Aeroworks 50CC Mustang Rebuild
#26

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Thanks for the tip Swordsn! One would think that I would have thought of that based upon the many years that I have been doing this. I will blame it on the CA fumes...
Last edited by ctshepherd; 12-23-2013 at 09:54 AM. Reason: typo
#31

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The boys and mom are off this afternoon, so that afforded me some time to work on the Mustang. Started off by doing some sanding of the spackling compound that I applied to the fuselage to even things up.


I then just had to see how the horizontal surfaces looked when slid into the place. I had to straighten the aluminum joiner tubes as they were bent as a result of the crash. I got them pretty darn close to perfectly straight again.

I then added the missing piece to the left cockpit side that helps align the rear sliding canopy. I will need to check out the Plastruct rack and pick up some "c" channel.

Set the windscreen and canopy into place to see how everything lines up. Just a little filler work needed on the left side...


Moving onto the cowling area, I mounted the cowl temporarily and applied masking tape to the cowl so I can sand the fuselage balsa down to meet it without damaging the paint. There are a couple of areas that will need to be shimmed as the balsa will be pretty thin once it is sanded down to match the cowl radius.




Just had to stick the Dave Brown Parabolic spinner on it to get a feel for how it will look once the engine is installed...

Hope to do more work on it tomorrow!
I then just had to see how the horizontal surfaces looked when slid into the place. I had to straighten the aluminum joiner tubes as they were bent as a result of the crash. I got them pretty darn close to perfectly straight again.
I then added the missing piece to the left cockpit side that helps align the rear sliding canopy. I will need to check out the Plastruct rack and pick up some "c" channel.
Set the windscreen and canopy into place to see how everything lines up. Just a little filler work needed on the left side...
Moving onto the cowling area, I mounted the cowl temporarily and applied masking tape to the cowl so I can sand the fuselage balsa down to meet it without damaging the paint. There are a couple of areas that will need to be shimmed as the balsa will be pretty thin once it is sanded down to match the cowl radius.
Just had to stick the Dave Brown Parabolic spinner on it to get a feel for how it will look once the engine is installed...
Hope to do more work on it tomorrow!
#34
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Hello Chris. This is Lancairron. The rebuild is fantastic! I am so happy you bought it, as I know it will be better than new. Keep up the great work. I will have to make the trip to Morrisville to see the maiden flight.
#36

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Not much visible progress on the Mustang today. A little more sanding and making up some throttle and choke servo mounts. I may still decide not to use a choke servo...
Throttle and choke servo mounts...


Also started work on the air valve mounting tray...


That is it for today.
Throttle and choke servo mounts...
Also started work on the air valve mounting tray...
That is it for today.
#39

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Put in a little more time today.
Routing the airlines from the retractable tailwheel up to the air valves.

Constructed a tray to hold the receiver and matchbox for the elevator servos. All servo extensions will be made and soldered to length.

Constructed a tray to hold the 24oz fuel tank.




Shot of the tank set in the fuselage and air control tray set in place.

That is all for today.
Routing the airlines from the retractable tailwheel up to the air valves.
Constructed a tray to hold the receiver and matchbox for the elevator servos. All servo extensions will be made and soldered to length.
Constructed a tray to hold the 24oz fuel tank.
Shot of the tank set in the fuselage and air control tray set in place.
That is all for today.

#40
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Well, I've patiently kept my mouth shut and have checked in on your RE-build...I am going offer a bit of Mustang advice on mounting your wing. I've built and own two Ziroli P-51 D's, One American Eagle P-51 B, One Nitro Planes P-51 D and have scratch built 3, 1/5 scale P-51 D examples from my own drawings...All but one of my P-51 wings are held on with 4 metal bolts-2 in front of the wing and 2 at the rear...My first P 51 had dowel mounts, such as your Stang...and the dowels failed after several flights....The aftermath was ugly...I swore from then on to secure all my wings on all my Warbirds with 4 hex head metal bolts (1/4-20's from the Hd'ware store) When you fly the large warbirds for awhile, you learn that the throttle is purt-near left wide open most of the time for thrilling, low passes down low, with loops and point rolls thrown in to spice things up..... An experienced Warbird pilot never goes 'loafing by' at slow air speeds with his bird...because ( as we say in Texas ) One, It ain't very manly and Two...your Mustang will most likely stall and spin in when you least expect it ....We learn early that wing mountings are heavily stressed when jinking & juking around and maneuvering at war emergency speeds (going Mach 2 with your hair on fire)...Wood dowels don't hold up well to this sort of stress very long and begin to wear and rub bigger mounting holes which soon lead to a smoking hole...somewhere on the field. You're doing a good job with your rebuild..Welcome to the Warbird community...we don't have to do 3 D maneuvers and other Dipsy-Doodles to look cool.. Yeah Buddy !!!

