FM-2 Wildcats!

[CraigQ]

Well I would love to believe that the tail is grey but every thing is telling me different. The drawings call for light grey with three extra cotes 12 inches around the battery. My turtle deck is green on the inside and it has never been off. Also the application of tar on the joints around the antenna most likely wouldnt have been done after a repaint. All placards, "IFF SELECTOR, IMPACT SWITCH" and a few other on the radio racks are still original on top of green. Behind the VAC tank we found a grease pencil mark that said 578 on top of green. Alot of our new old stock for the tail hook and such are green. Now firewall forward was grey, no doubt. My guess is that it is just a late BU number most likely after the war, and they didnt care to go the extra mile.

Our second wildcat, "CAF Crash" has a grey tail that has been painted over a few times, but it is an early Bu 555..

I would definitely go back with what you found, even if against the call outs since you have it photo documented. The tail was one area on ours that had not been overpainted, we were lucky to find original paint underneath racks and mounts that had not been removed before. Here's a shot of the IFF rack in the back.



Craig

[fighter_ace06]

Well here are a few more picture of the Wildcat progress showing some of the new parts that we are building, ADI tank, and fuselage first cote of paint.



























Landing Gear Locks

[CraigQ]

Looking good Conrad, lots of nice work to be seen in those pictures. Still stockpiling parts here waiting on a break in the WX to get some paint work completed.

Craig

[Jim MacDonald]

Conrad,

Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. It looks like you guys are going right to town on getting her back in the air.

Mac

[Jack Cook]

This is really a cool thread and it's great to follow this along. Especially since
my cousin Don was an ace and flew Wildcats in 1942 on Guadalcanal with VMF-121.
Looking forward to the follow-ups!

[fighter_ace06]

Here are some more pictures of the progress. We just got the fuselage back from paint and now have the gear on.

[marine air]

Two questions and I apologize if these have been asked already;

1) Is the plan to build up one WIldcat at a time using everything that exists to get it going, then say start the second using, say 30% new build parts . Then build a third with say, 60% new build parts? Or when you come to a fitting that is bad on all of them, building three sets , or two sets of everything as you go?

2) That panel that is removed form the fuselage behind the cockpit; Is there Any way a second seat could be installed to make a TF4F ?

[fighter_ace06]

The general plan is to build three using what we have and manufacturing the rest as needed. For the most part each airplane is keeping its original parts, no swapping unless truly needed. We have all of the important stuff for three cats like landing gear, axle castings, engine mounts and misc hard to produce items. The general rule is to build four of everything we manufacture, for the three cats and immediate spares.

There is not much structure behind the cockpit for a second person. The flap vacuum tank is located just behind the rear bulkhead. It could be done if you thought about it long enough, and trust me I have. If anything of that sort will be done it will probably be done to the third because the first two are too historic, and original.

Possibly a TFM-2S... We can all dream cant we.

For all of those not versed in Wildcat, that means a two seat wildcat on floats.

[k5083]

Actually the correct wartime designation for a GM-built Wildcat trainer would be SNM, not TFM. So your float one would be an SNM-2S. Or maybe an SNM-1S if you consider it the first trainer variant.

August

[Warbird Kid]

Conrad,

I like you style and thanks again for the updates. This is looking to be some great restoration projects. And even a land based 2 seater Wildcat would be awesome. I'd go to the Collings Foundation with that one and see if they'd wanna start haggling.

[marine air]

Thanks for the explanation. MAybe the third one could have a small second cockpit like on a homebuilt aircraft. Wouldhelp to look at the two place F3F that Tischler built. (Can't remember the designation) Maybe, since the fuselage has to be scratch built, the second cockpit and float fittings can be incorporated into the build process. Might also make sense to put amphibs on it, like Wiplines or whatever's available in that weightrange.
We can dream can't we?!!

[k5083]

There was at least one FM-2 flying with 3 seats in the 1970s.

August

[fighter_ace06]

Check this out.

[Warbird Kid]

Same floats by any chance?

[gregv]

excellent thread, thanks for taking the time to post pics and descriptions of what's going on!

Out of curiosity, what kind of inspection process would the fuselage be subjected to in a case like this? If there was no history of previous damage would it strictly be a series of visual inspections, or are there other ndt processes involved, such as some sort of magnafluxing? Are sample areas de-rivited to check for corrosion between the stringer/longerons and skin? Is there any kind of check for trueness, like using a laser setup or a jig of sorts, or does a inspection for wrinkles in the skin do that job?

Again, just curious, not trying to suggest that something needs to be done that hasn't etc., I'm just interested in how you judge how far you need to go to make sure everything is as it should be.

cheers

greg v.