Wade removed the landing gear on the second V-77 fuselage today. This will make it shorter from a height standpoint and allow it to get inside. He also needs to remove the engine. Wade said the engine weight was putting a strain on the smaller dolly wheels. Wade also said there was perfect alignment between the fuselage and landing gear on both the left and right side. Great news!
The second V-77 fuselage I got from Jody arrived today. Jody and friend Ken brought it to Wade’s shop in Wichita this afternoon. Wade has already started with the first step being to take the stringers off the bottom. Wade plans to remove the landing gear and engine as some of the prime next steps. Let the fun begin.
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| Jody, Wade, and Ken (L to R) |
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| Lower stringer panel removed |
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| At Wade’s shop |
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| Need to get the engine and gear off to fit inside |
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| Off the trailer |
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| Arrived in Wichita |
Somehow I convinced my wife to join me in the rib stitching fun tonight. We got another few completed, and are at 290 completed stitches now. That is about half what is needed. More fun to come!
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| Debbie helping stitch |
I got a call from Mike’s Custom Upholstery yesterday that the V-77 sidewall panels were finished. I picked them up this morning. I really like how they turned out, especially the embroidery of the Stinson emblem.
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| Copilot side |
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| Pilot side |
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| Amelia (L) and Emma hold the door panel in place |
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| Pilot side with embroidery and a map pocket |
Wade and I flew his Cessna 172 to Tenkiller Lake Airpark (44M), OK today to look at a fuselage our friend Jody has. Jody is also restoring a V-77 and found this airplane a year or two ago. He used one of the wing panels for his restoration and has the remainder. My original fuselage has some previously repaired damage from the ground loop that happened in the 70’s. Also many missing parts. We will use the fuselage from Jody’s part collection along with mine to make one good one….similar to what we did on the left wing. Jody will deliver sometime after Christmas.
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| Jody, Wade, and Randy ( L to R) |
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| V-77 fuselage and many other parts in a storage shed |
I have been busy rib stitching the inboard area. With the fuel tank out and the flap actuator removed, it has been easy to do this work on my own. I have one more inboard rib and will then start outboard at the tip. I can probably do a few ribs and then I’ll need an assistant. So far, 228 stitches out of about 600.
I got a note early this morning from Wade asking about the reinforcing tape for the rib stitches. Oops….forgot that again! Good thing it was only 13 stitches. I ripped those out and then put reinforcing tape on both sides of the wing with Steve’s help. We got 10 new stitches accomplished before giving up tonight.
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| New stitches with reinforcing tape in place |
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| Top of wing finished with reinforcing tape and holes |
Steve and I got grid lines marked this evening and then got 13 rib stitches done. Only about 585 to go….lol.
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| The internal view of the string |
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| Stitches on the outside |
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| Steve checks out progress |
Wade came by this morning and helped flip the wing over. I worked on it during lunch and after work, shrinking the fabric and getting the Polybrush applied. Steve and Kim showed up for the weekend tonight, so Steve helped me flip the wing back over and then we Polybrushed the bottom side.
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| All done |
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| Steve doing Polybrush |
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| Upper side finished |
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| Reverse angle |
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| Top side all tightened |
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| View from the other end |
I ironed the upper surface of the V-77 left wing the other day at 250 degrees F. Wade came by this morning and helped flip the wing over. This evening I did the 250 degree shrink on the bottom surface and then did the 350 degree final shrink. So, this side is done. Wade is coming by tomorrow and we will flip it back to top side up. Then I will shrink that side at 350 and be done with the shrink process.
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| Bottom of wing is finished being shrunk |
Wade came by today and we spent all day getting the covering on the left wing of the V-77. We learned a few things when we did the right wing, so this time went better. The biggest thing we did was clamp the seams to ribs so they would stay straight. We also knew there would be excess fabric in the inboard leading edge area, so we planned to hand sew that area from the start. I still need to attach some reinforcing strips, then it will be time to shrink.
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| All done |
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| Baseball stitch on leading edge where we removed a bunch of slack |
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| Removing the fabric where the fuel tank goes |
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| Inboard trailing edge done |
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| Outboard trailing edge done |
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| We signed the structure for posterity |
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| Aileron cove done |
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| Fabric loosely in place |
