This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Post a reply

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Thu Aug 01, 2013 8:53 pm

Here is something i have come up with that it might be, at least in the way of a general idea. Now, at first, I was not planning this many clovers, it just ended up that way as I was using a clipart from online and was trying to fill in spots to make it somewhat smooth like it appears in the photo.

Obviously the font is not even close, but it most closely matched the upper case L, so I just went with it for a general sketch as well as the lack of double apostrophies.

The nose art.
Image

on the plane
Image

now that is a very rough placement on the side view. When I initially did the side view, I lost all the detail of the rivet lines and antennas when I repainted it...

Image

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:11 pm

Tyler--

Excellent use of the field of clovers!

Check your PM box....

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:06 am

If that is a work-in-progress it is an excellent start!

The profile looks great!


Chappie

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 04, 2013 12:14 am

If anyone can donate, we would greatly appreciate it!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/resto ... /x/3562613


I was hoping to get the entire plane done today, but that didn't happen... We stayed late last night spraying on stripper to have a big cleaning day today. We ended up wasting 3 hours more than we planned yesterday preparing everything for the plane such as moving other aircraft out from around it or under it and just general preparing. We ended up not even starting spraying until 6PM.

Then our man lift, which is electric, decided it wanted to be very slow and not charge so that slowed us down. And finally, we had wind competing against us with the doors open when we were trying to lay down the plastic sheeting. It was only myself and another member who was doing all of this as well. We determined when we do this again this upcoming Friday/Saturday, we need at least one more person to help, if not two.

We ended up spraying the majority of the left fuselage minus one section just behind the cockpit windows that could not be reached with the lift from behind the wing... I also sprayed the top of the wing from the root to about 2/3 way out to the tip. And finally, I sprayed the belly from the tail wheel all the way forward to the trailing edge of the wing.

Today, we came in, removed the sheeting and then brushed the majority of the paint off. After that, we pulled the plane out and used the power washer to clean off the stripper. I have to say, the power washer does so much better than cleaning it by hand. It would also remove what little bit of paint remained from brushing.

I also decided that we are gonna strip the plane and then once its been covered and stripped once, I am going to reapply stripper to it and cover it again to get any remaining paint off. With one of the below photos, you will see between the first and fourth window, it appears excessively clean or as if their is corrosion on the rest of the plane. That area has actually been stripped twice with the EFS-2500. After seeing that section, that is what made me decide to do the entire plane twice.

BTW, so far we have used all of 10gal of stripper. They said 80-100 Sq Ft per gallon, but as you can see, we are getting much, much more than that.

And photos of course

This was in April, but gives a good Before (overall) picture
Image
Last night
Image
Image
This Morning
Image
Image
Image
After Being Washed
Image
Image
Being Pushed (pulled) in
Image
And after being pushed back into the hangar.
Image
The other side
Image

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 04, 2013 5:19 am

Great progress. Looking forward to seeing her warpaint reapplied. Will you be using period-correct flat or semi-flat paint?

Chappie

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:08 am

Chappie wrote:Great progress. Looking forward to seeing her warpaint reapplied. Will you be using period-correct flat or semi-flat paint?

Chappie
I think we will end up using like a matte or satin finish. Something that will last us a while and give us good strength to be able to wash it regularly. It will have a very slight sheen to it, but nothing like semi or full loss.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 04, 2013 12:08 pm

Pathfinder - 'Remember that half of Ireland was neutral and the other half aligned with Great Britain during the war.'

This isn't correct -the title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -usually abbreviated to United Kingdom. Northern Ireland fought in WWII in exactly the same way as any state of the U.S . Avoiding any politics - there are a great number of
soldiers buried around the various battlefields of WWII who laid down their lives for the United Kingdom with a birthplace of Northern Ireland.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 04, 2013 3:39 pm

Burke--

What part did I miss? Great Britain "and" Northern Ireland in lieu of "aligned with" Great Britain....?

On 6 December 1921, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the War of Independence, the island of Ireland became an autonomous dominion, known as the Irish Free State. However, on 8 December 1921, the six north-eastern counties, already known as Northern Ireland, voted to opt out of the Irish Free State and rejoin the United Kingdom.

The Emergency (Irish: Ré na Práinne / An Éigeandáil) was an official euphemism used by the Irish Government during the 1940s to refer to its position during World War II. The state (The rest of Ireland excluding the six northeastern counties) was officially neutral during World War II, but declared an official state of emergency on 2 September 1939,[1] and enacted the Emergency Powers Act the following day.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Mon Aug 05, 2013 3:11 pm

You answered your own reply 'voted to opt out of the Irish Free State and rejoin the United Kingdom' . I would advise against saying that Northern Ireland is 'aligned' as opposed to 'part' of the United Kingdom to a lot of people in Northern Ireland ! To say some are more patriotic than people from the mainland would be an understatement!

