Warbird Information Exchange

Understood: she's still a cracker. Happy flying and congratulations on a great job.

Meanwhile, back in the Corsair Division...

Upper inlet section ribs that were chopped for oil line routing as a racer need to be made. They need a big flange to allow for trim to fit stock to match the upper section.

Pre-shrinking a bit and then the slapper




"Shrinkles"




Less "Shrinkles"


Deep flange for that curve


Reverse flange


LH shown...RH opposite

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Fittin & Gittin...

First step


Trim stock


Could have done a little smaller flange but...


Made a drill guide off the original to make sure all formers were back in the correct place.


Fitting the skin as well


Gusset


Next?

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Magnificent stuff sir. I've probably said it before but this is one of my favorite WIX threads and I enjoy each and every update. Keep 'em coming!

Continuing Corsair...fitting the new ribs before going to heat treat.





Heat treated. Brought out of ice bath from trip back to the shop and fit to the section to let age harden in position. Very little distortion for these larger thin pieces. Now, to finish by transferring the rivet holes (former spot welds) and the screw holes.





So, all the spot welds will be replaced with double flush rivets. The AN510 screw holes will be matched. Drilled with #40, then Blair hole saw smaller than finish, hand file to near finish and then tapered reamer to true up.









Hand countersink and rivet fit

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Side step...a guy needed a floor panel with a flip up foot rest to fit in an LSA on the RH side. If a passenger sits there, their feet had to rest on the rudder pedals.. When the right seat wanted to fly, they needed the pedals...duh. so here is the fix he liked.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Great solution!

_________________
Magister Aviation
It's all in my book

Thank you for the tip of pre-shrinking before hammering. I seem to remember from airframe and FAA books a deeper than required flange is necessarily, as to not have any scratches from the shrinker on the final surface area of the part. Overtime the scratches will grow into cracks from the shrinking process.

Do you have any suggestions of working and shrinking with 0.125” thickness material for bulkheads? I've worked with straight bends on a block.

_________________
Volunteer
Yankee Air Museum

Chris, I think the same rules apply, it just takes more horsepower. You might need power hammers, thumbnail shrinking dies etc. Hard to say without a particular application to view. I shared some WWII Navy training manuals with Aircorps Aviation on their Reference Library page. The books cover all sorts of forming techniques from the era. You might find some ideas there.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Updates...sub-assemblies going in the upper inlet sections



Permanent installation time...riveting, I know



These have been fun...made the fiberglass "buck" off of a flash mold from the CASC loaner parts



Aluminum on the left, FG on the right obviously...



Goes here after some massaging and trim, heat treat, paint, yada yada

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

So when you can't get there from here...these are new pieces made to replace those lost years ago. How do you rivet these in place when you have limited squeezers and tools? Make it yosef!



Offset shooter...



Fits



Had a "sprung" squeezer as donor, now can use all standard rivet sets and dimpling dies

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Other stuff...made some aluminum trim plates for a light sport to replace "el Cheepo" originals...fun mill work. No CNC here, HJM only (hand job machining)

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Wow....simply wow.....

No words can express expertize and knowledge to this level!!!!

Art as a word does even come close....

Thank you for sharing again....

I only hope your knowledge get's transferred to younger hands for continuity.....

Sincerely!!!!

You, Sir are much too kind. I am just a bump in the road of restoration shops. The Ezells, AirCorps, Tri-State, Westpacs, Odegaards, Vadeboncouers of the world set the standard that gomers like me try to come close to.

I am honored by your words.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

My young protoge, my youngest son, passed away at the age of 25, nearly 3 years ago Christmas. No young Dudes waiting in line to learn the little I can share.

The good news is that there are a lot of young guys out there in the shops I mentioned that will keep the craft alive.

_________________
"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."