Metal glare shield?

[Carl E. Carson]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Joel and others: The vertical piece on my'40 BC-65, was the black
cardboard. I replaced it with plywood but I still have the original if you would like to use it as a pattern. Of course it is different having the trim lever cutout under the pilot's seat. An interesting note that the trip lever area is marked "up" and "down" and is no way visable to the pilot. Not too hard to reason which way is up and which way is down!

Carl

[Ryan]

Re: Metal glare shield?

The difference may rest when each individual ship was built. My BC12D for example was built in March and should have all wood pieces (stringers, floorboards, door frames). I have a photocopy of a factory letter that was in some of my dads old TOC newsletters from around 1980 that I found in the garage. I'll have to look again but I remeber that they say that all aircraft built from may on would have the metal stringers, aluminum floorboards, aluminum door frames, and triangle landing gear fairing. A switch could have been made then. Wouldn't surprise me if some of us are all mixed up as I know I have the correct stringer pattern fuselage for my ship (wood stringers), but wrong door frames, wrong floor boards, correct wood gear triangle correct wood trim tab. Joel's photo may prove that the BC12D-1 Aces were even something different. (Weren't the Aces built with whatever was "lying around" at the time?)

Joel, I too love the detective work! Guess that why I became a History major and teacher!

Ryan

[crispy critter]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Wait a minute, I think I just found a photo of an original black cardboard glareshield. This is a photo I took at Oshkosh 2008 of Tyler Foster's 1946 BC12-D, s/n 8015. His cockpit looked mostly original, although his panel had no gloveboxes and his fuselage had no left cockpit door...

Joel,
I don't think the garmin name would have been present on an original 1946 model unless you have managed to invent time travel.lol. Sorry Joel,just had to ad a little humor to the mix. Your bird is about the finest I've ever seen.

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Carl,

Thanks for the note about the piece under the seat. I'm thinking of removing my rectangle of Airtex carpet from there and covering the plywood with black cardboard instead -- I need the plywood to support my ELT and fire extinguisher brackets.

Ryan,

My May '46 has wood stringers, wood door frames, metal floorboards, metal trim tab. That inconsistency at the factory sure makes "authenticity" a challenge. I was impressed that one of the Classics judges at Oshkosh questioned my wood door frames, and said he looked around at other Taylorcrafts on the flightline for comparison (and of course saw a mixture of styles.) That's why it's SO helpful to have documentation like this thread and comparisons with other ships built about the same time, to be able to explain to the judges how the factory mixed in parts.

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Metal glare shield?

The factory usually did not "mix in parts" each change was by ser# and date. This is all listed in the Factory employee newsletter , the Taylorcrafter.
So many of these changes were done out in the field during rebuilds or repairs. I tried working with the Judges back in 1975 -77 . They were more interested in the way screws are aligned and the book kept during the restoration.
After Feb 1946 , When the assembly line changed , it changed that day.

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Eureka! Found a local source for heavy black cardboard. I was working down the list of auto upholstery shops in the Yellow Pages, and one referred me to a wholesale upholstery supply company. They stock something they call "panel board", black on one side, brown on the other, 65 x 39 x 1/32 inches, about $15 per sheet. One sheet is big enough to cut out two glareshields. Doesn't have the "fake leather" texture Hank mentioned, though. Hank, could you spare a small sample of that stuff you found in Kansas City?

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Joel,
I have the old glare shield and am going to use it to make the new one. As soon as I cut the new one I would be glad to mail chunks of the old on to anyone who sends me an address. Get some cheap cardboard and cut a few out to make sure the new one will fit well. The cutouts for the windshield support tubes on mine were WAY to big. I plan to shrink them up so they are tighter on the tubes.
Hank

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Hank,

Thank you very much for mailing me that swatch of your old glareshield material. The automobile upholstery trade apparently calls that "embossed panel board." I went to the oldest auto upholstery supply store in town here, showed them your swatch, and they indeed had two 65 x 39 inch sheets of the exact same cardboard back in a dusty corner, for about $15 per sheet.

Now I just need to find the correct diameter black vinyl welt to finish the trailing edge where it's screwed into the panel...

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Metal glare shield?

If you find the correct edging material let me know. I am using car door edge protector material right now but would like to find what they actually used in the 40s.
Hank

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Hank,

I think "semi-bright combination welt." See the attached scan of part of the 1945-46 BC12-D drawing 0894? (hard to read, could be 0804?) "Instrument & engine control installation."

In the white space above the glove box door it says "SEMI-BRIGHT COMB. WELT." and I just finally figured out that label must be associated with the short arrow to its right. (Only been studying this drawing for the past two years...)

So the edge of the cardboard glareshield (p/n 0979-1 "deck panel assembly") sits on top of the metal panel, with welt in between. The round head screws go through the cardboard, the welt, and the metal, and into U-type speed nuts.

You can see this welt covering the edge of Tyler Foster's original glareshield in the photo above.

See my other recent thread about "fender welt anti-chafe on fairings." I've found a source for old-style welt, but I'm hoping someone can tell me the proper diameter for the bead.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Metal glare shield?

The drawing is GREAT! I need to do some detail study and comparison to my fastener books. I have a friend with a bunch of old upholstery catalogs. I'll see if he has an old stock number for the welt (and better yet a NEW part number for the same thing!)
Hank

[astjp2]

Re: Metal glare shield?

I gave up trying to keep mine originial, I covered my aluminum glare shield with flat blackfelt....no reflection that way....if I would have kept my head out of my butt I would have finished my recover a year earlier. I have been trying to make up for the down time by mostly keeping my goal of 150 hours a summer. I hope the gas prices stay down for the summer so I can even afford more hour. tim

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Metal glare shield?

Made and installed my new glareshield last Saturday, using the embossed black panel board from the upholstery shop and a roll of "Model A fender welt" from Tom Baker. This is one of the few Taylorcraft parts you can make with only a pair of scissors!

Traced my old aluminum glareshield onto a spare piece of cardboard, trimmed and trimmed it to fit, then traced that on to the final sheet of panel board. Glued the strip of welt to the rear edge, punched holes through cardboard and welt for the screws, and screwed it into the panel.

It's a huge improvement over my old vinyl-wrapped aluminum one. It absorbs glare so well it's difficult to take a flash photo of it.