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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 4, 2013 15:06:55 GMT 12
Cool to see that Harvard in the wartime camo. Is that the one in the Museum now or the one they sent to Australia?
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Post by baz62 on Oct 4, 2013 16:24:44 GMT 12
Cool to see that Harvard in the wartime camo. Is that the one in the Museum now or the one they sent to Australia? Well spotted Dave! That's NZ1087 now in the Museum. When was the photo taken Kevin? This may be when she arrived? I can't recall if she was assembled in 7 Hangar or not. She arrived on the back of a truck with the gear up and wings off. I have a couple of photos taken when we ground run her to inhibit her engine. We built up a static engine (basically fire wall forward) to show people what was under the cowls of a Harvard. Turned up one Sunday to see our engine was now bolted onto the front of 1087! Made sense to take the good powerrplant out as a spare for the Historic Flight. I hope its all recorded somewhere as if they ever think they want to fire her up they'll get a surprise as there are no conrods or pistons (or much of anything actually) inside the engine. Apparently a few people have been caught out buying engines off a museum only to find its missing a few vital bits inside!!
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 4, 2013 16:59:48 GMT 12
I can't help much with the history of that Harvard. It certainly had 'something 87' on the sides. The pic would have been taken either very early May, or possibly during April, of 1986. The earlier pic would have had to been in April when I think about it.
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 4, 2013 18:32:17 GMT 12
Work in progress. Hot off the press, indeed so hot I have not changed the camera time yet. Wheel halves media blasted, then sprayed using a squirt bottle of PreKote. Rinsed off with warm water and now being left to air dry. Tomorrow morning will be into the booth for a warm and then two pack primer, Strontium Chromate 3094. The two pack white epoxy paint will be applied very shortly after and left to cure. www.prekote.com/uploads/1/0/7/0/10704239/prekote_aircraft_application_procedures.pdf
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Post by baz62 on Oct 4, 2013 18:40:25 GMT 12
I can't help much with the history of that Harvard. It certainly had 'something 87' on the sides. The pic would have been taken either very early May, or possibly during April, of 1986. The earlier pic would have had to been in April when I think about it. Yep she had "187" on the sides Right I think she was there to take the engine out (and possibly any other useful bits perhaps for the Historic Flight.) They may have installed the "display" engine. When we arrived at 7 hangar after the swap all her cowls were off so that was out job, put them on! Thanks for sharing this Kev, I'll file this painting info away for my other bits on the Auster. :-)
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 4, 2013 20:31:53 GMT 12
Wheels are a little different generally because of the higher magnesium content in the alloy. The S&S guys here will tell us that any protective coating is better than nothing. Indeed I have seen many variations of painting with all the companies I have worked for. All seem to work. My hubs are far from new. Alodine and acid etch is difficult to use safely at home. I am using the chromate in the primer to provide the corrosion protection. I use the Prekote to give the bond to the substrate. The conventional methods normally have the alodine and acid etch providing the protection and then basically any primer and topcoat could be applied. As long a it was a system that is. The 3094 has been phased out in NZ. At the moment we have a 3094CF (Chromate Free) product on the market. I would not like to experiment with it on aircraft alloy but I do know the new products coming along will be Magnesium based. If a painter was to use a system along the lines of PreKote, Magnesium Rich primer (MgRP), and then a two pack top coat it would be far less hazardous than those previously used. The newer paint strippers are basically non-hazardous also so the paint jobs are a little easier now. As it is my painter will be using the full breathing gear and paint booth. Applying the paints are by far the quickest parts of the jobs. www.paintncolour.com.au/uploads/media/Altra_Bond_3094.pdf
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 5, 2013 14:39:28 GMT 12
Almost as bad as watching paint dry I realise. We are into an aircraft restoration thread though and this is what it is all about. Hours and hours of tedium and mundane work. Hopefully it all comes to fruition when all these freshly painted and serviced parts are fitted back to the aircraft. In this case I now have to find the bearings, hardware, tyres etc and make the wheels back up. The worst part is then that the exercise gets repeated all over again with the next pair of aircraft. And still more after that.... We can spare you that here. I post the Piper restorations in progress and we end up talking Harvard and Devon etc. I get the hint. I will throw in some ancient pics from days gone by on a new thread soon.
