As Gary mentioned in a previous thread today, I had the privilege to give him a hand working on the Thud this past Friday. It was my first time doing anything like this even though I’d always wanted to help with an aircraft restoration. Having no experience what so ever, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect (as I sure Gary didn’t either!). By the end of the day, I learned many fun new words like cam-lock, inter-glandular corrosion, etc.
Anyway, I started in the spine of the aircraft with Gary removing cam-locks and rotted magnesium panels. Lots of rivets to drill out and a battle damage repair panel had to be removed. Gary was also working on cutting away damaged sections of the right side trailing edge and wing tip. He will be working his magic to replace all of these damaged areas.
The cockpit was pretty stripped.
It was sprinkling some during the morning, but the overcast was welcome and didn’t slow us down much at all.
Once the work on the spine was complete, the majority of the rest of time I spent opening up the hinged panels along the side of the nose and the rear of the plane underneath the engine compartment with the help of Gary and some penetrating oil. Gary even managed to get the refueling probe out which was pretty cool.
(Note the 20mm ammo feed chute)
The worst discovery was that nose had been home to an owl at some point. Luckily, it had checked out already and wasn’t home. The nose was deep in owl dropping and also “food pellets” as Mr. Wizard (aka Gary) told me. Apparently owls eat things and then regurgitate this to feed their young? Yuck. The ammunition bay was its main lair as there were several eggs and rodent skulls among the mess. The smell was pretty rank as you can imagine. Also note the beer can that some ignorant %^*$ stuffed inside. As we opened the panels, owl stuff was literally just spilling out. Then blowing out - yummy on a windy west Texas day! The horror!!
The best discovery of the day was the data case in a right side forward panel. We both looked at each other and said I wonder if something is still inside? Sure enough, there was a manila envelope inside containing some invoice paperwork and envelopes addressed to Maguire AFB in NJ! Note the $.15 cent postage! Also was a checklist card of some sort. All were dated 1979. A great score for sure, one we were proud to have discovered.
I did spend a little time over at the Voodoo. She is in a sad state at present. The cockpit is fairly stripped. I did manage to climb up and shoot some photos through the hole smashed in the right side of the forward canopy. The throttle is still there, but not much else. The rear cockpit glass is intact, so the only shot I got of it was through the missing searchlight panel on the left side - a shot of the rear ejection seat data plates (the front seat is missing). The instruments are gone and the scope glass is smashed. Gotta love the vandal mentality – if I can’t steal it, guess I’ll smash it…
If anyone has a spare set of F-105 tires, Gary would like to hear from you!
It was a wonderful day and I really had fun. It was an awesome experience! Getting to meet the Man, the Myth, the Legend, Mr. Gary Austin was too much for this humble WIXer.
Hopefully I can make another trip out to west Texas next month to work on her some more if Gary will have me out there again. I promise not to break anymore apex bits, really!
Also, I hope that everyone enjoyed the large number of photos. I tried to limit myself to the number posted but I wanted to share with everyone what went on as best as possible. Maybe I got it right?
-Derek
p.s.-
Sort of before and after photos
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