Thorp T18 N55RC Rebuild
12/7/2006 I have been flying N55RC for about three years and have added about 700 hours to the tach during this time. The daily mission for N55RC is to commute about 30 mile to work Monday through Friday with the occasional fighter cap mission thrown in just to keep on my toes. N55RC was beginning to show its age.
12/7/2006 - I have had several emails requesting a picture of the final paint scheme. This is the general idea of what I have in mind for Alert One. I am still undecided on the red tips.
12/7/2006 - Original paint is faded and starting to crack where excessive filler had been used. During teardown it was discovered that the flap attach points had corrosion at the bolt hole. This was not visible until the flap was removed because of the oversize teflon bushing.
12/7/2006 - A typical problem is smoking rivets on the wing center section. These rivets have been replaced in the past with Cherry Max to attempt to solve the problem. This has not worked and even these are now starting to smoke. I will attempt to solve this problem during the rebuild.
12/7/2006 - I didn't think the cockpit looked this bad while flying every day. A new interior is in the works. I have several panel upgrades in mind also depending on budget.
12/18/2006 - Fuselage and wing have been primed. This is a big step. It seemed like the prep work would never end. I am not convinced that I have solved the smoking rivet problem. It seems that the wing skin, being a thin sheet being attached to the thick spar cap is causing movement of the skin under the rivet. Time will tell.
12/18/2006 - Control surfaces have been primed.
12/18/2006 - Prep work continues on fiberglass parts. Old modifications to the lower cowling were showing signs of cracking. Damaged sections have been cut out and re-glassed. Wing tips were in pretty good shape and only required minor work.
12/20/2006 - First layers of final paint have been applied. Bottom of fuselage, bottom of the wing, and the under side of all control surfaces have be coated in a dove gray. I started with a light tack coat. After waiting about 20 minutes I proceeded with a wet coat. The wing and control surfaces were fine after the second coat, however the bottom of the fuselage needed a third coat due to a large number of dry spots.
12/20/2006 - Spraying the wing laying flat made painting very easy. To keep the dust level down, I soaked the floor with a garden hose prior to painting. This is the way we did it back when I was working on war bird restoration. Seems to work great. Anything that touches the floor will stay put and not get blown back up into the paint.
12/20/2006 - The part count during this spray session was larger than it should have been. I was unable to finish one complete coat without reloading the spray gun. It was also difficult to find enough free floor space to keep over spray from one part from getting onto other parts. I will need to re-shoot one trim tab due to this problem. Overall a successful night.
12/21/2006 - Lower cowling repair completed. Need to prime and paint.
12/21/2006 - Upper grear leg fairing repairs proceeding.
12/21/2006 - Wheel pants have been modified to better reduce intersection drag.
12/23/2006 - Painting of the upper surfaces has begun. The top cowling and controls came out really nice. The lower cowling will need further work and another round of prime and paint.
12/23/2006 - Fuselage upper surfaces have been painted. It is amazing how small imperfections stand out with this dark color. Depending on how the other parts come out, I may re-shoot the fuselage.
12/23/2006 - Wing upper surfaces have been painted. The leading edge line came out great and the overall finish looks better than expected. Painting in the hangar without without an exhaust fan lets the overspay hang in the air. I was concerned that this would cause problems with flat surfaces. It came out fine.
12/29/2006 - I have broken into the red paint and finished the stars on the bottom of the wings and other small parts. The original paint scheme has been simplified slightly. The orignal plan called for a white stripe inset in the stars. For now the white stripe has been omitted.
1/1/2007 - The upper surface stars and fuselage stripe has been completed. The stars look great. I thought the red against the dark gray would need a white contrast stripe, however I looks more like a fighter with only the dark colors.
1/1/2007 - The upper cowl has been painted with the red stipe to tie into the lower cowl and the fuselage. Getting a nice line from the spinner and back through the cowling exits and down the fuselage took several attempts before it looked right.
1/1/2007 - The lower cowl has been painted. Getting a symmetrical line took more time than I would like to admit. To the right of the image you can see the CO overlooking the progress.
1/2/2007 - I put the cowling and spinner on the fuselage to check the stripe alignment. It has a slight up turn look from the front. I will be adding a white border that will give me a little room to correct this issue. The stipe came out a little lower on the fuselage than I expected but I will look different when the wing is remounted on Friday.
1/2/2007 - The final painting on the wing has been completed. The wing walk areas were done using an additive to the paint to give the non-skid surface. The photo makes the finish look uneven but this is caused by the reflections of the hangar lights. The surface looks very uniform. I am not sure how it will hold up but worst case would be to sand it down and add grip tape in the future.
1/4/2007 - The wing has been remounted. This was a bigger job than expected. Moving the freshly painted wing and adjusting to get the bolts to line up was well supervised by the CO. Other things completed to night were remounting the horizontal stab and installing the canopy. I am a little behind on the completion schedule for this weekend. I have two colors left to paint. Red items remaining to be painted are rudder, stars on vertical, wing tips, horizontal tips, and spinner. Light gray items left to paint are wheel pants, lower surface of flaps and ailerons. It will be a busy weekend but I feel I can pull it all together.
1/4/2007 - Moved Alert One outside to continue painting in the hangar without worry of over spray.
1/5/2007 - Installed ailerons, flaps, and rudder. Other than paint in the hinge pin holes, this evening went very well
1/6/2007 - As the blinding sun was setting, I put the number ONE on fuselage sides. Inital thoughts are that the number does not go well with the rest of the paint scheme. Maybe a outline in red would tone it down a little.
1/7/2007 - Had a visit from a neighbor that has just purchased a Thorp T-18. This Thorp has an O-360 which produces 180hp. I took it for a local flight to compare performance to my O320 150hp Thorp. Nice flying machine.
1/7/2007 - After test flight in neighbors Thorp, both aircraft were tucked away in the hangar for the night. The CO might be confused when returning to see fighter assets have multiplied.
1/9/2007 - Today was the initial test flight! All is well and I love the new colors. Aileron and rudder trim tabs need slight adjustment but other than that, no squaks.
1/9/2007 - After a few straffing runs on FD38, Alert One departed the pattern for KBCT. Just another day at the office.
1/16/2007 - I pulled N55RC back in the hangar for another upgrade. Polished cowl flaps have been installed.
1/16/2007 - This is a close up view from the front.
1/16/2007 - This is a close up view from the back. These flaps are ground adjustable. I currently have them set to exhaust about the same volume as the stock opening. As I get flight temperature numbers, I may be able to tighten the flaps up a bit.