Crazy Eight

Same day, finished packing after midnight!

All of the parts in the trailer are in one way or another nailed to the oak floor of the trailer, we went through 15 pounds of 16D nails, lots of sore hands. It was so hot inside that we would rotate a person in every 5 minutes.

After the storm the temperature went down 30 degrees. Dennis and I finished up the packing using headlamps that worked great for 4 hours!

42 hours still have grease under my nails

I'm home.

Yesterday we started at 6 and Dennis was the last one to work with me till after 12 using head mounted lights, sorry to all the neighbors for the saws and nailing.

Here are Chris, Dennis, James and Melton. They were responsible for moving the heavy wings and constructing the bracing. I really couldn't have done this without them, they each spoke up with an idea when things seemed impossible. Once again, it's not the thing that makes this fun, it's the people along the way. Thanks to Greg at Labor Ready.

Trailer we were emptying, including an upside down and backwards wing in the hottest part of the trailer.

Jigged wings in the new trailer, complete with floor dams.

All the wings loaded, ready for the fuselage so that the wrecker can be freed to work. Anthony and his brother Wade also brought a tractor to maneuver the trailer.

We decided to push the fuselage inside by hand using bars on the skids to keep it going. This didn't work later when we needed to put it in it's nest. Chris came up with the idea to use strap tensioners to pull it in, worked great.

By now it was 99 degrees and 100% humidity, then the rains came!

And sweat!!

My helper from Labor Ready, Dennis got lost on the way over, jeez now I don't feel bad getting lost everyday!

We made the wing fixtures, well one and cut out a bunch of parts for the four we need to build. It was unbelievably hot, I got the worst headache, we were drinking more water than cutting boards AND tomorrow is going to be hotter, starting at dawn. Trailer transload will be finished Sunday morning.

Dennis is from Jamaica, wants to be a truck driver and he likes to play music at parties, he did a great job cutting parts out and it was good having him to work with.

Check out that machine gun base on the wing, I think that is what it is? Lots of French on these parts.

And Schneider made it! Thanks Caliberlogistics.com ! It's huge!!! Thanks to Louis for putting his wrecker out on the highway to stop the traffic while we maneuver the trailer in.

Dig in!

It's 11pm and it's 93 degrees out, holly cow it was hot.

This morning I stopped in at Batelinis, the crew was in an office and I had to tell them of my predicament, how do I get the stuff out of that trailer. Anthony spoke up and gave me his number and said he would be down to take a look, but he knew he could help me. Thanks to Louis for send me his way. I went down to the trailer, open the door and just got depressed, what have I done. I jumped up with my tape measure to see just how much room is available for a telescoping boom, there wasn't any. Then I thought, well I guess we bought this stuff, I tried to pick a wing up and shocked myself that I could do it! They could be easily moved with three people. That was a huge relief.

The railroad intermodal trailer was coming today so I thought why don't I call Anthony and see if we can just pull the fuselage out so we can start to jig up the loose parts. He pulled up and we got it out, also surprisingly light and manuverable on his deck using the winch. Anthony and I both like the wrecker show on Speed vision, my nephew Nick too!

100 degrees and 100% humidity

It's HOT on the east coast. I got here last night and the humidity hit me like a wall. I'm here in New Jersey to take home a trailer FULL of Fennec parts I found last winter, just searching on the handy internet, they have been stored in an insulated trailer for 15 years, insulated is the key word given the excellent condition of the parts, also lots of B model stuff, and many of them restored or new.

Here are the photos I took today Thursday. Tomorrow I will be building the wood shipping fixtures and the rail container will arrive in the afternoon.

Original gauges, a few of the dials in latin!

Night!

Summer outdoor work!

Finally the summer has arrived in the Northwest, time for me to take the 49 fuselage apart. With the roll bar, it won't fit in the garage. I have found a bunch of corrosion, I think it is from the battery exploding. Anyway, lots of hardware and rivet removal! LOTS!!!

Today I am off to pack up a collection of spare parts out on the East Coast, look for daily updates!

Here is a photo comparing two of the same parts, the old corroded part only has the stainless edge left!

The amount of dirt found inside these things is unbelievable.

I have started to take the engine apart, getting ready to remove a cylinder to measure for wear. On one of the 90 degree days I washed all the sand and dirt off the engine, great to not feel the grit.

Here I started to remove the engine hoses from the hydraulic pump, amazing how good the internals of the pieces are, the pump was still full of oil. Hasn't been touched since 1967.

49 is now stripped of most of the skin, now starting to remove electrical and hydraulic pieces.