B-17 Restoration Thread...

**Wittpilot** · April 8th, 2009, 16:56

Well we got all of the parts for the seat cleaned up... I put the part numbers in the metal with the taps there in the picture. Now they are waiting to be heat treated... In the mean time, I took more of the other seat apart and started sandblasting & painting...

-witt

**Snuffy** · April 8th, 2009, 17:41

Nice job Witt.

(PSssst) BTW ... you'll make the pyrex using a mold ... not a form.

)

**Wittpilot** · April 8th, 2009, 18:36

My mistake Snuffy... I should know that ... It will be interesting watching it regardless....

**Wittpilot** · April 16th, 2009, 16:43

"So this is what a B-17 seat looks like completely disassembled.... Okay... Le'ts get 'er back together.."

"Who's got the instruction book? ..........What? No instructions? Well how the hell are we going to know how to put it back together?.........Original Drawings!?!?!?!?!? Have you seen those things?..........................Any other way? ......................No I don't remember how I took it apart............................................. .................................................. ........

......to be continued.................................

-witt

**Wittpilot** · May 6th, 2009, 18:13

With the semi-crashing of my maine computer, and a new computer that I won't let the internet get within 10 ft of, I have pictures to post, but they are on the camera still.... That being said... Please check out this link for some nice higher res photos taken by a gentleman that works with us on Thursdays.....

-witt

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...3/m/5161042257

lol..I look pretty crappy in the one picture I'm in, but you must understand, I come straight from work, so I have been up & going for more than 14 hours by the time I get to the airport...

**Snuffy** · May 6th, 2009, 20:16

Nice job Witt!!

Like the quad ... wonder if I can find one for myself?

jackedwardmorris95 · May 7th, 2009, 07:23

Do you know if the Liberty belle is coming to duxford flying legends again this year?
Jack

**Wittpilot** · May 8th, 2009, 04:59

Originally Posted by Snuffy

Like the quad ... wonder if I can find one for myself?

"quad" Okay... I must have missed something in one of the pictures..... You'll have to fill me in on that one buddy.....

-witt

**Wittpilot** · May 8th, 2009, 05:07

Originally Posted by jackedwardmorris95

Do you know if the Liberty belle is coming to duxford flying legends again this year?
Jack

Jack, unfortunately the answer would be no... And it is certainly not because Liberty Belle wasn't recieved graciously in the U.K..... but the cost, time, and effort put forth by those that took her over there is overwhelmingly tremendous... You are talking hundreds of thousands, most likely millions, to take her there and back... That trip had been in the planning for many years... and it was suppose to even go two years ago, but they decided to wait to see if they could raise more funds.. If I had to gather a guess, I would say you will not see another Fort over there for quite some time, if ever.... It would be nice to see another film made sometime in the future where everyone could get their planes over there again like they did in '89... Something good though, perhaps a 12 O'Clock High remake.......it's hard to remake a classic though isn't it.....

So, sorry... no, no plans to head back in the near future... My folks had blast though and I don't think my brother wanted to come back...he spent his nights in the seemingly haunted Framlingham control tower!! That, and I those hotel stays in Greenland get kinda expensive!!!

-witt

**Wittpilot** · May 8th, 2009, 05:18

Just checked, Liberty Belle posted some of their stops as they make their way back across the U.S. They are in Spokane this weekend, then Boise, and Sioux Falls for the following two weekends... Any members around them thar parts??

-witt

**Snuffy** · May 8th, 2009, 05:35

Originally Posted by Wittpilot

"quad" Okay... I must have missed something in one of the pictures..... You'll have to fill me in on that one buddy.....

-witt

Can you say throttle quadrant? A quad!

**Wittpilot** · May 8th, 2009, 05:59

I kind of thought thats what you meant right before I posted that... I was like, "A quad???? I didn't see an atv in there... did he mean the golf cart?" lol...

Anyway... I think you would be hard pressed to find one Snuffy.. I think that one might have come out of that bar in Greenly, Greely,........ .... a town in Colorado.............I still think the ash tray was interesting... I have some photos of my own... will have to do the photbucket thing.... I always used imageshack, can we still use that???

**Wittpilot** · May 10th, 2009, 17:36

**Wittpilot** · May 10th, 2009, 17:41

Okay, so imageshack is no longer how it used to be.... and I can't get photobucket to upload any pics..... I am just in a dill of a pickle here... well, the above pics speak for themselves.... co-pilots seat frame with new hardware, throttle quadrant, equiped with ashtray..... etc, etc.... More to come folks....

**GT182** · May 10th, 2009, 17:47

Ashtry? I didn't realise there was an ashtry on it. Is there one on the copilots side too?

I'll have to look in 9O9 next time and see if it's there too.

**Wittpilot** · May 10th, 2009, 17:55

Gary, I do not think you will find it on any B-17 today... That is the first I had ever seen like that... but, as a matter of fact, dad said they are on the original drawings... and they are suppose to be somewhere on the seats too... and yes, I do believe there was one on the co-pilots seat. Now that I think about it, I wonder if any restorations out there have those on there... Maybe some static examples.... I wonder if Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby has them on there, that is suppose to be one of the most complex restorations..... hhhhmmmm.... now you got the juices flowing, will have to do some research....

-witt

**Wittpilot** · May 10th, 2009, 17:59

This has been taken down from another hanger at the airport, waiting to be worked on....

***Willy*** · May 10th, 2009, 18:01

Swoose might still have the ashtray. I'm also wondering if it was on Memphis Belle as she's a F model

**Wittpilot** · May 10th, 2009, 18:08

Willy, if I only knew to look about 2 months ago..............

**Allen** · May 12th, 2009, 17:26

Today I got to seen the Aluminum Overcast again. It was here in 2007. This time I got to take pics. I shot every thing that I could find that had writing on it. Gauges .ext. I just need to find some place to upload them all.

**Wittpilot** · May 12th, 2009, 17:39

Congrats Allen, to be honest, I have not seen A.O. since it's landing accident and with the new 'painted' aluminum.

Something I did manage to forget, or left out on purpose most likely.....

Ask yourself, what would be the worst thing to happen for us for this damned seat we have been working on for the better half of a year? We were preparing to rivet the whole thing together and placing the brackets were not matching up where they should in the drawings... 15 min later of not figuring out where our problem was.... dad said, "Don't tell me the whole seat is too big?!?............................

Indeed friends, we don't know how with all the measuring, remeasuring, and triple measuring, but the damned thing is about 1/2 an inch longer from front to back than it should be...................... Now, to the naked eye no one would ever notice, but we are hoping that when the seat is full forward, and the yoke column is in the full back, they do not hit............ hopeully they designed that with a little more than 1/2" clearance....

-witt

**Allen** · May 12th, 2009, 18:00

I got pics of every thing I could. If these some thing you need to see, I may have it.

I did wonder why it did have 'painted' aluminum. Now I know. By the way I like the sitting in the radio operator's seat on the A.O. I wonder if I could get one for home.

**Bomber_12th** · May 12th, 2009, 18:24

Thank you for the photos, Witt! At least a few B-17 restorations do have ashtrays installed - I believe they are typical 30's Ford ashtrays.

The following photos are from the B-17F "Boeing Bee", which illustrate some of the other locations they were mounted...

In this photo of the navigator's station, you can see it on the right side of the photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spookyt...91038/sizes/l/

And here on the radio operator's wall, which is the most common place to find the ashtrays on flying examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spookyt...33775/sizes/l/

By the locations of these and the pilot's ashtrays, they seem to be centered around the officer's positions. The B-29 also had the same ashtrays installed throughout. I seem to recall that smoking was only allowed onboard while the aircraft was in-flight; after take-off, and before landing.

**Wittpilot** · May 13th, 2009, 17:45

Thanks John.... I have never seen those before, or I have never noticed...Thanks for posting those... I seen a photo somewhere of your P-51 up there...maybe it was on WIX, or it was maybe in a magazine... I can't remember... Either way, looked good...

-witt

**Wittpilot** · May 14th, 2009, 18:04

Well today was a bit of a slow day... we got most of the parts prepared for painting and riveting. Couldn't do much after that, as we realized we screwed up a part on the seat again... We are converting the seats we had to be connected with the armor plating we made... and thusly we had to drill out some of the rivet holes and make them big enough for bolts... anyways, we all three must have got our wires crossed cuz, well we messed up... no biggee, we just have to remake a few parts... In the meanwhile... We decided to take it upon ourselves to enjoy the lighter side of restoration...

This is actually a first for me... I have been everywhere on a B-17... but the ball turret...looked insde one, even poked my head in...never sat in one....

Well... all I can say is.... damn... I could not have done it.. twenty thousand some feet up , noting below you, in a space that small...nope....

You must note that the first two are of my brother, last one of me... took w/ my iPhone so I didn't have a flash... and the turret is missing a lot of innards, so it would have been much much more cramped....

-witt