B-17 Restoration Thread...

**Wittpilot** · December 2nd, 2008, 17:20

Thats right folks... I finally have a second to sit down and start up the thread again... I have been going off and on and nothing huge has happened... The new hanger is nearing completion, but I have no idea when everything will get moved. I think my dad is wondering how he is going to cut move that mural that he painted.... I think he will just seriously take a chainsaw to the wall, and start cutting it out.... lol....

We could not locate any seats readily available, so we have been trying to make our own... no easy task without giant presses to just press them out by the thousands! Dad and I had to manually roll and slowly bend the seat out... no pictures of that..but I got a pic of the seat I was working on last year almost complete w/ the armor plating and all...

-witt

**Wittpilot** · December 2nd, 2008, 17:23

Also... wanted to mention that all these pictures were taken with my iphone, so they aren't the best quality.... but I always have it with me!

I took some pictures of the DC-3/ C-47 awhile back too, but also never got a chance to post them...

***Panther_99FS*** · December 2nd, 2008, 18:29

Nice job so far!

BTW--> http://www.makayama.com/camerapro.html

**Snuffy** · December 3rd, 2008, 04:58

Thanks for starting it back up Witt.

I've missed the updates.

**Wittpilot** · December 4th, 2008, 09:01

I do believe I am going to the airport tonight, so if anyone has any requests let me know. I will have my phone with me so I will get the message.
Witt

**Bomber_12th** · December 4th, 2008, 15:59

Thank you for the new thread, Witt! The amount of work that has gone into that aircraft to get it to how it is today, and what it will take to get it complete is truly mind boggling. I read on WIX earlier this week that the goal is to have it flying within ten years time?

From that last photo of one of the pilot's seats coming together, it reminds me of building the old Revell B-17 kit - as a kid I was quite shocked when I first saw how the seats were structured.

Any information on how the nose is coming along? All that I have heard is that it will be built up from mostly new material, and that the main formers are complete.

**Snuffy** · December 4th, 2008, 16:01

Of course ... I want pictures of EVERYTHING!!! :redf:

**Wittpilot** · December 4th, 2008, 16:40

John,

No work has been started on the nose section yet that I know of... I think everything from the cockpit forward will have to be built from scratch, as well as the radio compartment. The seats are indeed pretty neat... and let me tell you, they just do not look right with different seats on the stands... They had a few different seats around, some from C-45's and C-47's, even some others, and they all just did not look right... Hence why they are making their own. Plus I was a bit against the armor plating idea, but I think it will be neat when it's done. I love that model too Bomber... too bad to buy that model nowadays it's damn near $30!!
btw, did you see that thread over at Wix that someone posted that visited there? One of the first pics there with the wing on the ground is sitting infront of my dad's classroom hanger...

-Witt

**Wittpilot** · December 4th, 2008, 17:57

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a prior thread or not, but my dad actually works at the airport full time nowadays... He teaches a class that they just started last year called Aviation Occupations, or something to that effect, for the local Joint Vocational school... and his classroom is in a hanger at the airport... they spend all day working on planes and... get this..... PLAYING FLIGHT SIMULATOR!!!! man what a class!!! where was this when we were going to high school? he started out with 2 students, and has 14 this year. They have an old Fairchild they are working on, a recently donated partially built Flying Flea.... (the gentleman building it was like an 80 year old retired aeronautical engineer who passed away recently) and now they have a new aircraft to tinker with...

Story goes... the gentleman had not been paying his rental fees for storing his plane in the old hanger at the airport... mind you, it is the old original hanger, no heating, no lighting, no ac, etc. So after trying to contact the gentleman for quite awhile, the mayor of the city told my dad to go get this plane out of this hanger and put it in his... so him and some students went down and pushed it down the ramp... They are trying to get the title to it... I looked inside, the last airworthiness certificate was I believe in '94... so it has seen better days, but its gonna be a nice little project.

Took some pictures... the Flea is kind of hard to get an idea of what it looks like, the wings are folded up... and... can anyone guess what the new plane is???? a beer for the right answer...

and there is a pic of the Fairchild when it was still in one piece,......sort of...... its now bare bone frame waiting to be coated...painted....whatever they do....lol

-witt

**Wittpilot** · December 6th, 2008, 12:29

No guesses yet??

Here's another shot...

**BurningBeard** · December 6th, 2008, 18:41

Is this the Flea you are talking about? I took this in Denmark a couple of years ago.

Beard

**Wittpilot** · December 6th, 2008, 19:37

Yeah, I do believe that this Flea will look very similar to that... Something interesting about it though... it has a stick and it has pedals.... however, since there are no ailerons, the stick only moves up & down.... I would totally be trying to move the stick left and right to turn.... Another funny thing is that on the lower wing in the rear... it has an elevator of sorts... but it does not go down, only up!!! Will have to break out the manual!

-witt

**Snuffy** · December 7th, 2008, 05:45

Nice human interest story Witt.

Where's the 17? :redf: :costumes:

**airtj** · December 7th, 2008, 07:37

Piper Pacer?

**Wittpilot** · December 7th, 2008, 09:28

It is basically a Piper Pacer, however, it is a Piper Colt...They are essentially the same plane. Nice job....

-witt

**Wittpilot** · December 7th, 2008, 09:43

I guess this weekend they fitted the top part of the top turrent up there... I seen this picture on the 401st website...

-witt

**Wittpilot** · December 7th, 2008, 12:19

Took a look at the website... and looks like they actually updated with a few pics.... I think this one gives a good idea of some of the progress made in the last two years...

-witt

**Wittpilot** · January 18th, 2009, 11:52

Some day I know these damn seats willl be done...that day was not last week... I made the piece in the picture that goes across the bottom of the seat... and as always I of course cut the piece the wrong size because we did not realize that it had bends in the piece... oh well... happens all the time...

-witt

--I'm hoping for this year to have at least between 50-100 hours of volunteer time... thats my goal anyways...

**Snuffy** · January 19th, 2009, 03:26

Okay Witt, you got pictures of the TT ... does the TT come with the working machinery too?

I'd like some shots of it in place please

**Wittpilot** · January 19th, 2009, 14:05

Snuffy... I had some pictures in the thread before the crash... will do some digging and see if I still have them on this harddrive... What you see in that last picture is just the frame of the top... Whole top turrent assemblies are a huge rariety in the warbird circuit; however, this project acquired an entire assembly from somewhere, (note: if I had to guess, I think it came from the Soplata collection up north)

-witt

**Wittpilot** · January 19th, 2009, 15:27

Snuffy...Nope, don't have them on this pc anymore, they are on a disk somewhere... I will have to take some more this thursday....

**Snuffy** · January 20th, 2009, 03:07

I'll be looking forward to them. I remember seeing the shots you mention in the older thread. I was just hoping to see the machinery in place

**Wittpilot** · January 31st, 2009, 11:06

Last Thursday we rolled the ridges into the seat panel, and this past Thursday all I really did was round out another panel and get a few pieces ready to be heat treated....
-witt

**Wittpilot** · February 3rd, 2009, 01:58

The new hanger is nearly complete and now houses the '25, the C-47, A-26, and I would imagine the T-6 as well...

***Crusader*** · February 3rd, 2009, 03:00

Originally Posted by Wittpilot

The new hanger is nearly complete and now houses the '25, the C-47, A-26, and I would imagine the T-6 as well...

Really looking forward to coming over and seeing these this spring . I've read your restoration threads front to back and you can easily tell this is a labor of love with everyone involved . Congrats and good luck in the future .

Rich