Crash Find - Skybolt
Finally able to get back to this repair. After looking this over again, I didn't like the tank pictured, so I opted for a different tank, and wanted the fuel lines to come through the firewall, as I want the firewall to be a removable unit. I assembled another tank, and had to do some bending and shaping of the brass lines to fit the firewall holes. I drilled the upper part of the old existing piece of firewall, and screwed the new firewall in place. I got inside the fuse, and marked the new hole location on the new firewall, and drilled it out. I reinstalled the tank, and checked the fit of the brass lines. So far, so good. I have to reinstall the servos again, and make up a new throttle rod. I'll do that later.
I removed the canopy, and didn't like the way the cockpit looked, with all the bare balsa, and decided to make it look at least a little more scale. I painted the inside cockpit with flat black paint, and added an instrument panel. I needed a pilot, and had a few, but they were just a little small for the right look. I went on Ebay, and found a neat looking pilot just the right size, did a little trimming on the base of it to get it to fit under the canopy. after trial fit, I painted the jacket, and shoulder belts, and glued him in place. With the canopy reinstalled, the plane looked much better.
Since we have a grass field, I removed the landing gear, took off the wheel pants, and removed the little 2 1/4" foam tires, and installed a nice set of 3" Sullivan light weight rubber tires. They fit perfectly in the wheel pants. I removed the little 1/2" tailwheel, and installed a 1" one. It looks like it will have decent grass clearance.
I'll continue with the next post. Dean