Warbird Information Exchange

Just another short update this morning for you...

I have to say that having Daniel working here is like having one of Santa's elves on the payroll. What I mean by that is when I leave in the late afternoon/early evenings, he is hard at some little project for the airplane and when I come back to work in the morning, major progress has been made. He was a huge asset to the airframe project on FIFI recently and has already been a huge asset as far as this project goes.

With the exception of about a couple dozen rivets that require both of us to shoot on, the tunnel gun fuselage skin is basically finished. So rather than just waiting around on me, Daniel started shooting the main entry door skin on the frame.........



I was all excited about a little project I've been on, but a mis-measurement, followed by an equally poor attempt at trimming some metal has dang near ruined a critical piece of the puzzle. I think (pronounced "hope") that I'll be able to fix it, so that's what I'm working with this morning. If all goes well, I'll post a photo update of this project soon.

Gary

Like always, your doing a great job! Any conclusions on paint scheme?
-taylor

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Taylor Stevenson

Gosh, between the airshow at LSFM and Oshkosh I am going to be a busy girl this year!

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"It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane." Charles Lindbergh

I'll start this update with a riddle.......
What goes 200 mph backwards that was originally intended to go 200 mph straight ahead?

Here's the answer in the form of a photo...



Don't get it? Well, let me explain ..........

As y'all have seen, I was struggling just a little bit with the fabrication of the lower portion of the tail gunner's section for Ol' 927. Even though my first attempt wasn't a huge failure, I still wasn't happy with what I had built so far. So, rather than build more scrap and waste more valuable time, why not find something that is already close to the basic compound curve that I need and modify it to work? That's where this spinner from an "undisclosed location" comes in.

I started by finding an old spinner that had been heavily damaged on one side and likely to be tossed in the scrap pile.....



Then I had to drill out all of the bulkheads that were the main structure of the spinner......






Once that was done, I placed the wooden buck into the spinner to see what kind of modifying would need to be done and then marked a basic outline of the area I needed.........


Let the cutting begin!!!





There were a few dents and areas of depression that needed to come out before I could accurately continue with measurements and usage of the buck. So I had to take a few minutes and "persuade" them out with the use of a hammer & shot bag and the English wheel.....







After getting the spinner moderately smooth, it became obvious that I'd have to cut this section in half. So how does one go about making a straight line on a compound curve like this? Simple. Just get a string and an old, used nut as a weight and tape it to one end. Then you just slowly roll the piece upright and you have your line...........









Once the line is marked, it's cuttin' time again........





Now for a test fit on the buck.......



And right away, it became obvious that I needed to remove the end of the part (it's tough to call it a spinner at this point )........




After removing the end off of the other piece as well, I needed to put the two pieces together on the buck and then mark one of them to be trimmed. One thing to note here, in order to keep from fighting myself and all of these pieces, I simply screwed the buck right to my work bench...........




And once the two pieces were trimmed to meet in the middle, another set of index marks were made and then I welded the two pieces together. Another note here...one of the reasons this spinner was chosen was because of it's "soft" nature. I couldn't tell you what the exact alloy is, but I did weld a couple of scrap pieces of the spinner together before I got too far along in this project to insure that it was indeed weldable. Oh, and the "unevenness" of some of the edges are insignificant. They will be removed later.......







When welding aluminum, it is crucial to have not only a good fit, but a clean part. Using a (clean) stainless steel brush eliminates any areas of contamination and, at least for me, is used frequently. I have a hard enough time making a nice weld, I need all the help I can get.......





Fortunately for me, I get to ground all of this nasty looking weld off. First with the sanding disc, then the Scotch Brite, then a polishing disc. The idea is that this will eventually look like just one piece.....so don't go tellin' anyone how I did this, okay? ...........




After the weld is cleaned up, I needed to take the piece over to the English wheel to get some of the high and low spots out caused from the heat from the welding.......


Then just a touch more sanding with a D/A (dual action) sander. That will be all of the polishing for now. Once the piece is completely finished, then the final sanding will take place..........




After that was done, I needed to clamp the piece on to the airplane for it's trial fit. I gotta tell you, it was kind of scary at this point. I was wondering if I had just wasted a bunch of time, or if I had done something right for a change.........



Well, after sweating out the remaining details for a while, I decided to press on with it. I decided to make the pieces connecting the fuselage to the compound curve piece by using the method that Consolidated did on the aft portion of the fuselage. I just took short pieces of aluminum, slightly bent them (to match the gentle curve each piece needed), used 1" rivet spacing, and finally clecoed them into place. These pieces were fairly straight forward to build.....









And naturally, once that side was done and the forward portion of the compound curved piece had been trimmed, the R/H panels were built and clecoed into place.........





Well, that pretty much gets us to where I'm at now. The opening in the very end of this section will have a couple of formation lights installed there, so I'll have to form the piece for that too. But then again, maybe there's something else laying around here that will work for that as well. Hmmmmm...........

Gary

Hi Gary, Thanks for the latest insight into the project.

It really is looking good,as my 9 year son, Benjamin, would say,'Wicked!'

Compliments of the season.

Best wishes,Alan.

That is absolutely awsome Gary! Great job.

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Holy crap! Gary's a MODELER!!!

Seriously, that's the kind of stuff I thought only us modelers would try... cut up a spinner to make something else on the plane? I'll sign you up for an IPMS membership right now if you want... just bring the plane out to the IPMS Nationals in Orange County at the end of July and enter it in the 1/32 and Larger Conversions category. I'm willing to bet you'll win...

Fantastic stuff, Gary, I absolutely LOVE IT!

Lynn

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Wisdom, courtesy of shrike: "In aviation, as well as marriage, it's often just as important to be seen to be doing something as is to do it properly in the first place."

Taylor,

No, we haven't decided on a paint scheme yet. At least not "officially."

Gary

Nice work on that "spinner". We do that same thing all the time when filling roofs of old cars. A Neon roof is the perfect curve for the roof insert on a '35/36 Ford.

yup, and he gets to work in 1/1 scale


Hey Gary, I was thinking (put down the fire extinguisher) you should see about getting sponsor for the guns. I forget how much you said they cost but maybe you could rivet a dataplate on them with the donors name on it. Just a thought.

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Not a bad idea considering one .50 cal replica can easily run about $700-$800 and even higher if it needs to be custom made for certain applications.

John

That is a great idea, Scott! We have sort of tossed that around within our Squadron, but have had no takers. In all fairness though, they did pitch in and buy the 250 and 500 pound replica bombs from Bombs Away, LLC. for FIFI.

Our first .50 cal should be here this week. It would look nice with a donor's name on the side of it, huh?

Gary

Its looking great Gary!!! Youre doing a fantastic job!! There are people that really dont have a clue about what it takes for projects like that!!!
And thanks for the pics!

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Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!!

http://www.390th.org/
www.LSFM.org

Trae

Sponsor a gun in trade for a ride.

JimH

Jeez Gary... that spinner conversion was sheer Yankee inginuity! You sure you aren't from Beantown?

Seriously though, that was an amazing bit of documentation for that project... I can't believe the difference it makes on that tail section! Go along at this rate and you'll be sitting in the hangar sippin' bourbon on the first of May just waiting for the pilots to show up!

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA