Warbird Information Exchange

Heck yeah it does.
Thanks Mike!!!!!

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

WIXers,
Process is moving along at a pretty fair clip.
The frame is completely stripped and ready for blasting.
We worked this weekend to strip the front and rear axles so we can send everything out to blasting at once.

photo courtesy of Jerry Murray

photo courtesy of Jerry Murray

photo courtesy of Jerry Murray

photo courtesy of Jerry Murray

photo courtesy of Jerry Murray

It is absolutely amazing how heavy the rear axle assembly is. When pulling the rear gear we were forced to use the engine cherry picker. Two of us tried lifting by hand and got the gear to hover about 1 inch.
The gear comes out similar to a 9 inch Ford rear, all in one piece. The differnce is this one weighs 4 times as much.
Once again the rear gear was in pristine condition. Definitely a lot of sludge buildup inside the bottom of the housing after almost 70 years of sitting around.







The next order of business after removing the gear and backing plates was to get the giant leaf springs removed. Using a breaker bar with a pipe attached or pneumatic impact was useless against these bolts so we used the 'ole "flame wrench" as persuasion. They came off like they were finger tight!









Next step is to get everything big out to blasting and begin blasting the smaller components in our own cabinet while moving on to body work.

Updates to follow and as always you can view the high resolution images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29510921@N08/sets/72157613090902436/

Regards,
Mark

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

Nice update, Mark. Those 1-ton pumpkins are definitely HEAVY!

It just dawned on me that we've never asked you what the odometer reading is on the van. By the looks of the ring gear it didn't pile up a lot of miles.

Scott

Hey Scott,
Funny you mention it. It never dawned on me to look!
I will take a look next time I am out and get a pic.
I didn't forget about your pictures of the shelves in the bomb trailer. This weekend was the annual "Polishing Party" at the museum and it was a zoo! Hopefully it generated a little $$$ for the museum.

I think the rear end was rebuilt like the engine and never really moved. The gear is in great condition, no wear on the gears. The bolts are safety wired (something we don't think that Ford would have done at the factory) and it is tough to tell in the pictures but the same red paint was used as on the engine (once again definitely NOT factory).

It's almost like the birds that go out to AMARG, full maintenance run up to be sent too mothball.
I am wondering if they did the same thing before they sent this van to surplus.?.?

Regards,
Mark

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

I'm not exactly sure if the WAA rebuilt every vehicle to "as new" status before storing them, but the Army did extensive maintenance on vehicles that were to be stored for possible further use. In my airfield history research, records show that a good bit of time was spent at the Motor Pools to refurbish the equipment. The vehicles and equipment were then sent to a depot for storage and further overhaul, or, in some instances, sold at auction at the airbase when declared surplus.

No sweat on the trailer thingy!
Scott

I wonder if that may be the same van in the picture with the 2 thousandth FORD built lib?Anyway the pics are great and what a neat little truck/van.Saving a piece of history like that is to be commended.Cant wait to see pics of it finished.I'm going down to Douglas,Ga and dig out the half track and take it for a spin.Great job you guys are doing and look forward to more pics as well.Thanks for posting.

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Hang The Expense

Well after a month and a half away I finally got a chance to get back to the hangar and get my hands dirty with the Van Ette.

Quite a bit of work has been going on by members: Jerry Luther, Jerry Murray and Allen and Richard Raley.

The frame and other large chassis components have been sent out for media blasting and the crew has been hard at work media blasting and priming the smaller components to prepare for re-assembly. The work are has also been re-organized with shelving added and room for our new project that we are taking on. This new project is a 1942 Ford SNOGO snow plow documented to be used at the Willow Run Bomber Plant during WWII. This vehicle has had restoration started on it by some friends with the UAW but the YAM Ground Vehicle Restoration dept. will now be overseeing the project. More information on the SNOGO can be found here: http://yankeeairmuseum.org/resto-projects/snogo.html

Volunteer Allen Raley and I were tasked with removing the ring gear assy from the gear housing. Jerry Luther had already removed most of the hardware and after some tugging and back strain it was free.




