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My 1/1 Project Pics

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  • Member since
    November 2005
My 1/1 Project Pics
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 7, 2004 2:58 AM
Hey ladies and gentleman, here is a few quick pics of what I do in the "real world", so to speak. This is a Beechcraft Debonair B33 that came into our shop a couple of weeks ago requesting an autopilot, and a couple of new radios. This plane and I have a bit of an interesting history, so I'll try to keep it short. The story is that a gentleman owned it, and the landing gear were stuck in the up position, so he had to belly it in. He pretty much lost a few $$ repairing the damage done to the belly, and gears, so over the following 15-20 years he kind of just let it go maintenance wise. He finally sold it about 6 years ago to another person who felt he could restore it to Cherry condition. Unfortunately the original owner passed on. His son, feeling the loss painfully, pursued this plane vigorously to try and get it back to kind of have a momento of his father. The then owner was a bit reluctant for a few years, but after 9-11 decided to go ahead and sell it to the original owners son. So here she is now, pretty much getting money poured on her on a regular basis. That is a new paint job on her, and she has new painted panels, and avionics...the interior and engine is next.

Where do I fit in??? I have worked on this plane for at least 2 of the owners!! When she came in earlier this month, I didn't even realize it was the same bird...I mean of course it looked familiar 'cause every plane has a certain entity, but I really couldn't place it. Turns out the son took the plane to a competitor of ours to get a new avionics package, and instrument panels......let's just say after 6 months, lots of $$$, and a lot of problems, he decided to bring it to us to fix......what a compliment, eh?! Yeah right, you come play with these wire harnesses!!! LOLTongue [:P] Enjoy

This is after I have torn her to shreds to get to the inards.....


Look at those letters and numbers....those are all PAINTED on, no stickers!!!!!


The Engine


Look at these crisp painted words....man these guys could teach me a thing or two!!! Anyone who owns a plane take it to these guys to get painted, trust me, I've never seen better!!!!



Here she is after I have all cleaned her up.....She's fixed and ready to fly...This pic was taken this morning.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Hayward, CA
Posted by MikeV on Saturday, February 7, 2004 3:13 AM
Heath,

That looks nice.

If you want to see some good painting on an aircraft then check out this here that was in a past issue of Airbrush Action magazine:
http://www.medea-artool.com/artool/archives/2000AUG-AIRMAG/highflyinghotrod/highflyinghotrod.htm

This was painted by Craig Fraser who is down your direction in Bakersfield.
He's one of the best automotive airbrush artists out there.


Mike

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. " Charles Spurgeon
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: UK
Posted by gregers on Saturday, February 7, 2004 8:56 AM
WOW i am an auto painter by trade and i wish i was half that good. i have done some custom and resto work but that is beyond anything i have ever done.

Hi Kik, i have worked on aircraft and can sympathise with you on that sort of work, i havn't done anything that complicated with wiring (me being a lowly spanner man) but i have seen an instrument panel in pieces and it is somewhat scary in there LoL.
Greg
Why torture yourself when life will do it for you?
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 7, 2004 10:41 AM
If you decide to build a kit of that, youll have some darn good reference!Tongue [:P]
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 7, 2004 11:36 AM
Wow great job and an awesome airplane!
  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, February 7, 2004 11:50 AM
How did you get rid of all the seams? What kind of masking did you use on all of the instruments? Was there a lot of putty involved?Big Smile [:D]Big Smile [:D]Big Smile [:D] That is one great-looking kit!! Looks like 1/32nd scale.

Seriously, though, that's some great work you've done. I've done very similar things with car instrument panels (I used to be ASE certified), and it ain't no fun putting it all back together. Fun taking it apart, though. Will we be seeing you fly it anytime soon?
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Central USA
Posted by qmiester on Saturday, February 7, 2004 12:08 PM
Looks really great. The only thing I don't care for is the way the avionics harness is secured. Prefer to see tie-wraps cause its a lot easier to get the harness apart when tracking down shorts or breaks (or just where some idiot hooked up a wire). Still it does beat those rats nests that some radio shops tend to leave behind after they install something.
Quincy
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