• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

B-17 Restoration Thread...

Just more rivetting taking place... So I just took pictures of some new stuff that came in... A sight for the ball turret.... it was pointed out to me that this sight is "hot" as in radioactive.... he knows his stuff.. so I am taking that as truth... and the 50 cal. links I guess are kind of rare these days as well...

-witt

We are having a pancake breakfast at the local airport here in Urbana...anybody wanting to fly in, its a good meal... $5 for flapjacks, sausage, and a drink... plus the money goes for scholarships to local students.... I won one of those scholarships when I was a senior in high school, so it is nice to 'give back'.... and to top it off, it is in the new Champaign Aviation Museum, so you get to dine with the likes of an A-26, DC-3, T-6, & a B-25!
 
"Hot" would be the proper definition of something that's radiating ...

I use to do nuclear power plant decontamination equipment design ... I was fine till they started handing out the dosimeters. YIKES!!

Then the magenta and gold streamers started going up all over the warehouse.

Didn't take me long to find a new job.
 
I worked with power plant/reactor repairs on nuclear subs in the Navy for a couple of years. Never did like having to suit up for that.

Keep up the good pics Witt! Makes ya realize that there's a whole lot more to a B-17 than just wings and engines.
 
My Dad used to work at a uranium enrichment facility for Goodyear Atomic (the same Goodyear that makes tires). He was walking out from wherever he worked at the time and an alarm started going off...he had accidentally been irradiated due to a coworkers mistake. I tell him that's why I turned out 6'5" when he's only 5'8".:173go1: Also sort of back on topic, I found a compass in our attic from my dad's army days that warns that it's radioactive and needs to be return to the department of defense...whoops!:monkies:
 
Just some pictures to keep everyone interested... still more rivetting...

Check this forum to catch a few more 'detailed' photos... a bit more detail than myself w/ my iPhone...

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/2681041367

-witt

I managed a pic or two from the other hanger of inside the A-26 & the B-25... also are pics of the seat, the tail being polished once again to be painted, again...... and a drawing to know how the damn thing goes together in the end....
 
I forgot to take a picture of what we were working on on the seat...we are trying to figure out how to make that bead that goes around the edge... I will take a picture the next time I am up there....

Snagged a pic of the chin turret housing ready to go in, and the second best mode of transportation down the tarmac....

-witt
 
I stopped by after work Tuesday to help mask off the tail to be painted... I will grab pictures of it painted tomorrow...

-witt
 
Exciting stuff, Witt! I'm really glad the nose, seat, and other assemblies are coming along so well, and I'm sure having the tail painted is going to be a motivational boost of inspiration! I was reading an article in the latest addition of Warbird Digest, that really put into perspective what it takes to pull off a ground-up warbird restoration, especially one as big as the B-17. A single bulkhead might take a month or more to reproduce, through finding the right drawings, making the tooling, stamping, machining, or pounding out the part, and then finally fitting it. This could be repeated over and over again with many parts that one never even sees or thinks about when viewing the final, restored aircraft - how much man hours and devotion required is amazing! Thanks again for providing these great updates on the progress!
 
Wow this is still my favorite thread to check out from time to time to see the progress on her. Looking great. Love the pics.
 
So we masked off the tail... Dad was meticulous about the placement of everything...even though if you flip through photos of the 401st no two planes had the same configuration of numbers, stripes, and letters on the tail...

That being said.... here's a shot sans letter "S"....

So it looked good when everything was done... (don't have a photo though) till apparently someone mentioned that the numbers were wrong.... the wrong size that is... and sure enough, I guess they were... dad had ordered the stencils and apparently the guy made them wrong... we didn't notice when we put them up, no one did.. and that tail must have sat with those stencils on for a few days!.... So.... I am not sure what the plan of action is now... He was pretty miffed about it... Probably will start from scratch...

Who here has dealt with industrial strength paint remover?????

:ernae:

-witt
 
Also we had our annual volunteer banquet. There was an individual there, retired obviously, who put in over 800 hours in a 6 month period... I increased my hours over last year, 65 or there abouts this time.... not too shabby for someone with a full time job, 2 hour drive everyday, and two kids under the age of two.... My goal for next Jan. is to have 100....

Here is a pic the wife took of the volunteers at the dinner... This is not all-inclusive, but I'd say a majority of the volunteers that have spent a lot of time there are in the photo....

Also, dad gave a little presentation on his trip on Liberty Belle across the Atlantic...

-witt..

A :icon29: to the first person to pick me out....
 
Wittpilot said:
... A :icon29: to the first person to pick me out....
Click to expand...

So? what's this? Where's Waldo?

Third row back between the kid in the blue and white striped shirt and the older gentleman with the gray shirt.

---

Too bad about the tail there Witt ... I do have one question though.
You are obviously going to paint a white S on that triangle? Though according to my books written by Mr. Freeman, says that the group letters were usually left bare metal, and I don't detect any premasking of an S on that black triangle.
 
Great paint job, shame about the stencils. Always frustrating when stuff like that happens.
We're just spraying up our Whirlwind project at the moment which is the first time I've done anything other than small parts, panels etc. Masking is definately the most frustrating bit, takes ages and its sprayed in no time!


"Who here has dealt with industrial strength paint remover?????"

Not sure if you have an equivalent other there but we use Ardrox 2814. It doesn't burn like most, in fact you can put your hand in it without any effect. Its also the best stuff I've ever used, you spray it on and just leave it for a few hours and its virtually falling off. It took two days to do the DC-3 fuselage. Only downside is that it can't be used on mag alloys but theres a less powerful version which does (and is still pretty good).
 
Snuffy said:
So? what's this? Where's Waldo?

Third row back between the kid in the blue and white striped shirt and the older gentleman with the gray shirt.

---

Too bad about the tail there Witt ... I do have one question though.
You are obviously going to paint a white S on that triangle? Though according to my books written by Mr. Freeman, says that the group letters were usually left bare metal, and I don't detect any premasking of an S on that black triangle.
Click to expand...


Yep thats me, my brother is just to the right of me, dad is down at the right end....

With regards to the "S"... Mr. Freeman knows far more than I could ever know in my lifetime... I'm not sure... didn't think about that... Liberty Belle's tail is like that, metallic letter that is... Huh.... Only thing I could think of right of the top of my head would be the yellow strip going through, it would kind of take away with the impression that everything lays on top of the yellow stripe... Like Sentimental Journey's "U"...

Will have to get back to you on that question Snuffy...

-Hurricane,
Man, having remover that doesn't sting would be nice...I can recall stripping a good portion of the underside of the Flying Lab, *a Beech 18* and that stuff burning like the dickens... and burning through a pair of gloves in minutes....

Oh, the memories............
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top