Geedee's P-51D Cockpit Project

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Brilliant...an Easter weekend full of sunshine, an ideal opportunity to get some more work done...and instead, I've redecorated the living room....Grrrrrrrrrr

I have however managed to claw some lost time this morning.

I had earlier (last weekend) started to make the rest of the gunsight mount and was around 70% of the way through the making bit when I was advised that the manual and the blueprints suggested where wrong. By this time I had sort of cottoned on to the fact that something wasn't quite right, because it wouldn't fit when offered up to the original NAA main mount. This was all the more annoying as I had recently aquired the bit I needed to make, from Shoreham aerojumble. It's a crash relic with some history and I was pleased that the bit I had made matched it size wise.

It seems that I have a late model mount for the K14 and I had made a part for an earlier version.

So, heres the set of shots with the first attempt and also lined up next to the crash relic.
 

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And then to this mornings work.

Quite pleased with the way this is has turned out. the original was a one piece unit that was pressed to give its shape. Spookliy enough, I dont have access to million ton press in my little shed, so I had to improvise a bit.

The rivets around the curved area are my work-around and once the gunsight is mounted, wont be visible.

You can see I've also started on the 'track' for the sliding canopy...that I'm not going to fit... Not sure how to 'mill' some slots inbetween the groups of 4 holes. Cant get a milling attachment and its too shallow to allow the use of copious amounts of filing ...not going to happen !!!...so any ideas gratefully received.
 

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It does look a bit long. I have a hole pile of parts I've made that haven't worked out for some reason. I think I made the primer pump bracket 3 times before I was happy with the fit. Just think of it as practice.
 
T Bolt said:
It does look a bit long. I have a hole pile of parts I've made that haven't worked out for some reason. I think I made the primer pump bracket 3 times before I was happy with the fit. Just think of it as practice.
Click to expand...

Or are you really going into the mass production line scheme of things ?....teehee
 
Crossing posts Gary. Now that looks more like it! Nice work! For slots I make 2 holes at either end of the slot and connect them buy cutting out the aluminum between them, then use a file to square off the rounded ends. Lot of hand work but aluminum cuts fast, especially if you start off with a pretty coarse file.
 
Entry on Facebook this morning...

Right....breakfast (fat boy fry up)...check
Strong tea in big mug (decorated with warbirds)...check
Mr Miller on the stereo (LOUD !)...check
Sun is shining...check
Family's gone shopping...check
YIPEEEEE...its Mustang time, yeah baby (off to make the instrument shroud)

Fast forward 3 hours....

Well...that was a total cluster...what the word ?...rhymes with truck ?...ummm, errrr, oh yeah, disaster. !.

First I missed off a part of one of the blueprints...then my drill went t*ts up...then one of the Starlings on its way back to feed the chicks in the nest under the eves, left a little present, end result ?...Starlings one - Mustang zero. Little bastids do it again and my '51 is gonna have its first kill marking recorded (anyone any idea whose side Starlings fly for ?).
And then to cap it all, the bit I was working on, I decided just wasn't right. Folowing a loud bout of tourets, its now sulking in the far flung reaches of my shed...with a sodding great hammer dent in it !!!. What I was trying to do was to make the instrument shroud in 3 parts as I dont have access to a metal press. The main gunsight part went quite well...it was when I started on the side sections that things went downhill.....and stayed there.
Grrrrr.
I've decided that today just wasn't meant to happen, so she's chocked up in the hangar (shed) and will be looked at next weekend weather permitting. I'm hoping that a fresh start will enable me to make this shroud and then I can finally mount my sight and she'll start to look like a fighter.

Heres a few shots of this morining..
 

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Good to see you've kept your sense of humour! On the bright side, the bird missed sending that pestulent projectile down into the bowels of your cockpit.
 
Crimea_River said:
......On the bright side, the bird missed sending that pestulent projectile down into the bowels of your cockpit.
Click to expand...

Thats the truth, another inch to the right and it would have been a real difficult clean-up job!

I've had more days like that then I can remember Gary.. When things start going south like that its best to pack it away for a few days and start fresh.
 
Had some help from Tony this weekend just gone. Had to strip out the '51 so that we could get what I call a 'bucking bar' on the inside of what I'm using for longerons to enable the rivets to be put in on the lower section of the 'shoulder' plates. I will be using countersunk 'pop' rivets for the top line mouint the internal bracing structure(all the leyyow bits of angle Ali in the previous piccies). Also did some more work on the seat, again with help to rivet the new 'field repair' plate in place.

I now need to save up some more cash to get some more paint than I can give everything a final coat on the inside and then its back to worrying about the instrument shroud/ glare panel.
I really want all this done inside the next five weeks so that she's ready for Cockpitfest and peeps can see that I've done a little bit of work on her since last year. I'm calling this year, the year of the gunsight...it will be installed !!!

Also brought a 'pukka' polisher over the weekend so I can now learn how to get that mirror finish I want.

And I finally decided I could legitimately (OK, almost !) put this bumper sticker I picked up at Oshkosh back in 2005.....where it should rightly sit...on the back of my truck !!

Sorry about the order the piccies are in, it wont let me arrange them in the correct sequence tonight for some reason
 

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