First you take your testicles in your left hand...

[mhorowit]

...and then take a deep breath

[Doc]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

...and, the rest of the story? Mighty intersting picture. Was this part flying recently? When was the last repair recorded? Doc

[mhorowit]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

...and, the rest of the story? Mighty intersting picture. Was this part flying recently? When was the last repair recorded? Doc

This is the cluster that lives just to the right-rear of the pax seat. There was no record of any repairs, although when I was looking at what needed to be addressed I noticed various patches applied which must have been covering rust holes. She last flew about 5 years ago and stood outside with a tear in the overhead fabric. I'll use this as a model and build the cluster on the welding table, then splice it into place. I used that method for the tail section and it worked well; minimized the time I had to weld standing on my head. Fortunately, I took Bill's advice and jigged the heck out of the frame, so that when I cut this away, there was only about an 1/8" movement in one of the tubes. - Mike

PS - this plane was never on floats, so why rust collected there is unknown

[Marv]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

Mike the trouble with old aircraft is that sometimes a good ole boy may come by some paperwork of an aircraft crashed years ago and use that and parts laying around in a old shed with a dirt floor or a fuselodge of a floatplane and use the paperwork. From your photo's i would say this fuselodge has been repaired. Moat people can change serial numbers etc. I know that no Taylorcraft owner would do that though. Marv

[Dennis Keels]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

Marv if nobody doing that why is good logs and paperwork for sale.

[Bird]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

SSSsshhhss

[Doc]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

This may be an example of inproper cleaning and anti-corrosing of the weldments after the repair. The flux used during the welding process may have initiated chemical attack of the cluster that was aggravated by a water vapor environment. An extremely dangerous example of steel corrosion in a critical cluster. Doc

[mhorowit]

Tacked up and waiting....

Here she is all tacked up. I'm concerned about warping when I start the beads. On recommendation by someone on the Bearhawk list,I've ordered "(Construction of) Tubular Steel Fuselages" (TSF) by Aircraft Technical Books which I hope will provide some additional guidance. I see I still need to place those tabs. Can't go wrong with an additional reference. Dave gave me some pointers, so while I wait I'll build a practice cluster and follow his suggestions.- Mike

Yes, I will sandblast before welding

[fearofpavement]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

looks like something encountered on the beach during an amphibious assault...

[Doc]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

Well...I have a 1941 fuselage outside of the hangar that is the remnant of the "spares" and "template" for my 1946 rebuild. The clusters look good, but the front end obviously landed just before the rest of the airframe (LOL). No data plate...and it will never fly again. BTW...my 1946 7AC had a welded cluster on the right hand side that had some corrosion (severe pitting) that was a "watch" item on the Aeronca website. Mark welded a very nice patch over the entire cluster as per their recommendations when we refurbished the airframe. Doc

[Marv]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

That fuselodge may never fly again, but i bet that data plate is or will. Marv

[Dennis Keels]

Re: First you take your testicles in your left hand...

Marv I can't believe anybody fooling with airplanes would do that.