AT-6B Static Restoration - Chanute Air Museum

[bdk]

Looks good enough to be airworthy to me! Great idea. The best ideas are usually the simplest.

[Mustanger55]

These are a quick and dirty solution. Not to mention cheap. With a bit more precision and skill, one could make some airworthy pieces. Some polished walnut or oak would be pretty neat.

[Mustanger55]

Continued working on the throttle quads, finishing up the knobs and propeller levers. After adding the pointers to the prop levers and doing some painting, the quadrants are reassembled. I still want to make new placards for both units before I call them complete.

[EW439]

Further evidence that your project is a "mongrel" as you called it earlier in this thread. The throttle quadrants are both
front cockpit. The front is usually the only one with a friction lock and ratchet mechanism on the mixture. The rear is
slaved off the front. If this were in a flying airplane there would always have to be a person in both cockpits that
coordinate mixture movements.

[Mustanger55]

I recognized I had two front quadrants some time ago. Had thought of finding someone to trade with, but Chanute Air Museum and NMUSAF rules prohibit trading away any original parts from an aircraft. Although I'll probably leave them as-is, I have thought to shorten the center shaft and create a new cover for one to make it appear correct for the rear cockpit.
Outside of special events or situations, no one will be getting inside the cockpits after the restoration is done, and, few would know enough to notice anything amiss.

Of course, if someone wanted to donate a rear quadrant, I'd gladly accept!

[Mustanger55]

A warm day today and I took the opportunity to do some work in the hangar. First I removed the frozen stick lock mechanism. Somewhere in the past the left side became stuck and apparently someone ripped it out of the foot rail trying to free it. I'll work up a patch for the foot rail and repair the lock over the winter months.



As discussed in past posts, the T-6 here is an amalgam of parts from versions other than the 'official' AT-6B designation. The B was built with a .30 cal. gun in the right wing just outboard of the wing joint, but our T-6 has neither the right wing gun or the gun camera in the left wing. Someone in the past apparently cut away part of the leading edge just outboard of the landing light and installed a fake gun barrel, mounted with a block of wood inside the wing secured with drywall screws through the top and bottom skin! I've removed the panel and will use it to pattern a replacement without the gun.

Another challenge will be to remove multiple layers of sand based paint on the wing walks. Today I tried a small section with regular paint remover that barely scratched the surface of this gunk. As shown in the second picture, below about 1/8" of this stuff appears to be some sort of fabric, perhaps backing for a self adhesive walkway sheet? Any suggestions on removing this awful mess from the experts out there would be greatly appreciated.

[DELEQ]

Hey Norm,
on our T6 we put a lot of rags on the area, soaked them with Acetone (we also tried Gasoline, Diesel and other stuff, but acetone worked best) and put some plastic wrap on top of it. Let it soak a while and then it should start to wrinkle and crumble. We then used wooden scrapers to remove the loose stuff. We had to do it several times to get rid of all the stuff.

Stefan

Last edited by DELEQ on Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

[DELEQ]

Found some pictures...











Stefan

[Mustanger55]

Wow! That looks exactly like the crud I'm dealing with!
I was kind of thinking along similar lines. I was hoping that if that fabric was under all that sand paint, acetone might seep through the fabric, loosen it up and let me peel it off, but it looks like your method works pretty well. Can't wait to give it a try.
Thanks!!

[Mark_Pilkington]

Norm,

Do you or any other T-6 rebuilders have a reliable source of NAA fuselage frame U-Bolts?

I assume Banaire used to carry them, do Lance carry them, or is there another reliable source?

Regards

Mark Pilkington

[bdk]

Lance should have them, though they may not have every possible variation.

[Mustanger55]

I got a 1/2 dozen from Lance at $11.00 USD ea. Be sure to specify the part no./size. There are at least 2 diameters and various lengths for specific applications.

[Mustanger55]

Back to the museum and returned to work on the Texan, this time beginning with a test patch on the crusty walkway using some really great paint remover. My buddies Curt and Craig are using this stuff to strip the TB-25N, and it worked very well. A quarter cup on a one square foot section covered in plastic for a week took over half a pound of the crud off the wing.

The second photo shows the B-25 losing four layers of paint.
After finishing up repaint of the center canopy section, I began work on the rear sliding canopy. The interior has been painted but I still need to paint the release latch and emergency release handles and apply placards. Three of the rollers are grooved and pitted but won't affect things much since this is a static display aircraft.

[Mustanger55]

Took last weekend off, but back Saturday to work on the rear sliding canopy. After repairing and repainting the canopy release handles and emergency release levers, the exterior frame was primed and repainted silver. I still need to reinstall the rollers and fabricate emergency release placards, but it is otherwise complete.

Next project is the rear fixed canopy. The canopy was originally designed to tilt forward for a rear gunner's position, but has been secured to the decking and a trim strip attached to keep out weather. I'll leave these intact for the static restoration. The top white top glass is not stock, of course but I'll leave that as is also. Once this is done, I'll switch to getting cockpit parts ready for installation next summer.

[Mustanger55]

Wishing All of our Friends and Supporters a Joyous and Happy Holiday Season.

Extending a Heartfelt Thank You for all of the Support and Help of the WIX Community!