Yesterday, the High Sky Wing started work to prep the B-24A's rudders and elevators for recovering and found that they all needed to have the paint and old glue, etc. completely stripped. So, out came the saw horses and the "usual suspects", that is workers, dove in on the first application of stripper.
Unfortunately, another well meaning group had removed the old fabric but did not clean off all the old glue before applying an epoxy primer, so that had to come off, too. If you think that stripper smells good as it bubbles away, just check out Bill Coombes smile for the camera below.
One of our hardest workers is Tom Kingon, who seems to take it all in stride. As we stripped off the new blue-gray primer we found a good bit of old zinc chromate primer below it. Guess how easily that came off - not!
Even after working most of the late morning and afternoon, it was clear that it was going to take more time to get the parts ready to be reprimed, so we plan on holding another "stripping party" this Tuesday and Thursday evening, starting at 6pm at the High Sky Wing hangar, across the street from CAF HQ in Midland. If you are around, feel free to join us.
After getting as much done as we could, the final chore for the day was to wash the parts clean of stripper and loose paint and set them back until the next work party. Plans are to try out a power washer after the next stripping session and see if we can't finish this phase of the work in the next few days. Of course, in the midst of all this, other High Sky Wing members are working to complete the annual inspection on our SNJ, which includes replacing the windscreen glass and hopefully some other canopy glass, all supervised by one of our A&P members Lance Sommers, who will also be teaching us Fabric 101 classes and making sure that the recovering is done properly. Of course, all of this was coordinated with the overworked Gary as he continues to struggle with the rest of the B-24A across the street in the big hangar.
I'll try and post more images after next Tuesday's work session and as the surfaces go back thru prime and recover. Remember, I'm a pilot and not a mechanic, so I'm usually breaking airplanes and not fixing them, so my descriptions of our work will lack some of Gary's intimate details. I'm sure if I mess up, he'll let me know. Fly safe.
Randy
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