Pony restoration

[Zimme83]

It started with:



Final result:

[Bruv119]

 

I'm looking forward to the day the guys at Duxford put Big beautiful back in the air after the mishap.

[Krusty]

At that point it's not a restoration. You're building a million dollar model kit from scratch, using original plans and custom-made and custom-cut parts, but in all honesty it's not much of a restoration. I get that's the term for it these days, but when 99.99999% of a plane is trashed and ruined and all of it is swapped out for identical parts -- but made out of fresh, new, materials -- then IMO it's a new build like the new Fw190s.

Sorry, not to detract from the accomplishment. I just disagree on how the industry classifies the work being done. The work is awesome, but let's just call it what it is. New fabrication using old plans.

[Bodhi]

I only spent roughly 20 years in the restoration business, so take it or leave it for what it is worth...  lol

That airframe looks like a rough find.  Very rough.  Is it a complete rebuild?  Impossible to say from here as I am unsure what else was found/included in the restoration project.  Is it possible that the damaged parts yielded a lot of very usable and desirable parts?  Absolutely.  It is impossible to tell from the pictures what was and was not usable or repairable aside from the obvious to trained eyes.  Skin is generally replaced in most heavy rebuilds owing to the damage and corrosion it suffers over time.  But take White 33 as an example.  While most of the skin was replaced, a tremendous amount of the structure was saved.  Obviously the aircraft are different, but they do share similarities. 

What I am saying is that with very few exceptions, very few WW2 aircraft are 100% rebuilds using new manufactured parts.  There is a tremendous amount of reusing new old stock parts as well as fixing what is existing using acceptable structural repairs. 

It is what it is.  Nice job to the new owners.

[Bodhi]

Another thought I should of added to the above is this:

Forgings and castings.  They are expensive to duplicate, most especially forgings...  I can make most sheet metal parts I came across.  There were some where I knew my limits, but generally I could make the sheet metal part.  When it comes to a casting or especially a forging, I can't duplicate that.  Sure, I can mill something, but it is not the same.  Castings are not the same as a milled piece.  Forgings take it to a whole new level as the process is designed to produce strength. 

Too often people dismiss stuff as junk, when they don't understand the process.

[Zimme83]

Most of the plane is made out of the original parts, was prob not possible to recover every single piece of it. And most of the replacement parts comes from other scrapped Mustangs. The plane will of course never fly but ends up in a museum.

[Krusty]

For the record: I dismissed nothing. I think it's awesome they've made a P-51. I simply think different words could be used to describe the effort put into the final product.

[Zimme83]

If u use the original parts and spend a couple of thousand of hours to give them their original shape and then puzzle them together. Then u restore it. (by restoring the parts to their original shape...)
For this reason it will never fly, because its impossible to restore the structural integrity of the plane without replacing all damage parts. (i.e build a new plane..)

[DaveBB]

Aside from being lightweight, aluminum and aluminum alloys are a poor material to work with.  They are soft, burn easily, have a propensity to crack during fabrication, age harden, and do not have an endurance limit (which means they will crack eventually under any cyclic stress).  Most aluminums are not heat treatable.

I've seen 30 year old aluminum storage tanks made out of aircraft grade aluminum simply crack for no reason.  It is a strange and difficult to work with material.

[Zimme83]

It isnt hard to figure out why it went down...


It crashed in the early 50s and was salvaged in 1998, Pilot bailed succesfully and the plane went down in a swamp. The pretty much oxygen free enviroment prob helped preserving the parts for so long.

Its btw not a regular D-pony, it was modified for high altitude photo-reccon. SwAF Flew the ponys and Spit  PR Mk XIX over the soviet Union in the late 40:s (Untill the Russians got fighters that were able to intercept them)

[Ack-Ack]

It isnt hard to figure out why it went down...
(Image removed from quote.)

It crashed in the early 50s and was salvaged in 1998, Pilot bailed succesfully and the plane went down in a swamp. The pretty much oxygen free enviroment prob helped preserving the parts for so long.

Its btw not a regular D-pony, it was modified for high altitude photo-reccon. SwAF Flew the ponys and Spit  PR Mk XIX over the soviet Union in the late 40:s (Untill the Russians got fighters that were able to intercept them)

Thought the Swedes only converted 17 of their P-51Ds for photo-recce missions, redesignating them S 26?

[Zimme83]

Yes, thus the using of the word "modified".