1939 BL project available

[n8962p]

Hi all. I (really a friend, whom I'm helping) have a 1939 BL12 project available.

What's there is a servicable fuselage frame, gear, tailfeathers, cowls, engine mount, O145, seats, instruments, fuel tank, struts, and a bunch of wing parts. Not all wing parts, and no spars. Essentially everything but the wings.

I'm not sure of the paperwork status; the project is available due to a death, and the records are in some disarray. It was bought with paperwork, theoretically including logs, but we haven't found them yet, so wisest to treat it as a bunch of parts.

Please email me if interested. All this stuff is going to go to scrap if nobody takes it, so any offer for any part of it, even to just haul it away, will be considered.

Located in Bolton Mass.

Thanks for reading . . .

[RyanShort1]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Don’t see an email address - sent a PM.

[NC36061]

Re: 1939 BL project available

There was no BL12 until 1941; is a data plate available, and if so, what is the SN#?

[n8962p]

Re: 1939 BL project available

There was no BL12 until 1941; is a data plate available, and if so, what is the SN#?

Hmmm. Well, ok, I'm not really a Tcraft guy, so I'm probably off in my information. I was told this was a '39 model, but it's clearly set up for a Lycoming, and came with one.

I haven't found the paperwork yet. I'll see if I can read the S/N.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: 1939 BL project available

I have some good 40 paperwork and some 40 parts that could be combined with this project. If the original papers can't be found it might be a good combination to get at least one plane back in existence. I would really like to see the "paper plane" come back. It is still registered.

Hank

[n8962p]

Re: 1939 BL project available

A little more information:

I tried to get some pix of the S/N. It's pretty cruddy, but I *think* it's 1434. Maybe that helps identify the year.

You can see pix at http://origin.jrd.org/nate/09-01-18/ Click on the thumbnail for a medium size pic, click again for full-rez.

Thanks for looking.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Looks like she is 1939 BC-65 NC-23698. Photos show tube doors with swing out windows, early instrument panel with the big tach still there (HARD to find and expensive to rebuild!). From the inside of the boot cowl it looks like it had a fully enclosed cowl (not sure of that, but the front sides of the boot look like it. The registry says she is a BC (Continental powered) but the engine sure doesn't look Continental. One problem with the early planes is the FAA doesn't really understand (or care about) the differences between a BC, BL and BF plane. They tend to put them all down as Continental.
LOTS of work there, but even more potential. Someone needs to bring her back to life. Whoever is willing to show some interest get with me. I would really like to see another pre-war restored.

Hank

[RyanShort1]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Looks like she is 1939 BC-65 NC-23698. Photos show tube doors with swing out windows, early instrument panel with the big tach still there (HARD to find and expensive to rebuild!). From the inside of the boot cowl it looks like it had a fully enclosed cowl (not sure of that, but the front sides of the boot look like it. The registry says she is a BC (Continental powered) but the engine sure doesn't look Continental. One problem with the early planes is the FAA doesn't really understand (or care about) the differences between a BC, BL and BF plane. They tend to put them all down as Continental.
LOTS of work there, but even more potential. Someone needs to bring her back to life. Whoever is willing to show some interest get with me. I would really like to see another pre-war restored.

Hank

Hank,
If I can make the travel work, I'm game - but that will be the trick, getting it to the Dallas area reasonably.

[sully]

Re: 1939 BL project available

In the picture of the gear it looks like an open cowl (maybe).

Sully

[3Dreaming]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Definitely a open cowl boot cowl. The sides are straight, and it is flat across the bottom. The closed cowl boot cowl sides slant in towards the bottom, and it has a raised area acros the bottom for airflow out of the cowling. Also a US Gauge airspeed. Even thought it is not there the altimeter had been switched out sometime.

You might check the hinge on the door for a serial number. Normally both the tab on the fuselage and door were both stamped.

[RyanShort1]

Re: 1939 BL project available

How do the open cowl birds compare speedwise - I actually like the way they look, but are they a bit slower than the BC12s?

[n8962p]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Well, ok, maybe somebody changed it to a lycoming. It's clearly set up for one, and that's the engine that came with it.

The front cowls I have are open. The boot cowl actually does look like it was mean for an enclosed cowl, but if somebody changed the engine, maybe they kludged an open cowl onto the existing boot cowl. I can take more pix if anybody wants them, but I think you get the idea.

Presumably if anybody cares enough, it could be changed back to a C, and have the right cowl put back. I have a Continental engine mount, happy to thrown that in (remember, if nobody takes it, it all goes for scrap )

I talked to Ryan about this last night, but I'll post it here: This isn't my airplane, I'm acting as an agent for the family of the guy who owned it, who passed away earlier this year. I spoke to the daughter last night, and she thinks she has the paperwork. I'll pursue that angle.

[n8962p]

Re: 1939 BL project available

One more tidbit: I also have two more Lycoming O145 cores that I don't want. One has a couple of the heads off, and there's rust in the bore. Rest of internals unknown. I've also got a pile of extra heads, valve covers, manifold tubes, exhausts, etc. These came from yet a different Tcraft project, but I'm happy to throw them in here if anybody's interested. Given what I understand is the difficulty finding parts to rebuild these engines, that might count as an incentive. Or not

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: 1939 BL project available

I would "suspect" it is really a BL, not a BC and the records are just incorrect. My own 41 is listed by the FAA as a BC and it was NOT produced that way. You can probably go either way and be fine. If you WANT a Continental, use it and show the FAA records, if you WANT a Lyc, changing their records isn't a huge deal. My 45 wasn't even listed as a 45 (they thought she was a 46) and it was pretty easy to get it corrected.
Personally I LIKE the open cowl. Looks right for the era, especially with the original windshield (which are not that hard to make).

Hank

[3Dreaming]

Re: 1939 BL project available

Another thing to remember is the number stamped on the door hinge might not be the actual serial number for the airplane. Most of the time they are, but if there was an issue on the test flight they can get out of sequence. The numbers stamped on the door hinge and on the data tag on my BL were off by 14.