"Never Again" part 6

Winter has decided that it is going to arrive early this year; snow in October, dark nights and generally cold, wet misserable weather are some of the things that we are now having to contend with on the final stretch of the repaint.

With both wings and the tail finished progress turned to the fuselage but when the temperature doesn't rise enough to dry up the condensation on the airframe until 11am and its starting to go dark just after 5pm we are having to squeeze a lot of work into a short time.

I am now VERY pleased to announce that we have now completed all the sanding!

Lots of dust!

I really cannot underestimate the amount of sandng that is required in order to get a good quality finish and ensure future preservation. But with lots of sanding comes lots of dust....... we use a number of different methods to remove the dust; dustpan and brush, vacuum and jet wash.



Note the team hiding from the rain
as I wash the old gal!

Along with the jet wash the bad weather has given us a helping hand on occassion, to wash the dust away but in hind sight we probably did choose the worst summer in history to repaint a V-Vomber! 

But with the end in sight the hard work really has been worth it - XL231 'Lusty Lindy' is starting to look better than ever - I hope you all agree.

 

 

 

Port air brake painted

 





RAT Scoops painted



Adding the finishing touches

XL231 back to former glory

Fitting a repair patch

During the repaint we took the opportunity to fit a repair patch to the starboard trim tab. Pete did a fantastic job making and fitting the patch, with over 50 rivets it kept him out of mischief for a while. Once painted it looked like the patch had been there since her RAF days.

XL231 fuselage painted - just the nose left

So with the fuselage finished we are just left with the nose and 'Lusty Lindy' to paint. With the huge radome sanded and filled, the glazing frames preped and Lusty Lindy traced it is all hands on deck to get the paint on before the weather gets too cold. Whilst the temperature is still around 10 degrees we have a chance but if it drops unfortunately we will have to call it a day for 2012.  

 

  

Hopefully the next time you see 'Lusty Lindy' she will be in all her glory