Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

After much deliberation I had a wild hare and started repairing my Kingfisher,, the A.D.D. just was too strong.
Last time I flew it the throttle servo came loose and I just had a bad landing,,, OK a Crash that caused minor damage, but damage to the point a rebuild would be necessary

I started cutting into it last night ;)

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

more pics

As you can see I've had a few repairs to make the float and the wing attach points more firm over the last few years.

The float attachment system I'll just rebuild as is. Maybe I'll rethink how it bolts on,, that's always been a PITA

The wing I think I'll use 4 nylon bolts, That leading edge isn't looking great and I never liked the wood dowel system anyway

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Hi Tom
Good luck with the rebuild. They all get and need it eventually. My old friend, John Nicolaci, rebuilt his PBM almost 20 times in it's 30+years of flight. You kingfisher will last another 15 no problem! Besides, you need to bring it East to our float fly.:D

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Dog years? or human years? :D hahaha .......... seriously though you can tell you have had a lot of fun and flight time with it. I have never messed with Seaplanes yet, I do have an ugly old Seamaster I will get to eventually.. But a nice scaleish plane like yours sure looks better...I have very limited float plane time.. more fishing for it than flying unfortunately !

Looking forward to seeing your rebuild..

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Started glueing it back together ;)

Main float is snug again

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Looking good! It' always hard for me to rebuild vs. build. I've got a couple of light to medium crashes that are great flyers including one Seamaster type float plane that I just haven't started rebuilding. It's always easier to start a new warbird or something else. I commend your motivation to get this great bird back to what it was.

Ted

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Thanks, the repair part is actually pretty easy,,The only thing that has really made me hesitant was knowing how much weight this rebuild will add to the plane,, it was already a tank

I don't know if I told you guys this, But the second time I took it out to fly I had a full throttle PCM lock out with a brand new Super 8uaf/148 radio ,,It hit the water full throttle about @ about 60 degree angle, Broke the fuse in half, ripped the floats off, fractured the wing. I never flew PCM again, twice bitten was enough.

I've over the years rebuilt or refurbished many, actually years ago when I had very little money, Scratch building or rebuilding trash picked projects was the source of many of my nicer planes. If you look through my gallery the Midwest at-6, The Jemco Hellcat and Zero were Crash rebuilds and the Ultimate was a slight rebuild full recover project.. All great planes once re-done.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

p.s.
I'm so going to miss not having K&B epoxy to paint with. I'm amazed after 15+ years and who knows how much 20/20 fuel the paint is still rock hard and sands so easy.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

My buddy says the same thing about the old K&B. The yellow on the wings of my Kingfisher is K&B and the rest is Klass Kote. Not sure how the KK compares yet on the test of time but my bud really likes how easy it sprays and how well it covers especially the silver. Only time will tell. Years ago when I was first in the hobby I too did a lot of rebuilding and even buying of old airframes to fix up. Now I guess I've gotten lazy or just want to see and fly a different plane so the wrecked ones sit there on the shelf waiting for me to get back to them. Right now there's three of them and all are really great flyers. My Kyosho Corsair and zero are waiting. The corsair is just a redo to a more scale finish. It was never crashed or wrecked just didn't like the shiny blue so now it's all stripped. The zero was a pretty severe crash with the whole firewall ripping off. The fuse is glass so all that needs a lot of glassing. The third plane is an all foam scratch build of my passed friend John Nicolaci and it will be the first to see the air again. Crash was caused from a faulty airborne switch! Seeing yours get redone will hopefully light a spark in me to get my butt in gear on these!

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

The messy part,,

Both outrigger floats have damaged struts

One was loose in the float so it had to come out,, some epoxy and West System filler acts as a nice sandable putty to glue the new one in

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

The other's are solid in the float but the other end is ripped so I'm just going to scab on a new piece of strut materail

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

My little project is actually coming along faster than I thought, I finished up all the struts and main wing attachment rebuilding, Had to mount it all up just to see, float is nice and snug at all three contact points,, I left the center attachment as is after all

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

My poor pilot has been cooped up in there so long I think he needs some air,, Actually the canopy had worked it way loose so it will need re-gluing.

