Today marks a small but meaningful milestone in this project:
The exterior restoration is complete.
I had the chance to step in front of the camera with my wife, wearing my mother’s original uniform—a quiet tribute, a full-circle moment.
Fifty years ago, my parents stood proudly in front of
Today I finally managed to paint the roof. To do this, I had to cover the entrance with foil to keep out the wind, which would otherwise blow dust and insects onto the paint. The painting went well—just two small insects and three paint runs that will need some touch-ups,
Progress is continuing in small steps. The floor has now been completely sprayed with zinc chromate, and I’m reinstalling the old carpet. I cleaned it quite thoroughly using a pressure washer and degreaser, and it turned out surprisingly well. It’s amazing how much brown nicotine was on the carpet too!
Over the past few days, there has been a lot to do. I removed the cabin wall behind the cockpit on the right side. It wasn’t original and had been badly damaged during scrapping. The 6mm plywood is being replaced, and everything will be put back in its proper place.
Full circle moment! My dad revisited the cockpit he once flew in back in November 1975 (BOS-FRA) with Lufthansa. So proud of his incredible journey and this special moment of nostalgia!
Starting to put things back together. A few small areas of corrosion needed attention, but everything is now ready to be reassembled and wired. I have reinstalled the cleaned and overhauled ventilation ducts for the forward panels, and new ducts for the gasper outlets are on order, as many of
In the cockpit, I was able to heat it to 15-20° to prime the forward bulkhead. Apart from some small spots corrosion works are now complete! The next step is to put back the insulation and the restored ventilation ducts and I have been studying the AC and Gasper system
Autopilot, which was halfway finished for a long time, has now been completed and tested. The problem was the pitch wheel assembly is a rather complex design with solenoids and resetting potentiometers I just could not figure out how to interface so I decided to strip everything and place 360°
