A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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TonyC
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

Blue_2 wrote:
Fri 02 Sep 2022, 6:44 am
Cheers TT, it's much appreciated!

Tony, I sort of wished I'd taken my works vehicle; imagine how much Meteor I could have brought back on an artic!! :rofl:
I could always ask my work if I could borrow one as well, that'll be 2 Meteors or, we've just hired some box double deckers with moving floors, 4 Meteors... :laughing:
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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Meteor flock ahoy...!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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Another busy weekend seen off, only hardly a spanner turned on either 788 or 168! We did see a record number of departures from Elvington airfield's runway though, numerous Meteor NF.14's, a few Lightnings and Phantoms, the odd Nimrod, even some Shackleton and Sea Venom action! Read on...

06/09/2022 Update

This weekend just gone was our second Open Cockpit event of the year. I was in on Friday to help with the prep, moving steps around, making sure WL168's cockpit was ready for visitors, you know the sort of thing. The Tornado and T33 had been moved for the event...
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And our friend and tame Lightning guru Darren was in, with his son, to get XS903 ready and run cockpit tours on her for the day.
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They had intentions of getting 903 as electrically live as possible, so borrowed one of my batteries and got busy removing panels and fitting items 903 had been long missing
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I got 168 set up with steps etc. ready for visitors
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Before getting on with setting up our other contribution to the event. I had decided we could offer a slightly more "hands on" experience for our visitors. I brought my own PC over, which has MS FSX on it, the VFR Scenery addon, Elvington airfield, and among the aircraft I have for it pretty much everything in the YAM stable including inevitably a Meteor NF.14! I thought it would be good to offer our visitors the chance to fly our project Meteor over our airfield, and if they happened to drop some money in the strategically placed donations pot (AKA our old hyd tank. Recycling at its finest!) then even better! After borrowing the huuuuuge TV from the back of the cinema which my better half had found in store there and suggested we put to good use, we were set up and ready to go.
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I know it's not the greatest graphics etc, but its about as good as my humble PC (the one I'm writing these ramblings on right now actually) can manage so it'll have to do. A closer pic shows the NF in the colours 788 will be going into, with Elvington off to the right of the screen
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The rendition of YAM could do with updating, as it still has the Romney building on the taxiway for example, but it's as good as you get on FSX!
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The sound of jet engines brought the Nimrod crew a-looking. Here Avril is taking their jet for a quick spin
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I'll be a gentleman, and not comment on how the flight ended...!
So that was us set for the Saturday. I did get one with one little job for 788. I removed the compass control panel from 788 (on the right in the below pic) as the one in her cockpit had faded badly in the sun over the years. I had got another from Bruce's shed (on the left), but while it had a good front it had been pillaged of its fuses and the box was dented and corroded.
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It also had its plugs on the back rather than underneath, as is the Meteor fit. It would need taking apart anyway for conversion, so I decided to make one good control box from the 2. When I saw these markings on the controller out of 788, that was my mind made up
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Use the new front and attached innards, keep 788's case. I made a start, stripping both controllers on the Friday before close of play. That would be a nice little job to finish off on the Saturday in between customers on the sim I figured. Foolish me!
Friday night we were back at YAM for the volunteers' BBQ and beers, put on by the management as a (much appreciated) thankyou for all the hard work we put in for YAM. As night fell (the nights are closing in, can't say I like it either) the dark gave Darren chance to show off just how busy he has been on 903...
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Great to see the jet coming back to life
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The cockpit looks great too, now it is near complete and also near fully lit!
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Great work by Darren and his lad. Darren is now planning monthly 'working visits' to 903 to bring her back up to scratch, with help from the Meteor/Buccaneer collective. Things are looking up for the former 11Sqn flagship!
On to Saturday... we were expecting to be busy going by the number of pre-booked tickets... and we weren't wrong! Cars were queuing outside before the gates were opened, and we were absolutely flat out all day. I had Kane outside working 168, while I stayed in the hangar with the PC doing my 'flying instructor' bit. It was a great day and a great event for YAM, despite a very short, very sharp downpour in the middle of the day
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At the end of the day, we packed away and retired knackered but happy and proud that we had made the event work, and hundreds of visitors went away happy. We had queues at all the participating aircraft nearly up to closing, I'd say that was a result. The sim was a great success, I think we wrote off more NF.14's than were ever built but everyone went away happy and smiling, some even came and rejoined the back of the queue for another go (or goes!) at writing off, sorry landing, one of A-W's finest! Our director is now looking at YAM getting a similar setup for themselves as while bringing mine over as a one off 'proof of concept' was such a success, I'm not hauling my poor PC across every time!
Going back to Friday night, there was one bit of business to attend to. Our tame Kiwi Monty. Sadly, it is time for him to go home. As he's now come to the end of his studies at York Uni the RNZAF now want him back, which I consider most unsporting of them as we need him! We couldn't let him just disappear off though. On the Friday I prepared a little present for him. I had bought a 1/144 scale NF.14 a bit ago, and I decided it would be a good present for him to take home without busting his baggage allowances! To make it a little more personal, I made a stand for it from a bracket which was originally part of 788's footstep retraction mechanism, which we had replaced with a NOS item
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We got a last "team beer" with him on Friday night, in front of 168
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He will be very much missed. His work on the jets, and the Chippy, has been first class, and the professionalism he brought to our team has just maybe rubbed off a bit on us too... Good luck and safe travels Monty. We'll miss you. And keep the digital copies of the AP's so you can advise from NZ; means the 788 team will be a Commonwealth effort!

