Dave~What's the plan for FIFI?

[B29B24crewchief]

Just a few pics to show you whats been goin on here!

This is Jay and his daughter working on putting the inner cowl flap panels back on that had to be removed to take the cowling back off


Guy came over, a local machinist who owns a machine shop in Odessa. Here he is putting on the clamps for the "bell sockets" portion of the exhaust, which also had to be modified a second time.




These housings were also modified. They had the guts removed many years ago so all they do is allow the exhaust to flow thru them and out the exhaust pipe and hood.




John got to work on putting the exhaust pipes on that Nelson made for us and
then the hood goes on.





This is what it looks like when it's done and has the shroud panels on.



This little creation is what I call the breather and drain array. Next time I make ones for the other 3 engines I'll show you how this came about and what it takes to make them.




The next series of pics were taken on Thanksgiving Friday and Saturday when I had Chris, Mark, Rich, Brad, his Dad and Brads wife, Christine! This trio was helping me remove #1 engine.







While Brad and his Dad were busily taking accessories off the removed engine, Chris and Mark were back helping me with the prep work on #2 engine and Richard was working on removing the oil cooler.







Then Christine, Brads wife got to get to have some fun helping Hubby take out the inner cooler plenum.
Here, shes removing the prop control box from the plenum which has to be relocated and installed in a different spot.



Brad wanted to see and feel what I did on the last two of these Mark and I removed.






As you can see, a ton got done in just 2 days. there's actully more that we worked on but I'm outta time.

[Iclo]

Dave: Just again a big thanks to you, spending the time to post often pics and news of your work. I'm sure that lot of peoples appreciated them.

It would be a dream for me to have the opportunity to do volunteer work on warbirds (unfortunately, the only group of volunteers in Belgium restoring warbird or vintage plane, works only during the week and not the week-end )

[the330thbg]

I heard FIFI has new Greenhouse glass??

[B29B24crewchief]

That was done some time ago when Gary was doing alot of improvements to the 29!
I'll post some pics tomorrow of recent events!

Dave

[Brad]

Here's a couple from a few weeks ago. I'm gonna try and get back to Midland in about three weeks.

Me and my wife, Kristine.



Me and Dave, my wife is more photogenic.



After we got #1 off the wing.



Sitting on the stand.



Dave hard at work.



Health and safety would be unhappy.

[B29B24crewchief]

Thanks Brad! I will post tommorrow! I just don't always have time??? I can't wait for your return Brad. You always are a breathe of fresh air for me.
Dave

[Randy Wilson]

Dave's having some computer problems this morning but plans to post more updates once that is resolved, hopefully a bit later today. Just FYI to all waiting for more news.

Randy

[engguy]

It must be a major computer problem.

[Randy Wilson]

Dave's home computer got infected with what I call "blackmailware" - a fake antispyware program that I've seen a few times before - it is really nasty. Yes, he had a good antivirus program installed but this may have been helped by a family visitor. We got it cleaned up but I had to go over just now and reset his browser settings. He is now able to get online from home again and I'm sure will be posting some updates as soon as he can. Just FYI.

Randy

[viking73]

Hi,

Well while we all await Dave's return on this thread, I thought I'd post some of my photos. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Midland and give Dave a hand on Monday, December 28th.

My main mission that day was to clean out the 85 gallon oil tank on the #1 engine nacelle. It was messy but it all went well despite me spilling solvent on my feet….

Here's the front of the #1 nacelle:



Here are a few shots of the top of the tank. I sprayed it out, then mopped the sludge out of the bottom of the tank. Finally I washed it out with a 1/3 bucket rinse of solvent.






Who said working on warbirds was all fun? Here's the mess I had to mop up when the drain catch under the plan clogged up and all the oil and solvent went over the side



Anyway, once I cleaned up my mess, the last step was to take some rags and wipe out the bottom of the tank. Here’s a shot of the bottom of the nacelle with the last shot showing the clean tank. Notice you can see all the way to the roof of the hanger in the second shot.






The last part of the day involved reinstalling the oil tank stand up pipe (?? - Dave you’ll have to correct the terminology on that one). So it was back on to the top of the wing.








Seated and ready to be reconnected.




I really want to thank Dave and everyone there (especially Woody and Tom). I had a blast and I only wish I could have gone out there to help another day or two last week. Dave was meeting his new boss so he wasn't out working with me as much as he wanted Monday. At least I got to crawl all around Fifi and some of the other birds out there. Does anyone want to see photos of Fifi's cockpit or rear compartment? Let me know and I can post some.

Can't wait to see her back in the air soon!!


-Derek

[pontiac58]

Does anyone want to see photos of Fifi's cockpit or rear compartment?

Please do, its been a long time since i have seen her.

[b29flteng]

viking73,

It's called a hopper or temperature accelerating well. Oil from the main supply enters at the bottom through the holes. The oil returns at the top, thus, only a portion of the total oil supply is circulated. The hopper hastens the warming of the oil when the engine is started.

It's nice to know what the inside of the tank looks like, I've never seen it before.

[viking73]

Thanks for the info. b29flteng.

Here's a few shots of the rear compartment.


APU:




Looking towards the rear:




Looking forward:






And a shot of the flare pistol in the cockpit wall I though was pretty cool!




Thanks again Dave!

-Derek

[B29B24crewchief]

My sincere thanks to Randy for getting me up and running again! Thanks to John for the description and function of the "hopper"! A big Hoorah, to Derek for the cleaning job he did on the #1 engine oil tank!! He not only did that but also got all the lines flushed out and completely cleaned the interior of the #1 engine nacelle. I had him do that because you know I can't live with that "Yellow Primer"??
Just a side note' I spent an hour yesterday afternoon, putting together a fairly lenghty post. When I went to preview it, Wix was down and I lost it all. So now I'm working on it again. Here we go;

[the330thbg]

Thanks!! We really appreciate your UPDATES!!!!!!!!!