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Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:07 pm

New Mustang owner, Andrew McKenna arrived Saturday morning at the Lehigh Valley Air Show with his new mount, Jack Croul's P-51D! Beautiful aircraft and he has no plans to paint it. He said he's gonna keep it that way as a tribute to Jeff Harris.
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Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:32 pm

That is the most beautiful Mustang I have seen! Wow!

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:42 pm

It's a gorgeous aircraft! I believe it's one of the limited number of Mustang restorations that has the wings 'profiled' - rivets/panel lines carefully filled, wings sanded smooth, and painted - as done in original production.

On a slightly related note, Jack Croul's other formerly owned P-51D (the second one he had restored) is also based on the east coast, more specifically North Carolina, since being sold to Robert Dickson last summer. This aircraft, however, has since been painted in the markings of a 357th FG Mustang, "Swamp Fox" (and won "Best Fighter" at Oshkosh this year). Some photos were published last summer of the two flying together, around Chino, both in bare finish/factory markings.

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 3:51 pm

I love that one! Looks factory fresh.

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:01 pm

JohnTerrell wrote:It's a gorgeous aircraft! I believe it's one of the limited number of Mustang restorations that has the wings 'profiled' - rivets/panel lines carefully filled, wings sanded smooth, and painted - as done in original production.

The profiling is gone. Some filler departed the lower wing surface a few months ago and they elected to remove all the paint and filler prior to the decision to sell.
We are scheduled to get it into the paint shop soon to get the wing painted but it won't have the filler/profiling like before. Just a nice paint job.

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:36 pm

Beautiful Mustang! Love the factory finish! Will miss seeing it out west but very happy it has a nice new home and owner! Does anyone know the status of Allied Fighters other plane....projects?

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 6:37 pm

51fixer wrote:The profiling is gone. Some filler departed the lower wing surface a few months ago and they elected to remove all the paint and filler prior to the decision to sell.
We are scheduled to get it into the paint shop soon to get the wing painted but it won't have the filler/profiling like before. Just a nice paint job.


You're going to paint McKenna's wing? Is it already painted? The factory look is gorgeous!

Chappie

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:15 pm

Chappie wrote:
51fixer wrote:The profiling is gone. Some filler departed the lower wing surface a few months ago and they elected to remove all the paint and filler prior to the decision to sell.
We are scheduled to get it into the paint shop soon to get the wing painted but it won't have the filler/profiling like before. Just a nice paint job.


You're going to paint McKenna's wing? Is it already painted? The factory look is gorgeous!

Chappie

YES, the wing will get painted!
It will look pretty much like it did before.
As far as factory look, I don't believe they had the masses of workers polishing the parts to shine like it looks today.
New metal as it was coming out of the factory doesn't look like it does after many hundreds of hours of polishing.

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:19 pm

51fixer wrote:YES, the wing will get painted!
It will look pretty much like it did before.
As far as factory look, I don't believe they had the masses of workers polishing the parts to shine like it looks today.
New metal as it was coming out of the factory doesn't look like it does after many hundreds of hours of polishing.


I realize they weren't polished during the war, but being near-factory is terrific. Serial number and national insignia is just perfect.

Chappie

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 8:31 pm

Ah, Rich, I see now how the star/paint is missing from the lower wing surface. As you say, it will look just as nice just re-painted - going through the means of filling the wings really isn't practical. (For those that might not know, having the wings painted silver is part of the 'factory look', since it was the standard practice by NAA to fill, sand, and paint the wings (dull silver) in an effort to increase the effectiveness of the laminar flow airfoil. The ailerons, flaps, gear doors and wing fuel tank access panels were left bare metal.)

BTW, it of course is not a NAA-factory 'detail', but I love Mustangs with Spitfire mirrors fitted!

Also, for those who might be interested and have not seen it before, here is an old video with some clips of "Upupa Epops" (including air-to-air flying) when it was, for a short time, finished in only factory markings and finish before being delivered to FHC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_QBwtaWWY

Re: Jack Croul's P-51 at the Lehigh Valley Air Show!

Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:25 pm

JohnTerrell wrote:BTW, it of course is not a NAA-factory 'detail', but I love Mustangs with Spitfire mirrors fitted!

Spoiler- Don't get too enamored with the mirror. It won't be on there too much longer.
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