More next time folks...
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by K5054NZ »

Thanks for another great post Graham, and it's sad to see our man Monty leave the project. What a lovely souvenir!
Zac in NZ
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TEXANTOMCAT
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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It'll be a bit cramped for you down there mate, your population is about to double!

TT

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TonyC
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

Shame that Monty has to go but hope he was suitably 'zapped', before he left :grin:
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

All being well he'll be visiting us one last time at the weekend. Gives us time to zap him!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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TEXANTOMCAT wrote:
Wed 07 Sep 2022, 1:06 pm
It'll be a bit cramped for you down there mate, your population is about to double!
:rofl: :rofl:
Blue_2 wrote:
Wed 07 Sep 2022, 6:11 pm
All being well he'll be visiting us one last time at the weekend. Gives us time to zap him!
I expected nothing less!
Zac in NZ
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

It's certainly been an eventful week since I last sat down in front of my keyboard for you lot. But, as that other Queen put it, 'The Show Must Go On'. I don't think a monarch who has reigned for one year longer than our jet has even existed would approve of us slacking!
Fisrtly, that compass box. Now assembled with the face and innards of the new one from Bruce, and the marked up original case from 788's, and ready to fit
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This weekend has seen us mostly back on metalwork jobs for 788. I decided to get on with the removable starboard engine cowl hoop. It had little or no corrosion, but it had after they were all tested had a number of cowling fastener captive nuts that needed replacing and was just generally manky. The drill got busy...
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Then I degreased and rubbed the whole assembly back, inside and out, before breaking out the primer
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Which as it is still warm dried very quickly. So quickly, I soon got the paint on the inside of the assembly!
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Before heading for a brew. Heading back from the brew was done at speed, as there were thundery showers closing in fast and my newly painted stuff was still outside!
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I beat the rain though, then spent some time on our pillar drill removing spacer plates from the duff cowl fasteners. We'll be needing those again to set the correct depth for the fasteners
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It's the fiddly little time consuming jobs like these that nobody ever seems to realise or appreciate eat the hours of an aircraft (or any machine for that matter) restoration... That done I then broke out the roller and painted the upper and side faces of the cowl ring
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Good as new! The next morning the paint had dried, so we assembled the hoop with its clearance panels.
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And dropped it back in place to see how it looked
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It was at the point I took the photograph below I should have and didn't notice a mistake I had made; I'll come back to that later...
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Our next job seeing as the weather was good was to go out to the Lightning and open her up for the weekend to let the cockpit air out. Looking good with nearly the full kit fitted thanks to Darren!
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While we were there our tame Tiger Moth made its first trip over that I have seen in a while
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Always nice to see and hear! We then went back to 788, working on seeing which of the captive nuts the clearance panels attach to we could save, and which would need replacing
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The starboard outboards were relatively easy, and gave me a good opportunity to teach Tom how to replace captive nuts
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The inboards were a different matter however. They revealed a mod or repair which had happened some time during 788's career, an extra skin fitted to the top of 788's inner wing over the undercarriage bay. The giveaway? Can't see the rivet tops for the captive nuts as they are in the skin below this one!
