Inside the Spitfire factory
Discussion
outnumbered said:
Just watched the first episode, it was a good programme. I'd have liked to have seen some photos of the owner's original garage restoration project, that must have been more of a challenge than doing one in a modern workshop with all the space and tools.
Can anyone explain how the peening on those bolt heads helps with locking them?
Surely that should be peening the exposed threads adjacent to the nut, rather than the bolt head? Peening threads just deforms them to prevent the nut coming off.Can anyone explain how the peening on those bolt heads helps with locking them?
dr_gn said:
Surely that should be peening the exposed threads adjacent to the nut, rather than the bolt head? Peening threads just deforms them to prevent the nut coming off.
You'd have thought... Unless maybe they're just marking the head of the bolt to show the thread's been peened ?dr_gn said:
outnumbered said:
Just watched the first episode, it was a good programme. I'd have liked to have seen some photos of the owner's original garage restoration project, that must have been more of a challenge than doing one in a modern workshop with all the space and tools.
Can anyone explain how the peening on those bolt heads helps with locking them?
Surely that should be peening the exposed threads adjacent to the nut, rather than the bolt head? Peening threads just deforms them to prevent the nut coming off.Can anyone explain how the peening on those bolt heads helps with locking them?
CanAm said:
Or "its got a brand new chassis (airframe) to manufacturers spec" so it's ok.
This basically......as long as you have some identifiable parts for the serial number in the box of bits you start with.Which is what The People's Mosquito project are effectively starting with.
People need to remember that during their service lifes these things got chopped and changed and major components being replaced, so people getting arsey about originality is silly really. There are some great wartime colour photos of a Typhoon being dismantled at a forward airstip in France in late 1944 for transporting back to the UK for repair after crash landing with battle damage. On inspection there were 17 German cannon shells having damaged the aircraft including the main spar, and it was repaired and returned to service under the same ID with a new set of wings, including new spars, and a repaired rear fuselage from another damaged Typhoon.
All of the A-10 Warthog's currently flying with the USAF have all been fitted with complete new wings and spar fittings to extend service life.
They are repaired to enable them to do a job when in service, and just because these are data plate restorations, they are still what they are.........if it looks like a, and quacks like a......etc.
The restoration of historic aircraft is rather different to the restoration of historic cars.
One of the main issues of a historic aeroplane is that, even if the bulk of the airframe is still fairly sound, it is highly likely that a lot of the airframe and a lot of the internal components will need to be replaced if you want the thing to fly.
One of the main issues of a historic aeroplane is that, even if the bulk of the airframe is still fairly sound, it is highly likely that a lot of the airframe and a lot of the internal components will need to be replaced if you want the thing to fly.
MKnight702 said:
I thought that they were peening around the bolt as it was flush with the nut which is why it looks like the bolt head. I wasn't sure if they had ground the end of the bolt flush with the nut first or whether the tolerances are just that good.
I just watched it again, you're absolutely right, so that explains it !Judging from what he said on the show, he didn’t spend multi million pounds on his first restoration. I think he quotes £12,000 for the basic a/c, years of sourcing parts and presumably mostly his own labour over 10 years. I imagine that an airline pilot was earning six figures per year even back then.
LotusOmega375D said:
Good show again last night. Couple of interesting bits for me were the differences between the new wing and the original WW2 one, particularly the spacing of the rivets. Also the patina of the Dakota that their pilot flew. Looks like it’s never been restored cosmetically.
I haven't seen last night's episode yet but I expect that the C-47 you were looking at is wearing a much more recent colour scheme than what it wore in 1944. I cannot think of any airworthy World War 2 aircraft that has not had numerous repaints since 1945.Any DC-3s/C-47s that survive today do so because they have had useful working lives in the years since the end of the war - and been through quite a few owners. As a result, all of them will have carried numerous colour schemes over their long lives. It's only in the past 20 or so year that many have entered the warbird scene and received paint schemes that were closer to what they wore back in World War 2.
Eric Mc said:
LotusOmega375D said:
Good show again last night. Couple of interesting bits for me were the differences between the new wing and the original WW2 one, particularly the spacing of the rivets. Also the patina of the Dakota that their pilot flew. Looks like it’s never been restored cosmetically.
I haven't seen last night's episode yet but I expect that the C-47 you were looking at is wearing a much more recent colour scheme than what it wore in 1944. 
LotusOmega375D said:
No that’s not the one they feature. It has S6 in large letters on the front and a playing card symbol under the windscreen, an Ace of Spades.
I think that's Night Fright, which was the subject of that Warbird Restoration programme when they were trying to get it airworthy in time for the 75th Daks over Normandy event last year, but ran out of time.
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