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Be sure to balance the prop and spinner ( especially if you paint it). The dowels will last longer and all of the other equipment will like it better too! The air tanks will not rotate in their mounts, the air valves and servos will not vibrate apart, the canopy hold down pins will not come loose, and the firewall will not vibrate loose.
#42

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Be sure to balance the prop and spinner ( especially if you paint it). The dowels will last longer and all of the other equipment will like it better too! The air tanks will not rotate in their mounts, the air valves and servos will not vibrate apart, the canopy hold down pins will not come loose, and the firewall will not vibrate loose.
#43

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Thanks tejician1 for the advice. Been building and flying airplanes for almost 30 years now. I will leave this one as designed. Next Mustang is going to be a Bates P51B with a VicRC fuselage. I've been following the builds on that one over on rcscalebuilder. I'll be sure to balance everything before this beast gets airborne again. Anyway, back to the rebuild.
#44

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Work continues on the Mustang with more routing of airlines and the construction of a soon to be hidden area where the switches, air gauge and filler valve.


I temporarily mounted the engine so that I can figure out where I need to hack into the cowling for the cylinder heads and exhaust. I have NOT cut where the opening for the exhaust air will be yet.




Placed the wing in the saddle and I can see that the plastic fairing on the wing is not going to do as it does not match up to the fuselage. I will have to make a new one...

I installed the wing mounting bolts backwards and then pressed the wing down onto them to leave an impression on where they should be drilled. Once those holes were drilled, I was able to accurately mark where the front dowel holes should be drilled.


Hard to tell from this picture, but the original dowel holes had NO glue in them.

This is the original remaining dowel, NO evidence of glue on the dowel.

I've made my replacement dowels considerably longer than the original and they now butt up against the wheel well liner when fully installed. These dowels were glued in with liberal amounts of Gorilla glue. I don't think these will fall out.


More later... perhaps. Need to finish putting away Christmas.
I temporarily mounted the engine so that I can figure out where I need to hack into the cowling for the cylinder heads and exhaust. I have NOT cut where the opening for the exhaust air will be yet.
Placed the wing in the saddle and I can see that the plastic fairing on the wing is not going to do as it does not match up to the fuselage. I will have to make a new one...
I installed the wing mounting bolts backwards and then pressed the wing down onto them to leave an impression on where they should be drilled. Once those holes were drilled, I was able to accurately mark where the front dowel holes should be drilled.
Hard to tell from this picture, but the original dowel holes had NO glue in them.
This is the original remaining dowel, NO evidence of glue on the dowel.
I've made my replacement dowels considerably longer than the original and they now butt up against the wheel well liner when fully installed. These dowels were glued in with liberal amounts of Gorilla glue. I don't think these will fall out.

More later... perhaps. Need to finish putting away Christmas.
#48

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More work on the Mustang. As the plastic under wing fairing no longer matched up to the fuselage, I decided to make a new one out. Created a former at the front of the wing and then strip planked it with 1/8" balsa.




I wanted to make the oil cooler exit a little more realistic looking so I did a little work on that area...

I then turned my attention to the broken fiberglass wing filet. The right side filet is pretty damaged from about the halfway point forward.

I marked the filet with a sharpie to indicate where I cut it to provide a good spot to transition to the replacement piece that I will be making.

The filet was cut back to the marked spot.

I then proceeded to rough out a piece of blue foam that I will be glassing to make the replacement front piece of the filet.


I stuck some sandpaper onto an aluminum tube with 3m77.

Using the tool that I created, I sanded the foam to the approximate shape of the remaining filet.



I will apply some spackling compound to the edges in order to get a sharper edge. After filling and final sanding, I will lay up fiberglass cloth over the foam in the hope of creating an acceptable useable part. Once cure, the foam core will be removed.
That is all for today...
I wanted to make the oil cooler exit a little more realistic looking so I did a little work on that area...
I then turned my attention to the broken fiberglass wing filet. The right side filet is pretty damaged from about the halfway point forward.
I marked the filet with a sharpie to indicate where I cut it to provide a good spot to transition to the replacement piece that I will be making.
The filet was cut back to the marked spot.
I then proceeded to rough out a piece of blue foam that I will be glassing to make the replacement front piece of the filet.
I stuck some sandpaper onto an aluminum tube with 3m77.
Using the tool that I created, I sanded the foam to the approximate shape of the remaining filet.
I will apply some spackling compound to the edges in order to get a sharper edge. After filling and final sanding, I will lay up fiberglass cloth over the foam in the hope of creating an acceptable useable part. Once cure, the foam core will be removed.
That is all for today...