PV-2D Harpoon 84062 (Tanker 101) comes back to life

[peter]

Thread creep!
You could stick a radiation symbol near them but then you would find it real quiet around the harpoon!

[Taigh Ramey]

Sorry for the complete lack of posts on the Harpoon lately. I have been out of the country for 4 weeks messing with some other old ex warbirds. Lame excuse I know. Here is what I have been up to which is about the next best thing to working on the Harpoon:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45260

We are heading for a major jam session as we may be going to an air show toward the end of April. we have been working on the harpoon and I have lots of material to post an update when I find the time so please bear with me.

[Dan Johnson II]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop Taigh

Those DC3s are beauties.

[Fouga23]

O Taigh, you tease

[yankeepapa]

O Taigh, you tease

only for fouga 23, sorry if out of subject, cannot send a private message:

see air auction site in france a big sales of aircraft (F84F for our US friends) and aircraft parts including a nose of magister, a periscope (named jumelle) and probably other parts. may be of help.

yp

[Fouga23]

Thanks for the tip Already have those parts though. Crazy prices too :/

[Mike]

The 'poon looked great at HMB today Taigh, with the new addition looking particularly impressive. I'll let you post your update, and won't post a spoiler photo!

[Taigh Ramey]

Thanks Mike. A bunch of folks busted their backsides last week to get the Harpoon up and running for her first air show of the season. We worked long hours and were pretty beat each night so I will post an update tomorrow with all of the projects completed. Sorry no paint yet but some other cool progress has been made.

Here is a shot that my daughter Sydney took on the way home from Half Moon Bay earlier today.



More cool air to air shots as well as a maintenance update to follow tomorrow. Long week of Harpoon work, two days of flying rides so I'm off to bed

[Dan K]

She's starting to look armed and dangerous.

[Jollygreenslugg]

Oooh, I do like the new drag-inducer! This thread is one of my all-time favourites, and I look forward to seeing the metamorphosis continue.

Cheers,
Matt

[Dan K]

Speaking of drag, when does the spat for the tail gear go on?

[peter]

Still no new navy blue party frock then?

[Taigh Ramey]

No, no paint yet. We thought about a quick paint job but figured it would be a waste of expensive donated paint if we didn't do the proper preparation. Dents and dings as well as lots of fasteners that need to be replaced. Rusty Dzus fasteners is one of the seemingly small projects but is actually pretty big. We can't just clean the rusty heads and paint them because they will rust from the areas you can't get to namely under the heads between the panel and it will start streaking the new paint with rust. The only way to fix this is to remove the fasteners and re-plate them or replace them. Fortunately I bought a good stash of stainless Dzus hardware a few decades ago that are the correct size for the Harpoon. I think there are over 400 of them that will be replaced.

Lots of prep to do before paint so bear with us or better yet come on out and help!

Please remember we all are volunteering on the old gal mostly after hours and on weekends. Heck, Larry was working on her all week without pay when he could have been earning a living just so we could make the air show. Great spirit going into this great old warbird from some great people.

Yes, the locked down tail wheel is butt ugly. We were commenting on that just yesterday as we watched air to air video that my daughter shot over the weekend. It is just one of the many projects we need to do so until we get it to retract send out the tail wheel spat and I will bolt it on in your name.

On to some recent work:

We removed the Andover APU from the rear fuselage and moved the batteries to their original location just aft of the entry door. The Colorado boys fixed up all of the glass frames then Scott and his brother started cleaning up the tunnel gun glass area. Ken finished it up and painted the fuselage frames.

Here is Ken pulling out the wiring that extended to the batteries being placed as far back in the tail as possible. When the military gear was pulled out the Harpoon became nose heavy so the APU, batteries and lead were placed in the back end.



Then the prep and paint





We made the glass (polycarbonate) in the shop for both the flat sides and the curved lower panels. The big S shaped panel was a challenge but turned out great. It took a while to make the tooling but it was worth the effort.

Here is Ken, Larry and Ron installing the new glass





Turned out okay







We found the missing stainless steel cowling that covered the exhaust and Larry installed it. It sure looks good too





Some trinkets go back in place

APX-2 IFF set

The receiver/transmitter and shock mount get a good cleaning and then get bolted in place





Impact switch. On crash or impact it fires off the explosive squibs inside the secret IFF (Identification Friend of Foe) so it would not fall into enemy hands. I have heard stories of it going off on hard landings. Glad it isn't working for my landings!

Kenny looks pretty serious about installing the impact switch!



Here is the pilots control box for the IFF mounted overhead in the cockpit. He can destroy the IFF set with a switch too. Interesting that there is an ABA-1 switch decal installed in this late 1945 aircraft as the early ABA-1 IFF was long since obsolete when this Harpoon was built.



The Nav table went back in place all finished



More to follow

[peter]

Wow,,,, wow,, and WOW..! What a great update!!

[Taigh Ramey]

So I get back from a long working trip to Switzerland on a Friday night and I talk the family in to going to the Military Vehicle show at Tower Park just North West of Stockton, CA Saturday morning. We park at our friends the Joneses place and I walk across the way to start looking for cool old WWII stuff at this big MV swap meet. The very first place I go and the very first table I walk up to has a zinc chromate green junction box that catches my eye. I pick it up and about fall over.



In my hand is the J box for the PV-2 Harpoon that sits right above the radio operators table. It had circuit breakers for various things like the carbon monoxide detector and outlets for the radio operators heated suit and signal light.

Now what are the odds of finding a PV-2 J box like this? Wow. I was not looking forward to making it either as it is a bit special. Can be done but would take the better part of a day to do. I was pretty excited and the guy who was a friend just gave it to me. I would have kissed him right there but there were too many witnesses...

The first place I stopped at the MV show and I find a little gold bar for the Harpoon. I just wanted to leave with the new treasure and go bolt it into the Harpoon.



It cleaned up and fit right in place at the radio ops station







Needless to say it was a good day