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Whoever had fitted the mod/repair (we aren't sure which as we don't have enough detail on 788's history) had drilled it through for the attachment screws. All we could do to replace the duff captives was drill and rivet through the extra skin. This was soon done, and we then dropped the cowling and clearance panel assembly in place. It's at this point the jet reminded me I don't know everything about Meteors; remember I mentioned a mistake I should have noticed? Go back to the photo where I mentioned it. Look at how the clearance panel sits, or rather how its outer edge doesn't align with the panel behind it whereas the outer one does? Yep, I hadn't noticed that shiny new clearance panel I had picked up at Bruce's to save me the bother of restoring the original inboard one is actually a port engine outboard item. The bit that sits on the wing surface is wider, and the screw holes are further out from the nacelle. Bugger. At least the new one will come in when we do the port side I suppose... So, simply dig out the original panel from stores, throw it at Tom as a training exercise to restore, and as my penance contort myself into the back corner of the cockpit to refit the compass box. While I was there I had had the switch panel forward of it off, as it eased access and had to come off for a switch change anyway, so I changed the offending switch (the emergency accumulator one if you're interested. shiny one in the photo) for one of the ones we got from Bruce then refitted and wired up the lot.
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Another "oops" moment by me on Saturday has brought our next job to the fore. I kicked a tub full of rivets over, the majority of which fell into the gun bay through the deskinned gun doors and Tom and I then had to scrabble around getting them back (sorry Tom...). But we do need to bite the bullet, stop job swerving, and get this mess sorted. What remains on the jet...
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Which as you can see after cross referencing it to our second set of door frames, we have marked on what components we need to save to make a complete door set
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This is because due to the way these things are assembled and ridiculously over-engineered, not to mention seized solidly in place, we are going to have to get brutal to get the old ones off the jet. At least knowing which pieces are duff on the new set and therefore need saving off the fitted set means we know what bits to work around.
Most of our day was based around this old girl though
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The family of a 102Sqn Pocklington based Halifax navigator and veteran of 34 operations had booked a tour of our Hali. Unfortunately our normal Halifax guides were unavailable, so Scott and I stepped in. It is a privilege to be able to give such families a peek into the world their ancestor inhabited, and to show them the intricacies of the aircraft he flew into danger and back in 34 times.
There's also far worse offices to spend your Sunday in than this one!
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While I was there, we had had a visit from Bradley, one of the engineers on NX611 and HJ711 at East Kirkby. I think it's fair to say he knows his engines, and while we were chatting about other aircraft business over t'internet he mentioned our Halifax Merlin XX crash relic on display under the Hali was configured incorrectly; someone had put the intake assembly in the wrong way round! So, I have now corrected that too
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Finally, a couple of Chippy WK640 jobs. I can't remember if I mentioned it but our control column interlink has come back from being straightened and welded by the local blacksmith
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Gary had got me an aerosol of the correct paint too, so it was primed then painted up
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It's now reassembled and back in Chippy stores, awaiting 640 becoming a bit less bent so it can be refitted.
Final shot from this week of weeks...
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More next time folks.
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

Yet another great update and good to see more of the airframe getting attention!
Not that I don’t like seeing the electronics being fettled but the Advanced Modeller Syndrome modeller in me, likes to see the access panels in internal spaces, for future reference :grinning:
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Cheers Tony! You aren't the only one who likes to see 788 "undressed"; we noticed while we were outside back in the bad old days that people would walk past the nice shiny jets just to come see what was going on with 788, and to try and get a sneaky peek at her inner workings. Seems it's somehow more interesting for them. That's why we tend to leave 788 mostly unpanelled now, it gives people more to look at.

I suspect you, like us, will be getting sick of seeing those gun bays and their doors fairly soon though!

Incidentally, to the modellers out there, if you are doing a Meteor and need any reference pics of a particular bit of the F.8 or the NF, feel free to ask us to get pictures for you!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by K5054NZ »

Thanks for another great update Graham, I always greatly enjoy them.
Zac in NZ
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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Cheers Zac! It's always nice to get some feedback on my ramblings on here.
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

