The Perfect Christmas Gift

A soda / sand blaster from Eastwood supplies.Nothing like stipping paint to make you feel like a man.

Powder Coating for Dummies

If you want to know all about it...look it up on the net. I'm very happy with the results.

SPAR ATTACH FITTINGS

Silly me- Why put all this work into the parts and area holding the wings on.

Why Wood Wings ?

Because steel wings are too heavy , thats why.

Give Me Some Skin

SURPRISE ! Leading edge aluminum skin thin as paper thanks to corrosion. Amazing what some jerk leaving a pretty little airplane outside can do to add one months work to my project. If I find him I'm going to reskin him and see how he likes it

ELEVATOR

Here's a few pics after some work.

Elevator to the top floor

The elevators proved to be major rebuilds . Once again stipping the fabric made the extend of wood rot and metal corrison visible

IT WOULDN'T FIT IN THE BEDROOM

I was told by a wise old arab you can achieve hours of pleasure in your bedroom but the damn wing won't go up the stairs! So once baby's fuselage was hung the left wing was located into the basement workshop . It fit's neatly in and I didn't even have to move the cat's litter box.

I can bore people to tears describing all the work but I'll let the pics and video walk the talk.
* every time the cat comes down it had to endure me picking her up and showing her my progress. It's getting pretty fast at "dump-and-run" now.

Sail a Rudderless Ship

The rudder took a beating out in the wind and rain. Only when the fabric was removed was the extent of the rot seen. Ribs had seperated, plywood had delaminated , and bolts corroded beyond even scrap value. The spar warped by fabric shrinkage and had to be built up.As we speak my lovely rebuilt rudder hangs in my computer room where I can throw darts at it.

Say Goodnight Baby!

My selfish wife demanded the garage for the winter for..for..a CAR! In the interested in preserving what's left of the marriage I had to come up with a compromise. Her constant whining on how heavy it was hoisting the car up to the ceiling at night wore me down. Baby is now hung from the rafter's of the garage like a Smithsonian exhibit. Had to remove some floor for the tail to stick up into the attic.

RIGGING

OK-Now that they are on the fuselage lets try to locate them correctly. You only have to rig them if you want to live thru the first flight by the way .For the eagle eyed critics the restoration is just starting. I just was curious how it looked with a tail.

TAIL TIME

Nice piece of tail! New horizontal stabs had been previously manufactured. Here they are on a trial fit on the fuselage.No one told me I'd have to be able to understand the plans...

STRIP FOR ME , BABY!

All of the fittings exposed to the outside showed corrosion. Minimum required was a soothing bath in paint stipper . Those fittings that defied my wire brush faced high pressure sand and soda blasting. They soon learned not to displease me when I ordered them to take off their paint.