bdthoresen

Wow, that looks amazing. Keep it up! THOR

34.316 inches give or take. Monstrous! THOR

Ok, so now I regret that I deleted my Facebook account...... THOR

Howdy All- I remember last year that one of the members here (Miroslav?) built a Japanese subject, and was testing MRP’s Japanese colors on his George. Does anyone know if they are still planning on releasing the planned IJN/IJA colors? I searched through some of my normal retailers, and nothing came up. Anyone have any more information? THOR

Jennings- Do you have a sketch to show me what you need? I am an Aircraft Restorer/Mechanic by trade, so I might be able to help. Perhaps a pic of the struts and how you are trying to mount them? THOR

Pig- Thank You. THOR

It would appear the FA-200-160 used the Lycoming O-320-D2A motor, 160 horsepower, so accessory case would be almost identical for the period. You should be good to go! THOR

Here ya go Pete, a fairly common Lycoming O-320/360 accessory case. As I mentioned earlier, there were subtle differences based on the dash model/spec of the engine, but these are the most common. From clockwise top left is the oil cooler return line plug-Usually an AN fitting is screwed into here, with the fire sleeved line heading towards the oil cooler. Next is the crankcase breather, usually 3/4” rubber line held on with a hose clamp heading down to the cowling/firewall bottom to vent overboard (If you fill the engine with too much oil, she WILL puke it out of this vent, all over the belly

Hey Pete. Yes, the oil cooler lines run from the back of the accessory case to the oil cooler, send and return. Let me see if I can find a picture of the back of a standard Lycoming 4-banger that will show the connection points. You could also add the crankcase breather from the top rear of the engine, which would be filtered down to exit at the lower firewall.....There were minor differences of course dependent upon dash numbers of engines, but most are really close to the same......be back later. Thor

CG- The brake lines in your last picture appear to be standard -4 sized lines and fittings, which the b-nuts on the lines themselves would be 9/16” diameter, and the elbow would be 1/2” or 7/16” depending on the vendor. Those are still in use today. HTH THOR

Hiya Pete! Nice Lycoming. It looks fairly complete out of the box. I like your ignition wiring. A few things I see you could add fairly easily....you could add the oil temp sense line from the gray unit just above the oil filter, as well as the tachometer drive cable to the other gray unit at about 10 o’clock over the oil filter. Both could be made from wound guitar strings, painted aluminum. You could also add a line from the vacuum pump to the firewall, (the black unit at 2 o’clock above the oil filter. You could also add two small wires from each magneto, one a ground, and one a P-Lead

Adam, you are preaching to the choir there! I don’t miss spraying the single stage urethanes, zinc chromates, and epoxy primers. I still use them in my current job, but super small quantities. I was looking at one of the Hawkeyes I have been working on, from VAW-120, and the thing looks like a leopard from all the paint touch up from corrosion control over its service life. It’s covered in literally hundreds of these marks. The funny thing is, it left us new 7 years ago, a single color, and now she is a dozen shades of gray. Someone has even painted over the exhaust stained paint on the lower

While I find your theory of wetness intriguing, if you look just aft of the cheek fairing, there are spray gun marks following the rivet lines when the mod was installed. They would have had to drill some rivets aft of the position to install it, and you can clearly see they painted over the new bare rivets in a hurried fashion to cover them up. Those are clearly spray gun marks. I have been an aircraft/warbird mechanic, restorer, and painter for the last 27 years, And I have left a few spray gun marks myself, albeit with a color a little closer to the original!!!!! Awesome photos.

That’s the way I’d go, and yes, the brake lines were flexible at the scissor link, and the gear pivot point, turning back into aluminum lines heading towards the cockpit. The photos you show appears the struts are a bit deflated of Nitrogen/5606. Make sure you have a bit more oleo showing than that! Your build is looking great! THOR

That was my thinking as well. It would appear that the pump unit was small, along with the relevant plumbing in the airframe compared to the volume required by the three gear actuators. The sequence appears the same throughout the video, with the left main, then right main, then nose gear retracting in order. Now, I am not certain what kind of pump they were using, whether it was engine driven off the left side, or if it was an electric pump that was actuated by the position of the selector off of the gear handle. But, the actuator closest to the pump would get the fluid first, followed by the