After the housing was cleaned inside and out with mineral spirits and masked for media blasting of the exterior.

Here is volunteer Richard Raley getting down and dirty media blasting chassis components.


Jerry Murray has been doing an outstanding job getting the suspension components disassembled for media blasting and primed for assembly. Here is the organizing job I walked into when I got back. Great job guys!

And that's only half of it.

Allen Raley and my primer job after Richard's media blasting of the parking brake handle and cable.


It was good to be back at the hangar. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things and get to the hangar more often. If only the grass would stop growing so I wouldn't have to mow it .

We seem to be on track and way ahead of where we thought we would be.

Scott, I forgot to look at the mileage on the odometer. I wrote myself a note and will get it next time.

And if I could borrow some money to pick up this baby please make checks payable to Mark Popejoy.........
She's a beaut...I DO need someplace to store my tools!







Good to be back,
Mark

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

Glad to see an update on the Van Ette! The SNOGO will be another worthy restoration subject. I'm so glad that you folks are saving the ground equipment for posterity--far too much of that equipment is ignored in my opinion.

You're gonna shame me into working on that trailer I've been avoiding.......

Scott

HAHA,
Sorry about that Scott. If you need any info/pictures of ours let me know.

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

Made it back out to the hangar this weekend. I got a call from Jerry Luther that the frame and all of the large components are back from the sandblaster. They did a really great job!!! The frame looks GRRRREAT!!! (As Tony the Tiger would say). The off color splotches are where we touched up scratches and light coverage with the rattle can.



I took a pick of the cluster for you Scott, 0 mileage on the odometer.



We all took to wiping the frame down with wax/grease remover, shaking some cans and painting the frame. We got a good first coat of high gloss black on. We still have to flip the frame and do the other side as well.





We also removed the headliner from the Van Ette. Almost 70 years of vermin nests above it made for a dusty, dirty afternoon.

Shortly we will begin the assembly process on the frame while we decide what we are going to do with the body.

Here is an poor quality image of where the progress is on the SNOGO. I believe we are going to do some tear down on it to paint some things that were not done historically accurate.



You can see most of the chassis is done. The frame needs to be painted high gloss black as well as some other components. The Flathead Ford V8 and transmission has already been overhauled. The body has been sent out for blasting and has been primed. You can see the cab sitting behind the chassis. Also behind and to the rear of the chassis is the snow thrower assy. What a contraption this is. Many hours of sanblasting ahead of us on this one!!!!!!

Regards,
Mark

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

Eight-tenths of a mile sure makes you think that Uncle Sam completely refurbished and stored the van, doesn't it? What an interesting project that machine is.
The SnoGo is gonna be neat also. I may have a couple of photos somewhere from Grand Island or Kearney of one of their SnoGos in action. If I ever find it I'll see that you get a copy.

Cool!

I love the speedo. I've never seen one like that before. Basically the same layout as the car and pickups and even the COEs, but the color combo is completely different. The others are all monochromatic, tans and beiges and browns. So cool.

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Sure, Charles Lindbergh flew the plane... but Tom Rutledge built the engine!

Visit Django Studios online or Facebook!

I like in the middle of the speedo it shows you what gear you should be in for each speed.

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci

[quote="mtpopejoy"]Had a full crew to the hangar yesterday to work on the Van Ette.
Our goal was to get a wooden frame built to hold the body once separated from the chassis.

Making progress!!!!!

Is That N3774 in thd background? If so, I'd sure love to acquire a HR of her. My most recent picture of her is one that a friend of mine, the late Bill Slate, sent me back in the late 70's

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Gary,
It most certainly is N3774, "Yankee Warrior." I will do my best to get you a good HR image of her the next time I see her, hopefully this weekend. She has been out of town on the show circuit for the last few days.
Regards,
Mark

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Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards... for there you have been and there you will long to return. Leonardo daVinci