As clean as possible

Another cleaning job...

Yesterday I finished cleaning the VHF COM frequency selector and because I have two similar units (the other is VHF NAV) I thought this would be a good before-after picture. The unit was only cleaned, not painted or something.

These two units have an interesting story to tell. They come from a ex-KLM DC-7 which was used at the Geneva airport for firefighter training. It stood there many years, birds were nesting in the cockpit, people removed parts..... until 2006 when they got a "new" training airplane, a B-737.
Just before the DC-7 was scrapped, a team of airplane enthusiasts whose members I know, removed all the usable parts and the VHF boxes here were part of it. Since I needed some stuff to fill my Connie overhead panel, I got these DC-7 parts.
Besides the "KLM-7-...." marking on the cleaned panel there is no difference between these and the Connie panels. These airplanes were made at the same time and many parts are identical. Good for me.... :-)

Details

Some more parts....
The cockpit grows and grows, not in size of course but in the number of parts installed. The Goflight GF-46 panel fills now the hole in the glareshield panel. The GF-46 is a really nice invention, it connects to the USB bus and provides all radio functions I need. It can be programmed to set and display all the NAV, COM, ADF..... etc. frequencies.
I was surprised to hear the ATC speaking for the first time, suddently there was someone speaking from the speakers behind me. That did not work before I had the panel to det the right radio frequency.
The F/E panels are also complete now and even the desk lights are working... red and white to be switched by the original switch and also the dimmer is working.

Today I installed the original dome light and it is amazing how different light makes things look different. Until now I used a fluorescent hand lamp to illuminate the cockpit and it never looked very realistic in this cold light. But now with the incadescent bulb and the original lamp it looks much more like the real cockpit. And I have one switch more working :-)

On the third picture you can see the power distribution for the 5, 12 and 24V voltages. For nostalgic reasons I used the original screw terminals I removed from other places in the cockpit. When they are cleaned, they are as good as new and they make it look more professional.