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Part Four - Results!
By Gene BuckleGene's Autobody and Cockpit Repair
Here you can see how far I've managed to tear down the cockpit instrument panel. Both left and right panel wings have been removed so I can work more easily in the spaces behind them. The center section is a riveted part of the airframe and is not removable. The black tray that's sitting on top of the center section is where the HUD and UFC assembly attaches. If I can obtain an F-15 HUD optics unit I'll hang on to it, otherwise I will replace it with something that's more suited to supporting the A7 HUD I have now.
If you look at the bottom of the center section of the instrument panel, you'll see a slotted vent. We've found the ducting for that and it will be fitted with some kind of muffin or squirrel cage fan in Bay #5 (behind the cockpit) to provide fresh air. This is really important because of the small space we're working in. With all the heat generated by the instrument and panel lighting, plus whatever heat is thrown off the forward CRTs, cooling is very important. If the overheating becomes a problem, I may build a small swamp cooler in Bay #5 to air-condition the cockpit.
This is the 2nd to last area that is being repaired. It should be finished tonight [10/04/00] and shot with a few coats of primer. The TLSS decal has also been removed from the avionics bay door. Rob says this was a real pain to do - he ended up using a paint stripper wheel on a drill to get it all off. [Update 10/09/00] This area is now completed. It's been primered and looks very nice.
This is a better picture of the repaired area. Just aft of this repair you can see a patch of darker grey where another hole was fixed. We are indeed using Bondo for these fixes. :)
We're really proud of this one. Where'd that huge hole go? :) This isn't a retouched image at all. It really does look that good. If you head over to my site you'll see how large that hole really was. To repair it, we used 1/8" MDF that was pop riveted into place on the inside and then the hole was filled and smoothed out with body filler. It took quite a bit of filler to complete this patch, but it was done carefully so we don't have to worry about any cracking due to post-cure shrinkage.
Ta da! No more rusty spots! The patches and rusted areas were carefully cleaned with a wire wheel on a drill and then primered to prevent the rust from re-occuring while we were working on other areas.
