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B-17 Restoration Thread...

Insert drum roll here.....

What we have here folks, is one complete pilot's chair.... Now we are working on attatching it to the seat frame...... It has taken two days to try and do that thusfar, we keep hitting glitches.... I did make mention this evening that I think this seat has seen more action than any B-17 in all of WWII.
 
Wow! Witt, glad to see the chair made it to completion before the plane did!

Good job too btw! LOL!
 
So even after checking and double checking, we found out we made a part on the seat out of aluminum and it should have been made out of steel. So most of the evening was devoted to remaking those parts. I snapped a photo of the door to the hangar as you walk in. I would say by the end of this month we will have a completed seat and frame to place inside the cockpit and sit in and make airplane noises.....

-witt
 
Here are some pics I took last week. Still trying to fit the seat to the frame correctly. It is difficult since our seat is 'off' a bit in different aspects so it is going to take a little finagling (sp)??? to get it right.

What's the old phrase? Rome wasn't built in a day right?

And, here's how the "Lady" looks on one side currently...
 
Climbed up on a table tonight for a higher view.... Note the Kevlar Cheek guns... They came from a shop up north from what I hear, from a very prominent figure in both aviation, and auto racing... Any guesses?

-witt
 
Thank you for the photos, Witt! My guess would be that Jack Roush's shop must be the group responsible for the molding of the cheek-gun blisters...I know they have made molded-copies of other items, such as replicate drop tanks and bombs for Mustangs in the past. When painted, you wouldn't notice the difference, whether they were metal or kevlar. Aluminum Overcast, for instance, flies with a replica carbon-fiber nose turret, but you would never know otherwise.

It's really great to see the progress being made!
 
I meant to grab a photo of this last week, but the battery on my phone gave out...

This is the jig they will use for the radio room...
 
So there comes a time in the course of human events.... when you must have a little something to push you through to that next level. Having worked on our pilot's seat and frame for almost two years, it was time for a little burst of encouragement. So that is indeed what we did. You could say it was one of those, "Ah, what the hell" type of moments.... Followed by several minutes of, "If this **)#@&$# doesn't fit................" Let me tell you, for a second it was touch & go and I thought dad was going to lose it.... But guess what, the sucker fit fine......

FYI, You must note that I do look like crap in all the photos I take at the airport because by that time I have been up working on my feet all day at the factory for over 13 hours. But, have a look...

Not completely done yet, still some small things to be done...

It was hard to get back into a B-17 mood... I'm still on a B-25 high...
 
Two years?!! LOL!

Looks good Witt ... and yeah, if I was Dad and after two years your masterpiece didn't fit, I'd blown a gasket too!

Congrats and thanks for updates.
 
I know the updates have been sparse... but so has my free time.

Work, Work... little more work... Fortunately we are going back to 5 day work weeks!

Here is one of the radio room seats that some students in my dad's class is punching out... Needless to say, the "rate of production" is slightly better the second time around. Also, we are working on the co-pilot's seat, and we are working pretty quickly on that as well.
 
Boy, I bet you guys thought I'd given up on this didn't you... well it has been a really busy summer... and sometimes I'm just plain too damn tired to really accomplish a whole lot after work. But here's a few i took last week...
 
Grabbed a shot of the bombracks in place. You can also see the famous "rope". Quite helpful when navigating through the plane when you're in a hurry... Also the fiberglass cheek gun ready to be attatched.

-witt
 
Looks like things are moving along nicely Witt. My kids just took an inside tour of "Nine O Nine" a few weeks ago at the Kankakee Airport. Nothing like being in the real thing as a good learning tool.
 
Good Lookin Family Trans! 909 is a good plane to visit.

Witt, she's coming together ... keep up the good work bud.

:applause:
 
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