Warbird Information Exchange

Gee...I was asleep when you started working, and I dont think I have ever done anything that cool at work...ever.

You are doing a great job!

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Well, I have been getting to work at 3 a.m. and try to leave no earlier than 5 p.m., 7 days a week. There's lots of work to be done here to improve this airplane, and FIFI, and Testiclese (our engine test cell).

You know.....if you came out here and volunteered, you wouldn't ever have to say again that you've never done anything "this cool" at work.

Gary

If I ever am in Texas I will make it a point to drop by.

Actually seeing all your work prompted me to make a donation to the MAAM for their P-61...You definetly inspired me to donate. (Even though I sent the $ to the wrong place ) I hope you know what I am getting at

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This isn't an "us against them" thing...at least not to me. I know that all of the Warbird museums out there need support, financial and otherwise. I'm glad to hear you've helped out with the P-61. When it comes to supporting these ol' Warbirds, there is no "wrong place" to send the money. Glad to see you helping them out.

Gary

They should make this thread a "sticky" so we can keep tabs on it. Excellent "as-we-go" thread on warbird transformation.

Keep up the good work.

Gary,

I'll add my kudos to the chorus. I'm getting to the point where I need my daily update "fix" with 'Lil. This thread is a great way to keep us fellow CAFers in the loop as well as the warbird community. I know the "attaboys" don't help you deburr rivets, therefore, I'll send some money along instead since I can't make it out there any time soon.

I'm looking forward to meeting you in Midland some day. Beers are on me.

Mike Hogan
Executive Officer
National Capitol Squadron
CAF

Gary,

Very nice work. I am looking forward to seeing these changes progress. I'd stop by and give you a hand if I could, but its a bit of a drive from out here on the west coast.

Fifi, and Lil were my introduction to warbirds, and the CAF back in the mid 80s.

I was about 11 or 12, visiting the grandparents in Okla, and bored out of my mind. We saw on the news that Fifi, and Lil were stopped over at Enid. So the next day we piled in the car and drove from Ponca City to Enid to check them out.

Now, as the son of an A&P mechanic, I was used to being around airplanes, but I had never been around an operating warbird, and was completely awestruck.....a few hours later, having crawled through both of them, and listening to the crew and a few vets tell stories....I was hooked for life. For 4-5 years after that I saved my allowlance, and made donations to the CAF when I could, I sent enough in to get regular issues of "the dispatch". I can't recall if they had a membership back then for kids....

A few years later we were visiting the other set of grandparents on Long Island, and as luck would have it, Fifi and Lil were out at (I believe) Islip airport. So again we trecked out there to see them.....

Charlie

It is really interesting to watch this thread as one of my first warbird experiences was with Diamond Lil back in 1972 when I was 7 years old.

Me Too!



(believe it or not I found the show ticket stuffed behind the photo page! )

Hey Gary, sounds like my GF is going out of town this weekend so if so I will try to fly into Midland Sat morning and help you all day Sat and fly out in the evening. I work for American so its pretty easy to get there.

Gary

I'm not sure if this was covered or not. Is the belly gunner position .50 cal or .30 cal?

Also do you know where Lil's "D" Greenhouse nose came from?

Thanks

Shay
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Semper Fortis

First of all...Nathan, it'll be nice to have you here to help. I'm sure we can find something for you to do. Just PM me for my contact info, if you don't already have it.

And Shay, it appears that there were various gun installations on various airplanes, even though there weren't many B-24A's. The factory drawings that I have been looking at seem to show the .50 cal. being the predominant favorite in the tunnel gun position, so that's what we'll go with. Actually, we're probably going to to with the .50's in all of the positions.

Gary

Most of yesterday was spent making tooling for the window frame I had to make today. These pictures show the fabrication of the window and it's frame for the tunnel gun position. Sorry for the poor quality of some of the photos.

Laying out the oval window on the sheet of Lexan. Due to the roll I had to put in the sheet metal for the tunnel gun, weight was needed to keep it all in the correct position...



This is with the Lexan cut to shape. The next step is to make the window frame...


The trick to making this frame the exact dimension around that oval window is to take the appropriate sized washer (or any round object with a hole in the center) and put your marker on the inside of the hole, while rolling the washer around the outside of the window...


After the boundary lines were in place, I cut out the middle first...


Then the rest of it...


Now for the fun/scary part. Making the joggle for the window to sit in the frame. The dies used here is what I made yesterday so that the joggle would be the right depth. If I were to make even the smallest error when rolling this out, I'd have had to start all over...



And here's the finished frame, clecoed to the window...


I'm waiting for the ball socket that the gun goes in to arrive before I can continue on this project. So you'll see updates on this piece later.

Gary

It's really nice to see how much hard work goes into a detail like this. I think most folks at the airshows will walk by and say " Hmm that looks neat" and then keep on walking. Never realizing what it took to fabricate these gun positions.

You're not the only one learning something new everyday. I've never worked in aluminum and rivets before, but following your progress is tempting me to learn. I would probalby start with something small like a dog house. It think that would actually look pretty cool.

Anyways it will be neat to see you fabricate the support fixture for the .50 cal. Keep up the good work.

Shay
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Semper Fortis

I probably should have included these two pictures earlier too...

Just imagine a hole in the center, with a .50 cal. sticking through...


The things in the center are just weights to hold everything in place until I can build the framework...


Gary