SNJ-5C with FASRON 11 at Atsugi, Japan

[Hunterfan]

[size=18][/size][size=24][/size]

Thanks for the reply, it's a shame that so many NAA plates have disappeared- but I guess they did make great souvenirs.

I look forward to seeing any pictures of the overhaul plate.

[F4U-1]

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Last edited by F4U-1 on Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Tim Savage]

Hi Chuck-

I have got fifteen different projects here, and I have seen a bunch of different things. I had at least one unmolested SNJ here that had the data plates on the right side. Probably done at overhaul. I suppose it depends on what guy was doing the overhaul on what day.

I also have some SNJs and T-6s where the NAA plate is also metal. I suppose they could have been replaced at overhaul. Got a few bad phenolic ones too...

You are correct, though, from the factory they should have been on the left, I should have been more clear.

[Hunterfan]

Gentlemen, thanks for some very interesting replies - and I've just Googled 'Phenolic'.

I will try and dig out a picture of the plate from an old RNZAF Harvard Mk2 in the Auckland Transport Museum, (if that's not thread creep)..

[stumac]

Hi Tim,
Where are those pictures you promised? I recently ran across a guy who claimed he had a bunch of the tailhook compnents for the SNJ-5C (can't think of his name at this moment).

[Tim Savage]

Hi Tim,
Where are those pictures you promised? I recently ran across a guy who claimed he had a bunch of the tailhook compnents for the SNJ-5C (can't think of his name at this moment).

Hey Stu, been waiting for the tail cone to come out of the paint booth. I haven't been out to the shop this week, as I am working at my other business. (Dang economy ) When I was out there last week it was in there being prepped for paint. Hopefully, I will be able to post something soon.

We have an original tailhook and of course the trapeze and associated components as shown in these photos.

Always interested in tracking down more SNJ-5C stuff, as we have a couple more...

[Randy Haskin]

Tim -

The airframe looks like it had quite a lot of corrosion in those shots you posted earlier this month. Are the other 5-C airframes in similar condition?

How has this airframe compared to the other three (4?) that your company has reworked?

[Tim Savage]

The SNJ-5Cs we have are worse than the other airframes we are/have worked on. Two of the airplanes we have finished started as flying airplanes. We still found a lot of hidden corrosion, more than I would have expected. Since we did those two airplanes we have mostly been working on projects that have been sitting. Although some are working on came from guys who started them and then gave up.

My favorite one was a tail cone that a guy was rebuilding. It was all primed and looked real good. That is, until we stripped the paint and found out he had bondo'd the a great big corrosion hole on the panel where the vertical is attached. Nice.

[Randy Haskin]

he had bondo'd the a great big corrosion hole on the panel where the vertical is attached.

What, is that a problem?

[Tim Savage]

he had bondo'd the a great big corrosion hole on the panel where the vertical is attached.

What, is that a problem?

Not really My favorite was the T-6 wing we repaired that had a previous repair. They apparently couldn't find a way to buck all the rivets so they filled the rivet holes with bondo and made a rivet 'head' out it as well.

[Michel Lemieux]

so they filled the rivet holes with bondo and made a rivet 'head' out it as well.

Tim...any pic of that ???? That's lot O work to hide crap.

Michel

[Mike Robinson]

Now those are good stories.

Bondo Buckheads

[tinbender2]

he had bondo'd the a great big corrosion hole on the panel where the vertical is attached.

What, is that a problem?

Not for a lot of GA mechanics.

It used to be considered a cardinal sin, but I am finding it much more often than in previous years. And I'm not talking legitimate aerodynamic smoothing fillers, but AutoZone's $10/bucket bondo.

There is a hack shop an hour away, that uses that crap on most of their (illegal) repairs, to hide their abominable sheet metal work and Walmart pop rivets. But, their customers are quite happy, paying a $45/hr shop rate.

Another trick of meatball mechanics... using non-structural solid rivets instead of structural, because they are so much easier to install. They usually slop enough paint on them to hide the rivet head identifier, but I did find one instance where someone actually put dimples in the heads to disguise them as AD rivets. Pretty easy to tell when you start drilling them out though.

[Mike Robinson]

Did you find any ways to do internal steel tube frame rust detection like eddy current or anything else?

[tinbender2]

When I went to Mooney school, their technique was to cement (contact cement) a small magnet to a thin 4ft rod (tig welding rod) and slide that inside the steel tubes of the fuselage. Any rust present when the rod was withdrawn failed the inspection. The instructor also said every time he did this, he found rust.