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I'm technically back off my holidays now, so I suppose that means I should really write up what I got up to before I disappeared off to the peace and quiet of the Yorkshire Dales for a few days last week. During the previous week, another ebay win for the archive had turned up, a photo of 788 at YAM taken June 2001...
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Here she is parked on what is now the neck of the concrete pan the Nimrod sits on. You can see the paintwork is starting to look slightly careworn, even after just one decade. I love finding old pics of 788 for the archive; another of her on guard duties at Leeming during the 80's came via this very forum from Mark Smith
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While I was trawling my own old photos for something else, I also came across (probably) the first photo of a Meteor NF I ever took; The then Coventry-based NF.11/TT.20 WM167/G-LOSM on static display at Waddington 2003
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She's in good company in the photo, with a Hunter and Canberra PR.9 XH135. And in the 19 years since I took this photograph, I have learned how to get all of an aircraft in a shot!
26/09/2022 Update (backdated)
When all the following happened, it was the weekend before the Queen's funeral. I was in both days, as my better half was at work covering an absent staff member, so I got on with the metalwork of the starboard gun doors. First though, our Thursday team had been on with some Meteor jobs for me. Tony has made a start on removing a corroded section of angle from inside the extended nose
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And Steve had made a start with what will be our standing set of mainwheels, rubbing them back and priming them
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This set, with the rare and NF-specific fit all-weather block tread tyres, will be what 788 wears most of the time. On to the gun doors; time to bite the bullet. Everthing had been soaking down in WD, in the vain hope it might help. Some of the latching mechanism nuts and bolts did actually cooperate, to my surprise and shock!
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I soon reached an impasse though, where access to undo hardware became impossible. We knew this would be the case and most of the metalwork of the existing door framework would have to be sacrificed. We had compared with the replacement door frame, and marked what of the original framework would need to be saved to make the new structure good. I'm afraid it now became a case of "if you don't like my methods then don't watch me work", as hammers and screwdrivers were brought to the fore.
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We were fortunate to have this option though, as back near the beginning of the project St. Bruce of Norwich (that man again!) had had the foresight to pass our way the remains of a set of NF gun doors in his care so we could sacrifice original structure. Without the replacement door structures, there is no way we could restore the gun doors and bays properly and we would be reduced to nailing the door skins back down and calling it a day. This would not have sat at all well with us. What you can see in the pic above is the crux of the problem, the over-engineered nature of the doors or rather their latching mechanisms. The 2 doors come off as one, hinged in the middle. you simply lift the 2 handles (you can see the handle on the forward door, and the stump of the handle of the rear door in the photo), all the latch pins pop out, the door part folds to get the tongues clear, then lifts away. The problem we are facing is, if you look at the photo, on each part of the door there's 2 latch pins either side, 2 on the centre line of the bay, and a complicated yet at the same time quite delicate steel mechanism operating the whole lot. Our problem is not only are the latch pins seized in position, but the actuating mechanisms are too. The 2 central pins were particularly stubborn. They do have a square on them, so I found a spanner that just happened to fit and tried to get a rotating motion going in the pin to try and work the penetrating oil in better. The pin had other ideas...
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This method did start to show some results though, so the poor Toyota spanner didn't die in vain. By the end of Saturday I had got the majority of the starboard rear door off
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One of those pesky centre latching pins. Corrosion Central...
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just the sides and their latching pins to clear and, as you can see, this had got the bay clear enough to get the Henry hoover in there to give the gun bay a good clean and make it a much more pleasant working environment for the next day. Fun find of the day, outer wing build plates in the rear of the gun bay...
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...proclaiming it to be a Meteor NF.12 unit! The remaining latch pins were again doused and left to think about things overnight. Next morning, things started well. While in the container I'd found the new door skin, again from Bruce...
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and after marinating overnight, with the aid of a big shifter the latching pins were actually cooperating!
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I'd had nightmares about cutting these off then having to drill them out. Fortunately unfounded. Working through the latch pins, they all decided to undo finally. Next I started stripping the remaining latching mechanism components off the replacement door.
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Between the original door and the new door, I now had 2 boxes of door components, a "good" box and a "bad" box
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No surprise which is more full! I started trying the free off the seized mechanisms out of 788's door
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Think this is going to be a long drawn-out process. I did get this locking latch freed off though...
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This is spring-loaded and secures the gun door handle in the down position. It was seized solid, but now...

