Gary ~ What's The Plan For Diamond Lil ? 2006 and Beyond!

[retroaviation]

Items remaining (just off the top of my head)........

Recover, paint, and install rudders and elevators
Install and paint ailerons
Fabricate and install floorboards
Fabricate and install new seats for radio compartment
Install remaining passenger seats
Paint and install navigator's seat
Repair wiring gremlins in cockpit
Fabricate and install R/H waist gunner's door
Finish fabrication of stinkin' entry door and install
Finish fuselage skin repair, just forward of entry door
Finish tail gunner's doors
Fabricate gun mounts
Paint gun adapters and assemble guns
Fabricate new fuel sump drain lines (inside aircraft)
Fabricate new fuel sump drain lines (in engine compartment)
Finish vacuum pump hose fabrication
Finish tail skid actuator installation
Repair engine cowlings (hinges, dzuses, etc.)
Install engine cowlings
Paint cowlings and remaining portion of fuselage
Paint detail items ("Army", "27", etc.)
Weigh aircraft
Service aircraft with fuel, oil, etc.
Run up engines
Come up with new ground school syllabus
Etc., Etc.........

That's about all I can think of for now. However, I'm sure there are plenty of other items that have yet to rear their ugly heads. I have just under 5 weeks to get that completed. Sucks to be me.

Gary

[Jack Cook]

Gary,
I better not see it in AC first. Oops almost forgot that I
don't buy that rag so you're my only hope!

[Jim MacDonald]

Sucks to be you on one hand, time crunch & your laundry list of things to do, money crunch, shortage of help, the hours you're putting in, the hours your putting in & not to mention all the hours your putting in. On the other hand, having the opportunity to work on Ole 927 & Fifi is something that most of us would give our right arm to be able to do. Hopefully, when it's all said & done & you're finished with 927 (I still want to say Lil) & you're kicking back out at Lake Austin working on your C-47 cockpit, you'll what a great thing you have accomplished & what a big legacy you'll be leaving the CAF with.

Oh and by the way, I was just kidding about being able to see any paint on the drop cloth & palette. But thanks for taking the bait & letting us know what nose art it won't be.

Before you get mad at me though, look at the avatar. The Devil made me do it.

Mac

[Jack Cook]

Hey, nice avatar

[retroaviation]

Before you get mad at me though, look at the avatar. The Devil made me do it.
Mac

Wasn't mad, Mac...just been hearing some occasional grumbling about what the nose art "should've been" when it hasn't even been revealed yet. And yep, I took the bait. We were just talking yesterday about how the WIXers are so detailed oriented that they even deduced what they think the noseart is going to be just from drops of paint on the floor.
But you'll have to do more research than that before you get one of those Crime Scene Investigator TV shows of your own.

I agree that it's an honor to be able to play with these old airplanes. No doubt about it. But with the impending deadline, it does become like any other job I reckon (never had a "normal" job, so I'm just guessing), and the amount of work left to do just gets to me sometimes.

Gary

[mustangdriver]

Gary, as always you are doing a great job there. "Lil" is now a very authentic warbird. Do you need cowlflap motors at all?

[retroaviation]

Do you need cowlflap motors at all?

We can always use parts like that, but remember, our airplane was fitted with PBY Catalina firewall forwards and the cowl flap motors are likely different than the later B-24's.

Gary

[mustangdriver]

Agh, that is right. These are for a B-24J

[retroaviation]

Just another little teaser picture here........




Now, do you think I keep putting that question mark on there because I recently found out it really torqued a couple of folks back at our Winter Staff Conference? Surely not. I would never do something like that, would I?

Or......wouldn't it be funny if after all of this time, the nose art actually is a question mark? I mean, after all, it would be appropriate since this airplane has never really had a "real" identity (other than Ol' 927 back in the War). But perhaps I've already said too much.

Gary

[GrumpE]

Now that is just plain mean and nasty

Waiting impatiently for the unveiling and the ensuing flood of photos and story line here.

Eric

[Connery]

Well that picture does do one thing Gary. It proves that the nose art ISN'T the flag.

[Dan K]

My Fellow WIXers:

I would never assume to speak in Gary's place, but...

Occasionally one of us will post a little, whiney thing like, "Gary, you haven't posted any progress pictures for at least 12 hours. What's wrong?"

If it was I facing Gary's remaining list of items to complete, I believe one of the first things I'd discontinue would be taking the time to post photos of the project, downloading them to the WIX board, adding captions, answering questions, etc.

I'm not suggesting how you should spend your time, Gary. I'm just wondering if you somehow feel obligated to post all the extras just for us. We will all understand and survive if you take that available time to finish the truly necessary things.

Just my $.02...feel free to ignore.

[davegnz]

Understand it's going to be a nude reclining portrait of Gary holding mosquito in a strategic place <rotfwl>

Seriously - if going to paint AM927 as a B-24A the two numbers on her tail should be the last two digits of her B-24A s/n not the last two digits of her RAF s/n (i.e. 27) (yea nit picking here).

Wondering, is the external "Fire Extingusher" door (which should be located under the tarps) going to be painted red with white lettering (this was on all versions of the Liberator/Privateer series).

Dave G
A&E / IA

[Second Air Force]

Gary,

That turned out even better than I had hoped! Did the other side turn out that good too?

Scott

[Ztex]

If you run that photo through the super secret X-ray photo shop ... the nose art shows up like this...


Keep up the great work Gary!
I don't mind if we get daily updates or not. It makes me nuts not to see new stuff but I will live.
Z