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Restoration timeline...

Posted by bdk on Sat Feb 16, 2002 03:30:25 PM

In reply top Discussion Topics? 1 of 2 posted by Paul McMillan on Sat Feb 16, 2002 09:00:28 AM

It all depends on the condition of the airframe and the depth of the restoration desired.

I have seen a Mustang restored in as little as 6 months, but that was years ago when the projects available were more complete, had less (or no) corrosion, parts were more available, and the restoration standard was to strip out most of the military equipment and fill the panel with Cessna radios.

Another factor is that some aircraft projects go through numerous hands (and shops) prior to completion as previous owners, investors, speculators, etc. run out of money, go out of business, or rip off the aircraft owner (thankfully less common now). The project may have in fact been worked on by various entities for years, only to have the "restoration" credit go to the LAST shop to work on it.

The FHC P-51 restoration (which started as a complete, more or less flyable airplane), will take a few years of full time work by an experience shop just due to the level of authenticity demanded by the owner. A special wire marking machine is being used to duplicate the ink stamp coding on every electrical wire in the airplane. Ink stamps are being used to mark component parts, paint colors are being researched, etc. All this takes time, including for tooling that has to be devised to do things that only the original manufacturer ever did, but now you have to figure out something to make one or two parts 60 years later. The original part may have been drop hammer formed, do you have a steel drop hammer die in the correct shape handy? That was scrapped 40 years ago! Maybe you can make some temporary tooling out of fiberglass and concrete that will make one or two parts using a hydropress or stretch forming operation? The shop now becomes an experimental metal forming lab just for these parts!

Yanks is now completing their P-39 restoration. This started out as a corroded hulk from the Pacific. They've done a fabulous job, but it has taken the better part of 10 years to complete. The aircraft probably isn't worth the money Yanks has into it at this point, but a few years from now it likely will be.

At a lot of commercial restoration shops, there is an ebb and tide of work that goes on depending on the project priority and level of difficulty. Each employee typically has a specialty, in addition to their common skill sets. Some are better at electrical wiring, while others are more proficient at bending and fitting hydaulic tubing. For those in a hurry, the price is higher, for those that can wait and are willing to have their job worked during slow periods, the price can be lower.

Now that I've talked around in circles a few times, the bottom line is that if you put a crew of 10 on a good P-51 project for a "sport" restoration, you could probably finish it in 3-6 months. You can sub out tasks like the engine, the radiators, the paint, etc. to specialty shops. If you put in a crew of 2 or 3 working weekends, you can see how the 10 year project comes about. There are 2080 manhours in a year. If it takes a crew of ten 3 months to complete a project (5200 hours), then a crew of two full time will require just over a year. Add to that (as an example) the replacement of wing spars and fuselage longerons (since the available projects are in much poorer condition than they were 15 years ago- all the nice ones were restored first!), and now you know why a restoration is much more expensive these days. I think shop rate is probably in the $60-75/hour range these days.

Break out the calculator and start saving those Euros, Pounds, Dollars, Sheckels, Yuan, and Pesos!


: And it occurred to me... What does anybody think that the
: AVERAGE length to rebuild a Warbird is.... Some seem to go
: on for about 10 years or more.. Thinking of the CAL P-51C
: , but others take a few years..

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