for now. Any leads?



With all of the changes in the interior it gets to be a pain in the back side to keep updating the weight and balance via calculations so at some point it is necessary to just weigh the whole thing and start from scratch. The local CHP was kind enough to bring their nice, recently calibrated, digital scales over so we can see how the Harpoon has been doing on her diet. She has lost a lot of weight since we have been working on her (steel retardant tank etc) but she has certainly picked up a few pounds along the way too. Like a turret, radio/radar gear etc.



The Harpoon needs to be leveled out to get an accurate weight and balance so after we rolled her on the platform scales we raised the tail to a level attitude using the original levelling lugs so conveniently provided by Lockheed.



She weighed in at a trim 18,751 pounds. I have seen some basic combat empty weights at 23,000 so we are a long ways off of that. More weight coming though as we add more goodies. Now we have a useful load of 14,249 pounds.



This shot reminds me that I forgot to turn the props with a blades up in case she noses over to minimize the damage.



A couple of items I didn't seem to get pictures of were Ricky changing a leaking boost pump and Dick working on our intercom. Thanks Ricky, Dick, Sydney and everyone else for their help. As we prepare for Oshkosh a lot of projects are having to get ramped up as we don't have a lot of time. A work party is going on this Saturday and most days after hours when I can. come on out and lend a hand!

Last edited by Taigh Ramey on Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

[PJ]

Great work as always, Taigh! I got a QAC parachute with harness on EBay. Keep an eye out and sometimes they can be found for a not-too-salty price. Looks like the tunnel plexi might need more of a curve, but it could be our frames, and we will work on them first.

PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

[Warbirdnerd]

Looking Good Taigh! I can't wait to see the Poon at OSH. Are you going to have room for a couple of boxes of T-shirts to sell at OSH? Let me know and I will plan accordingly. Thanks again for saving 101 and sharing the story.

[Redtracer]

Oh, we're bringing plenty of t-shirts so you all need to come over and buy one or three or five so we can pay our HUGE fuel bill! Also, if you ever wanted to own a piece of the Harpoon we will be selling small orginal bits and pieces of her, so take a piece of "062" home with you!

[cco23i]

Ken the salesman,

[Dan K]

Try to save me an XL until Thursday if that's possible (Now I just have to remain an XL until the end of July. A guy's gotta' have goals...)

Any more nibbles on vets for your presentation?

[Warbirdnerd]

Oh, we're bringing plenty of t-shirts so you all need to come over and buy one or three or five so we can pay our HUGE fuel bill! Also, if you ever wanted to own a piece of the Harpoon we will be selling small orginal bits and pieces of her, so take a piece of "062" home with you!

Awesome! I will be by Monday to get at least 1. If you have kids sizes I will need a couple more... My wife will be thrilled.
As far as Vets go, the Naval Reserve flew them Harpoons of MSP. There might be some past members still around town. I will see what I can find.

[Taigh Ramey]

Work continues to get her ready for our long cross country adventure to OSH. Lots to do for sure.

We have made contact with two PV-2 Vets so far. One Radio Operator will meet us in Topeka and one pilot hopefully in OSH. The search continues. Any leads folks?

One of the projects has been to install the fuselage fuel tank that sits under the navigators table. I have been building the installation hardware and parts slowly but its install has jumped up on the priority list. It will help us by giving us additional range and fewer fuel stops to OSH as well as installing a cool part back in the fuselage where it belongs.

In order to put the tank back in we need to fix up the plumbing first. The original self sealing hoses for this tank and the bomb bay tanks are still installed in the center section and they run to the fuel selector valves in the engine nacelles. They run inside the rectangular spar structure. These hoses were never used in its tanker career and they were never removed so they are original 1943 and 1944 dated hoses. They are in pretty darn good shape for their age but of course are not suitable for use today so they need to come out to be replaced. Access is much better to replace these before the fuselage tank goes in so hose exchange is the number one thing to start with.

As I mentioned these hoses run inside the spar and access is, shall we say...is a wee bit limited...We can only get to the nacelle end of the hoses inside the spar just behind the main oil tank which happens to leave a 4 inch gap to try and get your hand through which just isn't happening. The proper thing to do is to remove the oil tank for access so out it comes.



The tank is a big 65 pound self sealing rubber cell inside a heavy aluminum shell. It has to be disconnected on top and bottom so Scott starts on top and Ricky below. Notice the 2x4 to keep the tank from crunching anyone while Ricky disconnects the straps that hold it in.



Out it comes.



Ricky brought out another young volunteer to help out who's name escapes me at the moment. His name will come to me, hopefully in the form of a text soon and I will then revise this... Y-reeka! his name is Dillon. Sorry I forgot your name Dillon but thanks for the help!



With the tank out Ricky starts the process of replacing the hoses. You can see two of them just above Ricky's hands in this shot that disappear inside the main spar. Thankfully the replacement hose is smaller in diameter than the original self sealing (meaning that is closes up the hole if damaged by a bullet) so we plan to clamp the new hose to the old one and pull the new in while the old comes out.

Where Ricky is sitting is where the fuselage tank goes so you can see why it is prudent to replace these hoses while there is some semblance of access.

The wires hanging down are Marks ARC-5 wiring project. Mark, we need you!



While Ricky and I are pulling hoses Scott starts the process on the right side.



Here is a shot of the original hoses inside the spar.



Check out the original markings and the hoses. Made by BF Goodrich in the third quarter of 1943. Pretty cool for sure.



After the hose is cut to the proper length at Lockheed it is given its part number stamp. Pretty darn good shape for almost 69 year old hose.



It was a good day of hard work. Thanks guys

Last edited by Taigh Ramey on Tue Jun 25, 2013 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Fred41]

Thx for the news, like a phoenix, the bird is reborn ....