Flight engineers delight

Looks better than before....

Christmas vacation, time to.... to make old scrap look like new! Remember the sad appearance of the flight engineer desk? Well just look at the older pictures. A bit of paint and a bit of polish and of course a loooooot of time and patience.
It was like always when I started the renovation on a big part. First I had the feeling that it will never come to an end, and in fact I had no idea how to solve certain problems. The missing parts for example, how am I supposed to replace them? But like always, solutions come while working. A bit of sheet metal here some aluminum profiles there.... and here we are.
If I'm looking back now, it seems it never was a problem. Well, it really never was a problem since problems don't exist.... only solutions which are not found yet.

Where has the panel gone?

Pictures...

There is a lot of work to do on the Flight Engineers desk and Instrument panels. Keeps me busy the next couple of weeks... :-)

Most levers and dials

Another big piece....

Today I started the work on the flight engineers desk. There is a lot to do because the guys who disassembled (hacked apart) the cockpit were not very careful. A couple of parts have to be replaced or re-manufactured.
I'm glad that this part of the simulator will only be "cosmetic". It's not planned to make any of the instruments or controls work. Although I'm thinking to use some switches and lamps to control the computers or the simulator software.... we will see.

Rust gone

Just like new...

Some people asked me how I cleaned all the nuts and bolts and how I made them look like new.
I think the pictures speak for itself. Normally I use the lathe in my workshop to turn the screws and a bigger wire brush with an ordinary drilling machine. But today I had to clean only seven Airloc bolts and I did it with simpler tools. The result is the same but it takes a little bit longer.
I let the screw turn at a medium speed and move the rotating brush over the surface until it shines. There's not much you could do wrong. Just don't use a too hard brush and don't use too much pressure or you will cut grooves into the surface.

And that's the whole secret :-)

Something to look at

The first panels are installed...

Last weekend I installed the first two panels and the steering columns. I hope I will soon get the seats and can start to play :-)