Perfect! Next job once I had got the last stubborn latch pin out of the new door was to start making good its' structure. First quick job was to fit the rib I had saved off 788 to replace the snapped one on the new door. The door off 788 had clearly been a later mod state to the new door, with a couple of extra bracing plates fitted, so I transferred these to the new door too. I then temporarily fitted the structure to the skin, to make sure everything aligned...
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...which it did!
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You can see in this shot the securing 'tongues' I mentioned earlier. I realised these would have to come off for riveting the frame to the skin, oh joy another job to do! Fortunately these unbolted happily. Starting to reassemble the door has diminished further the "good" box...
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Because some of the guts of the door have to be fitted before the skin. Which, I have started refitting to the frame!
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The latch and the handle assembly had to go in before the skin went on. Luckily I realised this before I fired up the compressor and started banging rivets in!
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I ran out of day to do all the rivets, but I fitted more than enough to secure each part to the skin. Couldn't resist offering it up to its new home!
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Getting all 4 gun door segments done is going to be a long drawn-out process, but it'll be done and it'll be done right. One bite at a time, and all that...!
I was away during the week, as I said enjoying the peace and quiet of the Yorkshire Dales. A week away from the day job, from aircraft, the lot. THE USAF had other ideas though...!
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Enjoying the serenity of Aysgarth Falls, until 4 F-16's shattered that, closely followed by a Typhoon screaming through at low level, and a Lynx Wildcat doing the same, then 4 F-16's again! Not that I was complaining, but mumblings were coming from herself about a "bloody busman's holiday..." :rofl:
Saturday, I was back home. As I had to take no.2 stepdaughter to YAM for her shift in the NAAFI I popped in to see 788 while I was there, as I knew Steve had been looking to do a bit more on the wheels during the week. Turned out he had been busy!
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Nice work Steve! Next time I'm in I'll find the where the rim locking ring has gone off one of the wheels, then see if they hold air ok...

More next time folks.
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
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TEXANTOMCAT
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TEXANTOMCAT »

Super update chap well done 👍

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

It'll likely be more of the same for the next few updates I'm afraid!
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by cg_341 »

Blue_2 wrote:
Mon 26 Sep 2022, 8:01 am
During the previous week, another ebay win for the archive had turned up, a photo of 788 at YAM taken June 2001...
Image
Here she is parked on what is now the neck of the concrete pan the Nimrod sits on. You can see the paintwork is starting to look slightly careworn, even after just one decade.
I can offer a photo from a little over a decade later, and indeed almost a decade ago now! Taken on 30 September 2012.

Image
WS788 | Gloster Meteor NF.14 | Yorkshire Air Museum by Chris Globe, on Flickr

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Nice shot, that! Highlights one of our many problems, the fact that as we have a made up tow bar rather than a genuine one (which we would love!) we have to take 788's nose door off every time we move her...
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

As we're showing previously unseen photos of '788, here is one that I took in February 2001...

Image

...please feel free to add it to your files :grinning:

Was sure that I'd have more but unfortunately, this is the only one!
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

I shall indeed add this to the library, cheers. Any more for any more...?!

On to a bonus midweek post, seeing as I've had an unexpected Tuesday and an even more unexpected Thursday at YAM...
29/09/2022 Update
Work issues meant I had some free time unexpectedly this week. Tuesday I was at the museum, but the morning was lost partly to helping our mates on the Nimrod team with a couple of jobs, and partly to helping the movements team swapping the Lightning and the Meteor F.8 round. Nice to see 168 on the move!