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Mon Aug 05, 2013 10:44 pm

Any thoughts of this T-Shirt Design. More than likely will be used in the fund raiser and to sell for the plane. Still a WIP overall. I really want to add a side view of the plane without any color to the backside, so more or less a wire outline of the plane but with detail.

I'm also thinking of ordering at least for me, a Polo with the top of the T-Shirt's back on the back and with the Air Heritage downsized and over the Left breast on the front.

Image

Edit:

I just noticed, that in the photo, it looks like the writing on the back of the shirt looks yellowish. This is indeed, white lettering. I am also thinking about doing this in a Blue shirt as well as both Yellow and Blue are our unofficial official colors.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:01 am

Where can I send a check for a polo shirt and a t-shirt? What a historic aircraft.

Chappie

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Tue Aug 06, 2013 7:50 am

Tyler--

Working up the font I sent you--but in black--today. You should have it by lunch.

Nice layout on the shirt--but speaking from a background in advertising and merchandising I would STRONGLY caution you against mixing product identity. You have to establish the uniqueness of your C-47 from all others...and that by virtue of the name. And when you do that you have to establish the name identity consistently. This is done by establishing the name in a particular font. Hopefully you will incorporate the historical font into your shirt design.

As an example I would point to the historic Memphis Belle and the "movie" Belle. Two very different nose art renditions and thus two very different "identities". The mitigating element that demands that you keep the historical format is the fact that you aren't creating a "movie" Irish...you are restoring the ACTUAL Irish....

Don't compromise the historical integrity of your restoration by opting for a fund-raising expedient design.

You can do a linear representation of the name--as in your design--without compromising the identity, and then do a second design with the same font in the form of the actual nose art, as long as you retain the font in both designs. It works.

Before you finalize your clover background for the pilot side you have to create a "mirror image" of the clovers that will work on the copilot side. The arrangement of the name will change but the clover background will be symmetrical.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Wed Aug 07, 2013 4:34 pm

Interesting information there Pathfinder.

Chappie


Pathfinder wrote:Tyler--

Working up the font I sent you--but in black--today. You should have it by lunch.

Nice layout on the shirt--but speaking from a background in advertising and merchandising I would STRONGLY caution you against mixing product identity. You have to establish the uniqueness of your C-47 from all others...and that by virtue of the name. And when you do that you have to establish the name identity consistently. This is done by establishing the name in a particular font. Hopefully you will incorporate the historical font into your shirt design.

As an example I would point to the historic Memphis Belle and the "movie" Belle. Two very different nose art renditions and thus two very different "identities". The mitigating element that demands that you keep the historical format is the fact that you aren't creating a "movie" Irish...you are restoring the ACTUAL Irish....

Don't compromise the historical integrity of your restoration by opting for a fund-raising expedient design.

You can do a linear representation of the name--as in your design--without compromising the identity, and then do a second design with the same font in the form of the actual nose art, as long as you retain the font in both designs. It works.

Before you finalize your clover background for the pilot side you have to create a "mirror image" of the clovers that will work on the copilot side. The arrangement of the name will change but the clover background will be symmetrical.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Wed Aug 07, 2013 8:54 pm

Pathfinder, I agree and had been going back and forth on using the script vs non-script lettering for it. I took the lazy way out that night as I wanted to get something to use as a basis and was still waiting to hear back from you. However, I did make it in such of a way, that the scripted lettering could easily be inserted to replace the non-scripted.

Chappie, as soon as I reach "Design Freeze" on the shirt and get them ordered, I will let you know. More or less, I will probably post it here or if I remember, will PM you.

Re: C-47 #43-48716, Official Restoration and A/c History Thr

Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:12 am

Another HUGE work weekend! As of Today, the fuselage is nearly 100% stripped.

More or less, the only paint that remains on the fuselage is that just under the horizontal stabilizers just aft of the tail wheel and some paint that remains on and around some rivets. We will be doing another application over the entire fuselage to remove any remaining residual primmer or any paint that remains on the on the rivets heads just to make sure.

We also stripped the entire belly of the fuselage as well as the underside of the wings from the outside edge of the inboard flap on the right wing to about half way out the aileron on the left wing. Also stripped was the inside of both nacelles.

So the left wing is about 50% stripped. Again, we will apply a second application once the entire wing has received its first application.

And for the pictures... I almost just want to say at this point lets just polish her lol.

Before Today
Image
Image
Image

This Morning
Image
Image
Center Belly
Image
Left Wing
Image
Image
Image

And Finally After washing her. We had two power washers going today washing her down.
Image
Image
Image
Image

After being pulled back into the hangar once more
Image
Image
Image
Image

A question I have.

We have found some surface corrosion on the fuselage. Most of it appears to be light and just on the surface. Now, since she will be painted, I'm curious as to what is the best way to:

A) Remove the current corrosion
B) Stop the corrosion from continuing

Can you bead blast or sand blast or blast with anything aluminum? I have heard different answers from different people.

We are planning on anodizing it before painting it I believe. (though anodizing might not be the right process I'm thinking of)
Post a reply