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Post by baz62 on Oct 5, 2013 15:32:03 GMT 12
No keep putting your good work up, I for one am keen! So who do you get to do your painting Kevin?
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 5, 2013 18:50:38 GMT 12
I used to do the painting myself but with the two pack stuff I really don't have the capability. When you have a good trailer you end up with all kinds of friends, some even have uses. It's all a trade-off naturally enough and you take your place in the queue. The painter may be hopeless, and slow but he does likes Pipers and tells some good yarns. Worth putting up with.... Having access to the booth and the gear certainly helps... it would be a great deal slower if I tried doing it all from home. Did I tell you how much we are missing Wigram ?
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 6, 2013 22:30:47 GMT 12
Well this is a restoration thread. Many wheels have been neglected by some operators. Neat aye.... the old paint just goes like wet newspaper on the surface. Even better indeed, often it just shrivels up and drops off.
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 7, 2013 13:53:27 GMT 12
Another day, another few aircraft. This is pretty typical of what poor owners and maintainers can get up to. Basically bare minimum stuff. In this case there has been an effort to paint the hubs but there is no evidence of any adhesion, or indeed any protection or primer at all for that matter.
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Post by corsair67 on Oct 7, 2013 16:32:32 GMT 12
My fuselage is on a rotisserie, at least at the front so i could take the gear off and get at some surface rust and tidy up the paint underneath. Geez Baz, the reskinning job you've done on the fuselage of the Auster's a bit rough isn't it? I know dope will tighten it all up a bit as it dries, but I reckon she'll never fly if you don't do a better job!
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Post by baz62 on Oct 7, 2013 16:54:30 GMT 12
My fuselage is on a rotisserie, at least at the front so i could take the gear off and get at some surface rust and tidy up the paint underneath. Geez Baz, the reskinning job you've done on the fuselage of the Auster's a bit rough isn't it? I know dope will tighten it all up a bit as it dries, but I reckon she'll never fly if you don't do a better job! Thats funny I was told "It would ride up with wear". Damn, ripped off again!
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Post by baronbeeza on Oct 8, 2013 0:12:52 GMT 12
I mentioned earlier about the difficulty in adequately getting the corrosion protection and adhesion on 'normal' wheel halves. Most light aircraft about are generally using Cleveland components but obviously other brands are about as well. If we are talking Cleveland then we can work with the vendor's manuals. The aircraft Service Manuals just don't have the info normally. Because of the high magnesium content many of the wheels cannot be pre-treated by conventional means. I have seen many hangars try and use alodine, it may not be the best product at all. www.parker.com/literature/Aircraft%20Wheel%20&%20Brake%20Division/AWB%20Static%20Files%20for%20Literature/AWBCMM0001-9.pdfPage 329 is the guide we have for the pretreatment and they go to pains to explain the two metals and the different processes. Page 330 and Appendices B4 and B5 give us the paint instructions. They also give us the out by permitting the use of acceptable substitutes. This is the beauty of the modern processes where we can utilise something like the system I have been using. The PreKote and 3094 is effective on both aluminium and magnesium alloys and indeed can be used on any substrate, steel and fibreglass included. It may seem a boring subject but with the wheel halves I am doing at the moment it is obvious previous guys have had trouble getting it right. The hubs with the paint literally flaking off is a humdinger though. The paint had been applied nicely, well at least cosmetically. They needn't have bothered... it didn't last and has provided zero corrosion protection. The other set I stripped out this afternoon had a very good coating on them. Indeed the inside is so good I am tempted to just strip and treat the external portions only. That is the big difference with the job being done correctly.
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