Worlds only USMC Mitchell PBJ-1J Restoration CAF's Semper Fi

[Dan Newcomb]

I’m really starting to love this airplane! She is magnetic! I will never forget standing on the wing yesterday and looking down and seeing all of the happy smiling faces. After so many years of not allowing myself to get overly attached to a project that at times I had doubts I would ever see completed, I was basking in the glory of finally putting the last major piece of a decades long puzzle together. What an airplane! But more than that, what a crew!
Many of us have been together for years but we also have relatively new folks and they seem to fit right in. That’s because of our attitude or maybe best put our lack of one. We don’t have chips on our shoulders. The more the merrier. We welcome serious help where we find it and we’ll help you if you need it. We have spent years scrapping for solutions to problems that many thought impossible to solve and after years of problem solving and feeling like a stepchild shoved in the back of the hangar our crew developed a bond and a team spirit second to none. We believed when others didn’t. Now I am starting to see others believing, others seeing the potential, others seeing the value of the PBJ to the wing. That big bomber in the hangar can no longer be ignored.
What a great day!
Dan

[Django]

Very cool. Congrats!!

[b17engineer]

Any new news about the PBJ?

[Dan Newcomb]

Sorry boys time flies! Here is an update.


After the momentous wing hanging our focus returned to more mundane and unglamorous work. The rebuilt and newly painted outboard flap assemblies were installed. The rebuilt ailerons should go up in a few days. We finished the control lock system last week and will now focus on the trim system and after that the rest of the rigging. The guys are working on both the nose and tail flooring, when it flew in years ago the floors were plywood! The oil coolers and related plumbing is being installed on the left side. Work on the upper gun turret continues and John rebuilt the cockpit escape hatch. The fuel bay doors and the landing gear doors are being surveyed and prepared for paint. We still have some electrical work to finish. As you all can see nothing but a lack of good old fashioned money can stop this bird now!

Dan

[Jeff Nelson]

Hey Marc, Dan, and Jeff...

In order to keep the entire warbird world informed here... Your recognition lights showed up along with the ones we plan to use in the cabin. Should I keep them here until I come out to do more wiring or would you like to add them to the parts bin in the hangar? Either is fine with me...

[Dan Newcomb]

Hi folks,
We had a huge crew yesterday and with rigging, painting, cleaning and prepping parts along with some housekeeping the place looked like a beehive. After a lot of hard work the boys have both ailerons in place and they look great. Our guys finished getting the landing gear doors and fuel bay doors cleaned and ready for paint and Mike then applied the green paint to the inside of the assemblies. After they dry Mike will flip everything over and paint the outside insignia white. Jeff and Scott and I continued work on the aileron trim system. All of the cable runs were verified and tensioned and the system functions beautifully! Everything is nice and smooth which is amazing considering the length of the cable runs and all of the pulleys the system consists of. Beautiful except for the fact that the left side works backwards! We knew the cable runs were right so after thinking things over Scott suggested that maybe the left and right side drums were different parts and not identical as was assumed. After consulting the parts book it was confirmed. We will fix things next week.
At the end of the day as we sat under the wing talking things over and starting to relax, Marc looked around and said, “Danny, don’t we have a great crew?”
Yes Marc, we do.
Dan

[Dan Newcomb]

Over the last few days our crew has spent countless man-hours preparing the nose section for paint. Yesterday we began at the beginning, the nose. Our intention is to have the most authentic paint scheme possible modeled after a real aircraft that flew in the South Pacific. We are honoring one of our members whose father Doit Fish, flew and died at the controls of VMB 611 PBJ-1J, MB 11. The only thing different is that our paint is a semi gloss that is much easier to keep clean. For the first time in 67 years she once again wears her military colors. The last of her kind.

[mustangdriver]

I love it! This aircraft will be so great to see out and about.

[JOHN MILLER]

KUDOS to all of you.

[Django]

That's gotta make you guys feel great. Congrats! Looks great.

[RickNelson427]

Looks great. Great job by the entire crew.

[krislhull]

Wow! She is looking great, Dan! I cannot wait to see her in person, and meet all of the amazing team this fall!

[Dan Newcomb]

Just a quick update. The painting of the bird continued yesterday. We had originally intended to prime all bare metal and only apply color to the nose section so that folks could get an idea of what the finished product will look like. Those plans have changed. Mike is on a mission to paint as much as he can before our air show in August. Due to schedules and other issues including bad weather we are limited in what we can accomplish time wise. Being so close to the ocean fog and damp is possible almost any time but this time of year it usually burns off before noon. We’ll see how far we get before the roll out for the show and until then I won’t post any pictures. We can hardly wait to see her in the sunlight!

Dan

[gary1954]

Awesome work and craftsmanship there Dan Awesome!!
I am sure this has been covered but I have to dash for work, I was wondering if the Turret system aft of the cockpit will be a fully operational Turret. I know they are heavy and take up space. I'm just axing.

[Dan Newcomb]

No it won’t be fully operational as we are missing parts however what we have is being restored by one of our members and along with new glass it will look mighty pretty when we put it back on the bird. By the way we will be back out Monday spraying more paint.

Dan