Warbird Information Exchange

Following the "A-26 Invader question" thread of last year I sent a PM to Mustangbob51 as he seemed to have photos of N917Y in its current restoration phase, asking if he would be inclined to post some images for us to enjoy. He was all for it and I said I could host them on my Photobucket account. Instead of posting them in the previously mentioned thread I'm creating a new one here, exclusively for updates on N917Y with the hope that this might get Bob to keep us informed as the project moves forward. So without further ado, here are the photos. I trust Bob will chime in with more details to any questions by the WIX community.

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Make my day, punk!

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Make my day, punk!

And to end this photo essay, here are four photos Bob sent along from earlier days. He might have further info as to whom the couple in the rear cabin might be. Also check out this website:
http://arcmods.com/restored-military-aircraft/









T J

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Make my day, punk!

So these picture are from a different restoration than the restoration featured in this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8LUB4AAsyc

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

Looks the same to me: why the doubt? Same s/n and N-number...

That is not the question that I asked.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

there are a few photos in the gallery that are photos from other aircraft. any photos that show brown paint such as the control columns are of N917Y. as to the people in the picture, i believe that they are the parents of the family that bought the airplane in the early 90s. that picture was taken along with many other just prior to its final flight to washington state.

bob

work is currently being done on the cabin/bomb bay/passenger compartment, so that when painted we can reinstall the cabling that talks to the tail from the cockpit. once that work is done then hydraulics and electrical can be reinstalled in the fuselage. Jan, brother of the Dave, one of the owners has spent a lot of time doing different tasks on the bird. a couple of years ago he took the engine cowls that were intact, but in serious need of attention, and disassembled all of the mechanisms and restored them. the bellcranks and pivots for these did not move. now, they work smoothly. final adjustments will be made when they can be reinstalled on the engines, once the wings are restored and hung on the fuse. when we were faced with making sure all of the components in the center console were in usable condition, it was discovered that with the first four pulleys that could be removed that 2 of them would not turn. so the decision was made to remove the pedestal and do a ground up restoration. that meant the easiest and best way to do that was to remove the cockpit roof, all of the hydraulics and pilots controls, etc. etc. as it turned out this was a good thing so that all of that equipment could be assessed as to its airworthiness. Jan worked tirelessly on all of the pulleys to get them 100 percent cleaned lubricated and turning smoothly. Dave had all of the parts cleaned, blasted, plated or alodined and then painted, prior to assembly. lots and lots of pics were taken during disassembly to insure that everything was reinstalled in its proper locations. fortunately, we were able to recover all of the pulleys and cables. this aircraft was stored in hangers since it was acquired in the 90's so we are extremely lucky to have an airframe in such good shape.

things that have been done
tail from the factory part line back has been cleaned and painted
the empennage has been reinstalled
the engine cowls and cowl flaps hangers and drive gears are all refurbished and ready for installation
the nose gear bay has been stripped of everything, cleaned, repainted and some parts have been reinstalled.
the cockpit was stripped, cleaned, repainted and some equipment have been reinstalled.
the seats have been restored, still waiting for the bungee straps for lifting the seats.
the instrument panel S/C/P, and placement of instruments has begun.
the cockpit roof has been S/C/P and is in the midst of reassembly (some of the original parts were discarded when the On Mark upgrade/downgrade occurred, so we are working on replacements, so
that both canopies will open, not just the copilot side)
the wings were put on the back burner until the fuse is done, all the equipment in the right main gear well has been removed for assessment and restoration.
the fuel tanks have all been removed to be sent for refurbishment.
the engines have been refurbished by Anderson Airmotive in Idaho and will be delivered sometime.
another volunteer is currently doing the bulk of the cleaning of the passenger cabin in preparation for painting.

that about sums up where we are at with the project at this point. i will forward more pics for T J to post when i can. thanks for the opportunity to share our work on this wonderful warbird.

Bob

Nice work Bob! - love those cowl flap actuators, puts ours to shame.

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The real JR

no man! i am jealous that you guys are where you are at. we have years to go!

This is wonderful, Thanks to all for their contributions

Here is a link to my dropbox folder which contains many more N917Y project photos.
Some of these were taken when disassembling something to provide photo reference upon reassembly.

https://www.dropbox.com/home/N917Y

Enjoy

Welcome to the WIX.
But, can't log-in to your account. ...

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

max is working on a solution for that. hopefully he will work something out soon!

sorry

Anybody with this link should be able to access the pictures on my dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wtdxxt8nojt1 ... nlyJa?dl=0