Warbird Information Exchange

I'm sure that nothing is going to come up missing. What bothers me more is that the volunteers are mostly kids who have zero experience with working on a vehicle this old. Enthusiasm is a great thing, but it needs to be tempered by experienced hands so that things are damaged or destroyed inadvertently. That is my biggest worry. In the rush to do something the wrong thing gets done.

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It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.

OK, I have recieved an update with the real story of what has been going on. Our club president, Jack McDermott, sent me a copy of an e-mail sent to him explaining what has been going on.

I reprint a portion of it here for you all.

Mr. McDermott.

Major Lowery had the restoration group open the tank over the weekend so we can asses the damage to the tank thus far. He is still fighting with the school to get access to the storage shed on the ski hill. The national guard is all secured for the movement of the tank, and are standing by for us to give them the green light. We have been taking pictures of the tank, documenting everything. As you said it was important to do so through the restoration process. As far as the condition, the gunners equipment is all spot welded. The engine looks to be in fairly good condition. All the hoses must be replaced in the tank and wiring needs to be redone. All the seats need to be replaced as weathering has deteriorated them pretty badly. We are removing all of the garbage and dirt that is in the tank. Once we get the facility we can progress faster than what we are currently.

V/r
Patrick de Graaf
c/1 LT, AR
Aromor Company Executive Officer

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It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.

Hey,
We have one of those in a park in the next town over, it has had 17 or more layers of paint added over the years so now it looks kinda like a Beetle!

J/K It is in Patton Park in Hamilton, MA
I uset to go there and climb around on it when I was a kid(now I'm 35)
Kinda like the stories my Dad had from playing in a B-17 in Salem, MA in a schoolyard in 1947

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

We have had our first club meeting in two months today and here is the latest. No indoor space has been secured for the project. The maintenance people do not want to give up the ski shed (why they don't sell off the sno-cats I have no idea) and the spare bay at the guard armory has been turned into office space. We (the GMMVC) are going to try to secure space in the local area for the school and the cadets for the project.

On the upside, the fighting compartment is in excellent condition with original markings on everything from grenade boxes to ammo storage being quite legible. I'll put up interior photos when I get access to them. (it may be awhile so don't get impatient)

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It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.

I was up at Norwich University today and went out to look over the snow situation. The snow removal crew has been pushing snow up against Sally's bow and its piled up to the driver and assistant drivers hatches. The overall pile of snow is up even with the top of the turret. It'll be another month anyway before I can even get close to it.

The housing problem for the project continues as well. No news about that since not very many people showed up for the meeting today. At least the weather was nice.

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It's you and me against the world.

We attack at dawn.

Warhawk
Any updates on this project? I think last time I talked to you things where heading a bit out of control with parts of the crew. I hope things got better.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

A suggestion:

When you drive outside of any town or city, you often see these "automobile sheds" for sale, usually at odd prices ($589, $689). These are made of metal sheeting and six pipes for support.

Although probably too low for the tank, if lengths of pipe were added at the bottom of each support, the height could be raised, and then for less than a thousand bucks, you could have at least some sort of protection for the project.

Saludos,

Tulio

Armor? I do love big guns. If you haven't sen this on the web before, or had the rare chance to visit, here's a private collection packed with over 200 tracked vehicles, mostly tanks. Our chapter had the chance for a rare visit to this place two years ago, and we are going back for anothr tour this fall. http://www.norcalaahs.org/tanktour.htm

Patrick - Good luck with your sherman project.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

I concur! This is likely the finest private collection on earth!!!!!

I have seen and spoken with no one since late last summer. The school decided that the kiddies would be better at doing it then people who have experience with "ancient technology". After that I no longer recieved any contact from anyone and with winter being winter I have been unable to attend the winter club meetings.

It would seem though that the project has either died or gone in such a direction that what was a reasonably complete machine will rot away or be looted, if it has not been already.

A crying shame.