F86 Annual Inspection Photos

[sdennison]

Great stuff David...yah for the time being I'm going to start mixing a little 100LL and see if I have better luck. The shop cleaning my nozzles had a he11uva time getting a couple of them clean. Mark Sherman (owns a Canadian CF-104, and Lockheed T-2V Seastar) has developed a fuel additive he's dubbed "Atomix" that brings water vapor into the combustion process, thus eliminating fuel nozzle coking. A byproduct of that has been an 8% increase in fuel efficiency in his Starfighter. He's already developed other successful fuel additives for the small engine industry so he knows what he's doing. I'll get you the info if you're interested. What percentage 100LL did you guys settle on?

I think this is what you are looking for.

http://www.answers.com/topic/bell-performance

http://www.bellperformance.net/products.shtml

[sdennison]

Whoops, try this one instead. Dumas!

http://www.rxp.com/press-aug.htm

http://www.classicjets.org/index.html

[Sabremech]

Today saw us depanel the airplane getting ready to start inspecting. It's mostly opened up with a few panels to open as we inspect. I'll go through the ejection seat and then cover it until it's ready to go back in. Here's a few photos for todays work.





David
WHF Maint

[sdennison]

What a beauty! Thanks for sharing the work with us! I'm an old Indy guy and it reminds me of our old aluminum Indy cars. Yeah, that's how old I am....

[Sabremech]

As long a no one minds, I'll keep posting photos as we go along. Looking to have it done around the middle to end of May. Lots of work between now and then. Thanks for all the good comments as to how she looks. We're going to have to touch up the polish again soon especially with all our fingerprints during maint.
David

[Ztex]

These are great!

I was around when the Texas Air Command guys put the Bolivian Sabres together @ 10 years ago. I got to see all the innards...cool stuff. It is amazing how complex the F-86 is. You can't see that from the outside.

Thanks
Z

[Jerry O'Neill]

I've always wanted a Sabre!
Thanks for posting the photos!
Jerry

[retroaviation]

Keep those updates coming! It's been more than 4 hours since your last update, come on!

Sorry, just wanted to know what it felt like to be on the "requesting" end of that.

Seriously though, please keep the detailed updates and pictures coming as you continue the work. I personally don't know squat about jets and find the work you're doing quite interesting.

Gary

[oscardeuce]

Any reason the wings seem to be painted where the rest is polished?

I'd guess glare vs time to keep that metal looking as good as the rest.

[Sabremech]

Oscardeuce, you are absolutely right about why the wings are painted. I know polished airplanes look fantastic, but the work iinvolved to keep them that way. Lot's of elbow grease.
Since Gary needs an update and can't wait this ones for him. Sorry it took me longer than 4 hours. I'm not sure how you get time to do all the work you're doing and keep up with the forum, but keep it up!
Here's a couple of pictures of what I managed to get accomplished tonight. I pulled a couple combustion liners out of the cans to clean and inspect them. After inspecting them, I'll be installing a few of my spares as these have some cracks in all the wrong areas.

[retroaviation]

Okay, dumb question I'm sure, but are those cracks in the cans weldable? I know they've got to be made out of some fancy material, but is there some special process for fixing them up, or are they just scrap now?

Take your time on the answer.

Gary

[Sabremech]

Good morning Gary, I hope not to have to scrap the can. The cracks that are of concern are at the dome of the can where the fuel nozzle sits. Not being a professional welder, it looks like it would take some figuring out how to get to the cracks to weld them. I'll use some spares for now and take these and see if they can be repaired for later use.
Thanks for taking the time to check on our project and your progress looks great on Ol 927.
David

[Sabremech]

Since I did not get to work on the Sabre today and I'm sitting in front of my computer, I dug up some old photos I have and decided to post them for today. Only thing new on the maint action on the F86 is the job of removing the 4 oxygen bottles. What a job that is going to be. I think the airplane was built around those bottles.



David
WHF Maint

[Rob Mears]

David, check your PM's

[Sabremech]

Rob,
My turn, Check your PM
David

Here's some Hangar flying photos from last years maint.