After this, and Lunch o'clock, I got on with the next round of gun door fun. Trying to dismantle the actuating mechanisms for the starboard rear door mainly
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As you can see it's in far from prime condition. While I was able to get it apart...
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...the condition of the components raised concern. Would reinstalling the whole assembly with its' 6 latching pins be overkill, given that 788's days of doing Mach .82 are over? The more I looked at the parts of the system, the more I was convinced. The decider was the layshaft translating the latching movement to the 2 pins on the far side of the door. While I could probably get it all working and serviceable now, without remanufacturing a number of key parts the mechanism seizing back up, failing and giving us a load of headaches down the line looked an increasingly likely and unattractive view of the future. With this in mind, I decided that we'll reinstate only the central 2 locking pins. These and the tongues fore and aft on the door will I think be more than enough to secure the door for what we are intending. Of course first I had to get the centre pins looking not like they enjoyed the bottom of the North Sea as a holiday destination...
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Done!
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Yes, they are the same pins. I figure keeping just the mechanism mocked up below, with the tongues (not yet fitted), will more than suffice
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Each moving part we add to these doors is a new and exciting opportunity for the door to seize. After all the work going into these doors, I'm not prepared to risk that. It may upset some purists, but I think it is the most practical and sensible approach. The rest of the afternoon was spent on fiddly door parts. I fitted the tongues, a time consuming job. One of the tongues original to the non-788 doors which are forming the basis of the new doors had developed a wear groove, so I swapped it with one of 788's originals
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Tongues on!
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Next was retrieving a bracket from 788's door mechanism, to replace one missing off the new mechanism. This rusty little badger...
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Some gentle persuasion ensued...
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Using the right tool of course! And persistence, force and WD40 started to pay off
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It finally yielded, and was shown what will after it has had some love and attention be its new home
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So that was Tuesday. Today, I was back in and determined to clear the remains of the 2 doors from the starboard side. The last bits of the rear door were off by lunch
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The front door (not shown because it really was putting up a fight and not looking pretty. Again, a case of "if you don't like my methods then don't watch me work") was also coming in for some attention. Just to make life difficult for me today, we had previously assessed the door to be fitted and marked a good few components of the existing door as required for the new door, therefore to be removed carefully in order to be fit for reuse. I had subcontractors too, Tony and Derek on the Thursday team had little to do so they took my built door away to the workshop to continue the process of riveting the new skin on
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I continued my lonely, frustrating battle, and shortly before brew o'clock...won! I had the doors completely cleared from the gun bays for the first time in decades. I took a few (I think) well deserved moments to be proud of this milestone
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The gun bay in all its unobstructed glory!
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How long it has been since 788 looked like this is anyone's guess, but I suspect her post-retirement spares recovery at Kemble in 1966 was the last time these doors were off
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I went for a celebratory brew, then came back to gather up an unsuspecting Henry Hoover and feed him a probably most unappetising late lunch, Debris a la gun bay. This done, and things looked much better. Allow me to take you on a tour of a Meteor NF gun bay... First, an overview of the now clean bay
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The view down the tube for the inboard 20mm cannon barrel
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The spent case and links ejector chutes.
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Note they have been blocked off, something I noted for further investigation. Here, the electrical connections for the cannons, still in place
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At the rear of the bay...
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The gun vent hatches (Edit, I forgot to post the photo, sorry!). There's one of these spring loaded hatches behind each gun. When the guns are fired an actuator opens an air intake in the leading edge, the forced air rushing in through this forces these to open and expels the air and cordite fumes from the gun bay, venting out of the bottom of the wing ahead of the outboard flaps. Simple but effective... Finally the ammo feed chute to the inboard gun
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The ammunition leaves the rearmost 2 boxes in the ammo bay, runs through this track under the rear of the outer guns' breech, then into the inboard gun.
At the end of the day, Tony brought the door back for safe keeping. I had spent part of the afternoon removing the hinge from the old doors, this I cleco'd to the door. I couldn't resist dropping it into it's new home-to-be!
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Next week all being well he'll take it away again, finish the riveting, and rivet the hinge on too. My next job will be making a forward gun door structure from this unholy mess
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As well as seeing what I can salvage from the (disappointingly full) junk box, and transfer to the (disappointingly empty) good bits box
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One other good thing from the day, I was investigating the wires in the gun bay, and one set turned out to be the feed for the starboard nav light
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I belled it with our trusty meter, and the wiring is good.
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All of a sudden we've got a lot less far to run cable for working nav lights! Ignore Henry hoover in the pic. He's probably trying to quietly vomit his lunch into the ammo bay, and hoping I don't notice. Though speaking of jettisoning unwanted things, those spent case and link chutes... A quick look under the wing confirms they have been rather crudely blanked off
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Those will be coming off then! Finishing this week's update, a clear unobstructed view through the gun bay and out through the barrel tubes for the first time in forever
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Satisified with that.

More next time folks...
Last edited by Blue_2 on Fri 30 Sep 2022, 6:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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K5054NZ
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by K5054NZ »

I've been sick for a few days so it's nice to come back to so much 788 goodness. Thank you Graham!
Zac in NZ
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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Sorry you've been unwell. Hope the mangled bits of 788 haven't made you feel worse Zac!
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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TEXANTOMCAT
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TEXANTOMCAT »

Good update! Will have to try and find you a Mark V Hisso!


TT

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Blue_2
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by Blue_2 »

Now THAT would be nice!
Meteor WS788/ Chippy WK640 Restoration Project, YAM
Shack WR963, Coventry
Other types meddled with by request!

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TonyC
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Re: A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

Post by TonyC »

It seems that the work on the doors, is proving to be easier than feared but then again, I'm no airframe mechanic! :thumbsup:

also good news on the wiring for the wing tip light although the metalwork that the light cover attachs to, looks a bit rough or is it just the remains of an gasket/sealant?
...and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in Space cos there's bugger all down here on Earth!

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