New F-84 project

[Trevor Hale]

LOL, well your going to have a beauty when she is done.

Hard part will be figuring out where to start

[Michael Carter]

Your aircraft was built in '51. That has been standard Air Force numbering for awhile. 9345 is probably the build number, or like a car, the VIN number. Except that, unlike an automobile, that number may not tell you much.

There is no telling what Fairchild-Republic was doing back then, and not sure you will be able to find out.

[BHawthorne]

LOL, well your going to have a beauty when she is done.

Hard part will be figuring out where to start

I'm thinking take everything out of the interior and treat the interior cockpit and the exterior fuselage as 2 seperate projects. With the interior parts taken out I'm not so apprehensive about the prospect of storing the fuselage section at a monthly storage place. There would be nothing left inside it for curious people to pilfer. That's the current plan anyways. That'll allow me to take my time redoing all the panels at home.

I have space to park the thing in the back yard, but I'm not too anxious to try my luck with the neighbors...lol. Later in the year I'm looking into a 10x20' tent garage for the backyard. I saw this tent on eBay. I'm sure I can probably find something like it locally.

[AndyT]

I was looking at that same tent at Wal-Mart for about $150 complete yesterday. 10 X 20

[BHawthorne]

I was looking at that same tent at Wal-Mart for about $150 complete yesterday. 10 X 20

Ah, good pricing considering the size.

One thing I've noticed when looking at the front instrument panel is it looks like a previous owner threw random gagues in to fill the panel. That's a minor irratation, considering eBay has most F-84 gagues all the time listed. The side panels and all that hard stuff seems original though according to the pictures. Sort of confusing as to why the easy to replace instruments are wrong, but the hard to find ones are still original...*chuckle*

Maybe it has to do with it being last at a techical training wing? I also noticed inert stencled on the ejection seat. Maybe this aircraft was a non-flying training piece before demil.

[BHawthorne]

I got a copy of the F-84F flight manual TO 1F-84F-1 for reference today. Also learned a bit more about the history of the aircraft. Was stationed at Luke AFB with the 3600th, Sheppard with the 3750th. I've been in contact with a bunch of people the last few days trying to get some information on the history of the aircraft. I hop in the truck after work tomorrow and head down to Texas for the pick up. I hope to have more information to post soon.

If I'm not too tired Sunday night, I'll throw online a few more pics.

[BHawthorne]

Well, after a heck of a lot of driving I'm back at home and the trailer is on the side of the house. Seeing it in pictures is one thing, but wow is it big. I'll put up a few camera phone pics I shot of it when I picked it up. Also got a few of it on the side of the house. It's taller than the rain gutters on the roof line. The neighbor has a good humor about it all, so no problems there. Now to head over to walmart in the next day or so and get one of those tent canopies to hide it in while not working on it.

Edit: New pics up at the below link. Didn't have time to take too many. It was getting ready to rain.
http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/s...?searchid=6102

[BHawthorne]

I hope people don't mind I'm posting after myself a few times. I'm using this thread as a daily log for the work in progress.

Today I took out the instrument panels and the left and right aux panels to evaluate them and begin cleaning them up a bit. It surprised the heck out of me how easy it is to strip a cockpit. It took all of 20 minutes. 6 9/16 nuts unscrewed and 6 regular screws later and it was stripped. A few wiring harnesses were cut by previous owners or in the demil, but the remaining wiring harnesses all unscrewed easily by hand.

I got a few surprises while doing the panel taredown. I found a few loose panels I thought I had missing behind the rudder pedals. Also the largest surprise I found was the fuselage serial data plate is intact. It's on the right rear cockpit firewall between the ejection seat and some lines and wiring. The pic of the data plate is a bit blurry.

Here is a link of pictures for today:
http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/s...ds=F-84F+6-9-8

[Matt Olieman]

I hope people don't mind I'm posting after myself a few times. I'm using this thread as a daily log for the work in progress.

Are you serious.... I love it, this is fantastic and so much appreciated and impressive. Thank you Brad.

Matt Olieman

[BHawthorne]

Just moved the cockpit to where I'm going to start working on it. Today I took detailed pics of the right and left panels, the compartment where the guns used to be and the ejection seat. It rained hard last night, which turned the dirt in the cockpit into red mud...ug. I've got some cleanup to do this weekend. The canopy doesn't seal correctly at the moment, which lead to standing water in the floor of the cockpit. No harm done other than a bit wet floor though. I got a tarp to throw over the canopy section in case it rains now. Hopefully that'll do until I get the 20x20ft work tent built. It's being shipped next week.

Today's pics:
http://www.mycockpit.org/photopost/s...s=F-84F+6-13-8