I good friend of mine pained these guy up for me,, the tail gunner looks tired,, he's resting his head against the window,, should I wake him up and let him know the war is over?

I have to decide if I want to repaint them,, the paints cracking out a little,, but it adds to the history of the plane?? I'm conflicted

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

I fixed the prop strike on the float, I'm pretty much at a stand still for now, I have to get some more CA and figure what brand of paint I want to order. I'm leaning toward Warbird Colors, but we'll have to see.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Looking very good and super fast work. Maybe I should ship you my rebuild projects!:D

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Ha ha,, no thanks, I have too many logs in the fire now.

I'm not sure how much more I can really do now beside just sanding and primer, I'm leaving town for the holidays and I have to order paint. I was leaning toward Warbird colors just for ease of application (no mixing) but his web site says he's out of stock on a lot of stuff. Was looking over the Klass Kote site.. Seams very similar to K$B epoxy, but twice the price. I'm going to have to pay $100-$150 to just get paint?? Crazy. I'm almost considering Lowes mixed latex and just getting a rattle can of satin fuel proof clear.

Ran into another strange issue,, Flap, Elevator and Throttle servos are locked up,, I guess that dunking on the last flight did them in, Everything was working when I put the plane away back in August,, Strange, I'll just have to put a few new servos in her too I guess.

I also have to choose to stick with the same scheme or change it,, we'll see

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

The tip float repair

Carpenters glue for the foam, west system epoxy/ the 410 for glass coat and filler, and now it''s ready for finial sanding and primer

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Man I love West System epoxy,,, less than 12 hours later it's sands great

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Looks great! On the Klass Kote, yes it's expensive but a little has gone an extremely long way. It covers really good with just a little down, adding very little weight. Remember you wondered why my Kingfisher came out so lite? Possibly it's the fact that we didn't have to use much paint or primer and we did use a lot of different colors. The yellow especially needed a good base. (that was the only K&B paint used) I know my buddy did say he thought he had to use much more of the K&B than the Klass Kote to cover. Might be worth the try for you.

Ted

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

I guess I assumed you used al K&B paints,, didn't know you used the Klass Kote too,, I do like the epoxy bette than poly or latex,, especially since this will remain glow powered
I think you got me talked into the KK.



I got to doing some surfing and look what I found,, Looks bigger than mine,,I'm guesstimating 70"+ish

http://youtu.be/d_6cijLHgz8

forward to 2:09 if you don't want to watch the first couple circus birds,, but skipping past the helis , there are some other planes that are very cool too.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

I saw that video a while back while surfing also. Seems to fly lighter than mine especially on landing. Mine seems to be more deliberate on it's descent and I don't think I can flair it out as much as he does. His almost slows to a crawl when he lands. The first landing is a lot better than the second. On the second it looks like he held it off just a little too long and that's why he got the popping. I forgot there was a Rufe on there too. Both the Kingfisher and Rufe look to be in the 70ish plus range. Just brought Kingfisher in from the trailer today. Had to rebind it to a 2.4 9303 my buddy gave me as my 2.4 module for my old school 9303 stopped transmitting anything over 50'. Found out with my electric PBY while I taxied out the other day. Can you imagine if I flew my Kingfisher first! Man I would have been some p@$#%ed.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Yeap, that thing must be super light, it still did the hippity hop if you don't land just right..

I did some sanding and hit the patches with some auto primer to expose any pin holes or flaws to putty up.. I'm pretty happy with it as is, only a couple small spots to address

That's pretty much all I can do for now,, I fly out to So Cal tomorrow to see family and friends,, a short reprieve from the Cold & Snow.

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Have a good Christmas my friend!

Ted

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Very nice fix!!! Hope to see this baby fly somewhere.

Gary

RE: Will it be good for another 15 years?
 

Gary,
I go to the float flys the Corsair's club has in Akron,, last summer they had one each month starting on Memorial Day weekend. It's a fun time.

Cya