Calgary's Hurricane on the Move (1 Viewer)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Great stuff , and I can just imagine someone visiting your garage and asking "What's that engine?"
"Oh, it's just a Merlin from a Hurricane ...".
 
A small update as work continues.

After cleaning 4 pistons by hand, I was told that we had a glass bead blaster in the back of the shop. That made things a lot easier and all pistons were done within an hour.

15011001 Bead Blasting Piston.jpg


Yesterday, two of us managed to lap all 48 valves. I used a lapping tool that consisted of a hand cranked gadget shown below along with a valve and lapping compound.

15020702 Lapping Valves.jpg


My partner used a more rudimentary tool - a suction cup on the end of a stick. As you can see, the heads have been meticulously cleaned with lots of Scotchbrite pads and Citrosol cleaner.

15020701 Lapping Valves.jpg


With that done, reassembly of the cylinder head is in the offing which should prove interesting.
 
Last edited:
Sure. A lot of boring cleaning at the moment but I suspect we'll start reassembly of the valves and camshafts soon. But first, all of the retainer springs (made up of seven parts each, 4 per cylinder, times 12 cylinders) still need to be cleaned.
 
Cheers guys. The airframe restoration is going well, I hear. I wish it wasn't so far away but hopefully I'll take one or two trips up there this summer. Figure about a year from now till it all comes together with the engine and I plan to be there when we fire it up.
 
Happily, I'm able to post here pictures and excerpts from our quarterly report to the City of Calgary on the progress made between January and the end of March this year. The engine work was, as reported above, done at the Bomber Command Museum shop in Nanton Alberta but the rest of the aircraft is being restored by Historic Aviation Services Inc. in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, which is about 300km to the north of Nanton.

The major visible progress has been in the restoration of the fuselage framework including on site-fabricated replacement members that have either gone missing or have been damaged over the years. The fuselage frame has also now been mated to the wing center section.

Here's the control column, rudder pedals, and "floor" disassembled prior to restoration

1Q2015 Report Pictures05.jpg


The floor boards were straightened, primed, the sprayed with the silver colour butyrate dope then reinstalled. The cockpit area was restored and various control were rebuilt and attached to the framing.

1Q2015 Report Pictures24.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures25.jpg

1Q2015 Report Pictures26.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures27.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures23.jpg


Landing gear selector:

1Q2015 Report Pictures28.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures42.jpg


New trim wheel and the rest of the pit:

1Q2015 Report Pictures43.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures46.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures41.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures29.jpg


We managed to acquire an original bullet proof windscreen from a collector in England. Ironically, the windscreen was built here in Canada.

1Q2015 Report Pictures34.jpg


The Dowty tail wheel was completely disassembled and rebuilt before installing into the fuselage.

1Q2015 Report Pictures11.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures12.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures16.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures17.jpg



The below series of pics begins with the fuselage and wing center section positioned just prior to be mated together and then shows various angles of the completed assembly.

1Q2015 Report Pictures21.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures22.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures36.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures37.jpg
1Q2015 Report Pictures38.jpg


The restoration report is fairly detailed and if anyone has specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
 
Last edited:
Beautiful work by all concerned, and great pics Andy. It's good to see the progression of the restoration process, and the guys must be quite pleased with the work to date, and deserve a big pat on the back.
Thanks for the up-date.
 
Stunning workmanship guy's! That is how I remember it in the 90's a bare frame sitting on its gear looking all sad.. She really is going to be a Diamond in the collection when completed!
 
Thanks guys. I should clarify that the pictures aren't mine so I can't take any credit for them. I hope to make it up to the shop around the end of May and. if so, will take some shots of my own with new developments and will post them here.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back