B-17 Flying Fortress/44-83735 ~ the Duxford resto thread

[OZFURYFAN]

Hi Pete,if you keep getting that close you'll get overspray on your lense!! Great pics mate & thanks for the continuous updates,cheers,Pete Bradley

[The Inspector]

You mean no one there has a front end mechanics brake job wheeled seat? Got to be deep in the 'NO FUN' zone kneeling on that cement.

[the330thbg]

Add these wheels and you are ALL set!

[bomberflight]

the330thbg ..... I'm not sure how historically accurate those tyres are ~ they don't seem to have any tread pattern on them !

I won't let my poor little brain dwell on that thought for too long ~ I'll share some pictures with you instead ......

Olive Drab was first applied to the top of the wing tip section



And then with a VERY steady hand ~ the demarcation line is added to the lower surface gray on the fuselage



Now it's a case of watching the experts at work and trying to capture some of it with the camera









In an effort to try and add visual interest to the scene ~ we'll step back a tad .....



And in case that doesn't work ~ let's try a different angle and use the lens zoom









And finally for today ~ I can't complete this post without including the "art shot" ......



Another update very soon

[the330thbg]

WOW.. WOW.. WOW.., those are great!

she is looking absolutely fabulous!

[cooper9411]

Once againg, Thank you for the pictures. You know how to satisfy my "fix"

[B-17 guy]

Man, it's too bad I dont have room for the 1:1 scale B-17 kit you have. Is that revell?

[bomberflight]

Actually B-17 guy ~ the 1:1 scale came out of a Douglas box .......

Although I do have a Revell one at home



Today's post is about redressing the balance between what's going on in the paint area and the ongoing activities on the other side of
the Conservation Hangar



The third engine is now undergoing conservation .....









And of course the work doesn't get done by itself ~ it needs people to make it happen .....













Let's take a closer look at that exhaust ring .....









And finally ~ the boys have been doing a super job cleaning the inner wing section leading edges



Another update soon

[Travisd80elcam]

By preserve the engines, are they filling them with something like cosmoline or some kind of oil in the engines? and they will dress them up on the out sides? (by dress up I mean clean and paint I assume) Thanks for the updates great pictures.


Travis

[The Tarheel Lemon]

hello I am French,
I'm interested in very close to your restaurant, this is really wonderful what you do, I just discovered your work.
I myself am fascinated by a B 17 I again ask the histoire.Il was out of gas in my town and I want to make a book to tell his story and that of his crew.
I could get a hatch of the plane, which is located at the rear of the engine.
Would you give me a great help if you could be photographing me this site and the trap
thank you very much

[bomberflight]

Hello The Tarheel Lemon ~ I think this is the hatch you are talking about at the back of the engine



And this is the view from inside the undercarriage bay



The inspection hatch on the bench





If that's not the right one ~ we have two more candidates ......





Let us know if we've come up with the right answer for you

[bomberflight]

And now for a few pixs to keep up up to date with restoration progress in the IWM Restoration Hangar at Duxford .....

One of the few skin areas that has required replacing is this trailing edge of the inner wing section.



With the old aluminum skin removed ~ we want to re-use the existing holes in the structure to attach the new skin.



And here's how it's done ......



The holes of each attachment point are mapped onto pieces of clear lexan ( I think I got the name right ) with pilot holes



These are then removed and the the new section of trailing edge skin is put into position

Put back the clear lexan pieces and drill thru it carefully and the holes should align with the original structure exactly



With patience and care ~ these guys make it look easy



And I've learnt yet another interesting and effective conservation technique !



I think we've just got time to include an update from the painting area .....



The second fuselage section is masked off and ready to be primed and painted



The waist gunners positions have been covered in brown paper to prevent paint over spray reaching the cleaned aircraft skins



While the staging is set to prime and paint the tail section later this week





Stay tuned for another update soon

[The Inspector]

A 'hole finder' works too, it's basically two steel strips about .5 in wide with one end welded together to make a sort of cheesy set of tongs, on the opposite end from the welds one side is equipped with a properly sized drill bushing welded to the outside edge of one leg, and a steel pin of the proper hole size on the outside of the other. Slip it between the new piece and drop the pin into the hole, push the bushing side onto the skin and make a drill start. Then it's easy to drill and cleco and be 99.999% sure of picking the existing hole up dead on, it's old timey production tooling that always travels the world with Boeing's AOG teams.

[JohnCFord]

Is this a flying restoration, or a static restoration? I don't recall.

Thanks!

~J~

[Iclo]

It's a static restoration.

Seeing this B-17 fuselage masked and painted, looks to be a 1:72 model scale: when I build one few years ago, It spent some time on my desk in a very very similar state

It's a outstanding job done by this crew in Duxford.

Hoping to see that in next July for my first visit for Legends