Restoration of B-17E 41-2595 "Desert Rat"

[clovis97]

I just wanted to say that I am simply impressed by your work!!!!

I am curious about the wing tip. You said it was "made by Briggs in Indianapolis." I didn't know that we had any component manufacturers in Indy during the war. I learn something new every day. Did they manufacture other parts for the B-17? How about other components for other planes?

Also, I understand that you are in the Chicagoland area?

[DryMartini]

Huh - I thought I had responded to this...

Yeah - Not sure about what other components Briggs
made during the war. A.O. Smith made landing gear
components, and various manufacturers made things like the
vertical and horizontal stabilizers. The manufacturer is not
normally spelled out in the plans, although sometimes
alluded to, such as the door latch provider, or B.F. Goodrich for the
rubber products.

Yeah - we are between Rockford and Chicago, off I-90.
Come and visit sometime!

[DryMartini]

We've torn out the cargo floor in the radio room, and are getting the
camera bay pieces together. As you can see, the fuselage is in pretty
good shape. Mike primed the metal around which the guys are working.
As they get the bay together, they will also put the radio room
floor in.





How many of you knew the B-17 had a camera bay? (Don Price is not allowed to answer....)
We are looking for components, so if you have something that needs to find its way back
into a B-17, give us a jingle.

[Second Air Force]

Looking nice, Bill.

I spent a lot of time trying to find the linkage and other parts for the camera bay when I was involved with 44-8543 with no luck at all. We did have a pair of doors but nothing else. I also can't remember how different your early camera bay is from the late airplanes, but I'm sure it's substantial. At any rate, most of the work will be fairly straightforward and it looks like some nice structure to start with!

Scott

[DryMartini]

Back on line here at Aerovintage.
All pictures *should* be working again.

New "Rat" and "Mary Ann" update coming as soon as tonight!

[DryMartini]

Well, this is a long time in coming, but since I can post pictures again,
let's get caught up.

When we last left our heroes, they were cornered by giant spiders and rodents of
enormous size in the corner of the restoration shop. Luckily, they had a shotgun
and a can of "Raid"...

The control surfaces have been covered using the "Poly-Fiber" system.
A generous donation of material from the president of Poly-Fiber allowed us to
cover the ailerons last year and the elevators this past summer.
Here are some pictures, some old, some new.

The rudder being covered


The rudder, pained with silver dope, on its mounts with the fin.


Here is the left aileron in the process of being covered.


This is an elevator in the process of being repaired. There were several ribs that needed to be
repaired, and several more that were replaced.


Here are the elevators in the finishing stages of being covered in Poly-Fiber.

[aerovin2]

Good stuff...thanks for the update. It's nice to see the progress.

[DryMartini]

We had been working on the ball turret area, fabricating the turret hanger and reinforcements.


Installed, this looks like:


The turret surround was fabricated by Chris. If you look,
you can see the B-17 smiling back at you.


We have completed a little more work in that area, getting ready for the
floor. The rubber used in the B-17 is a pyramid tread, 3/32" about 6 per inch.
We have found a good facsimile, but have not purchased it yet.

The nose frame has been repaired, and painted Bronze Green, the correct color for the B-17 interior.
If you like using zinc chromate green on your models, well...


We have someone fabricating the plastic for the nose. He works with race cars,
and used Lexan instead of Plexiglass. We cannot wait to see how it all turned out.

[Chris Brame]

So great to see an update on the Rat! Did you ever figure out where your nose piece came from? Since it was painted red when you got it, could it have come from one of the early planes that was cold-weather tested in Alaska?

[DryMartini]

It's funny you should ask.

Rian Olsen sent this picture to me just a few weeks ago.


I know we got the nose frame from Lonestar Museum in a trade many years ago.
My bet is that this is our frame, because the punch-out door was modified to fold inward.
looking carefully at the picture, it appears that there is a dark area, a hole where the
door is. A remarkable coincidence otherwise.

[aerovin2]

So is that would appear to be N3702G, 43-38635? If so, now displayed at Castle.

[DryMartini]

Some pictures of a recent piece, the intercooler shutter stand.
This is located on the right side of the co-pilot on the floor against the
cockpit wall. Four handles operate the temperature controls for the
four engine's superchargers.


It is painted "Bronze green", which is the correct interior color for the B-17 nose, cockpit and radio room.
We still have to enamel the lettering on the plates.


You can see one of the pulley assemblies inside the unit. The handles pull on cables to
position the shutters located in the wings.

[DryMartini]

Some other miscellaneous things.
Here is one of the .30 cal ammo box holders
found in the nose. There are two, one is a 2-box
and the other is a 3-box holder. We have a second
2-box holder for sale, if anyone is interested.


Here is the repaired life raft compartment door. The door is held shut by three latches, connected
to handles in the radio room. In the B/C/D models, the handles were in the cockpit. Oh, BTW, the
handles are Kidde fire extinguisher handles. Boeing Part Number 41-7703, it is the same as
Walter Kidde & Co. Part number 8804. If anyone has one, we want to copy it.


And the other side:


This is Eli from the Fort Collins B-17 project. He restored our RDF unit, and is showing Mike how the unit is put together.
Mike has the Mallet O'Force standing by, in case the unit needs a little persuasion.

[cvairwerks]

Dry: Looking good...A couple of questions for you...

Interesting on the color of the Bronze-Green. The AT has a bunch of it too, but it's color is different. Do the drawings or the books give a specification for the color? The Fairchild book simply says Bronze-Green bakelite enamel meeting Army Navy Aeronautical Specification AN-3-E.

If I can't find them in the Fairchild drawings, any possibility of getting copies of the ones you have for the ammo can mounts? I think I've located a source for NOS can holders to attach to the guns. I haven't found anything yet that id's the cans themselves yet, but I have not been thru all 900+ feet of microfilm yet.

[DryMartini]

CV,

If I recall correctly, Boeing spelled out a maker and color number.
Unfortunately, it doesn't translate to anything tangible 75+ years later.

As for the .30 cal boxes - sure, anything you need.
I'm looking for .30 cal ammo boxes myself.
I may have a GFE part number. This picture is as good as it gets
as far as what I need. (Yes, the photo is flipped left-right)

Stainless Steel ammo box. I *think* it was an O-1 box? Anyone have info?