Good Morning All:
Thanks to Clunkdriver for mentioning the work we do at the Canada Aviation Space Museum.
Since 2004 our membership has put over 25,000 man hours in the Northstar aka C-54GM, DC-4M1, DC-4M2 etc. This aircraft series was built under licence from Douglas Aircraft in Cartierville Quebec (outside of Montreal near the Dorval Airport)
To date the number one engine (Rolls Royce Merlin 622 series) which took a little over 3 years of work was torn down cleaned and put back on to the wing. With knowledge learned from the first engine we have now disassembled number 2 engine and are starting the build up of this engine in just seven months.
The restoration/preservation work is quite a challenge as the aircraft spent close to 40 years in the Canadian outdoors before the storage hangar was built around five years ago. One can imagine the interior as birds were nesting inside and prior to work inside clean up crews in full biohazardous suits had to remove asbestos as well as the 40 years of bird's nests.
The work is meticulous as parts which would normally be thrown out are cleaned, glass beaded when corrosion is found, painted than catalogued to prior to installation.
All electronics such as radios flight instrumentation navigators' equipment look so new you would think the only thing missing is a green tag to return to service.
In the summer time the aircraft is pulled outdoors so cleaning with chemicals, paint stripping and painting can be done as the storage hangar has no ventilation, fire suppression etc.
In spite of this our work progresses and the estimate for completion is over ten years away to display condition only.
We need help in the following our groups demographic is in the 70's with the oldest at 86! These people have very special skills such machine tooling an art to itself.
One of our biggest financial hurdle our the de-icing boots which are just shy of $90,000:00 Canadian along with only one manufacturer left and not too many active DC-4 aircraft flying.
We also need any manuals for this aircraft especially in the maintenance side of things.
If the readership of this forum would like to help us in this restoration please visit our web site for membership, donations and any other way you can help as this will be appreciated.
With thanks to Clunkdriver Per ardua ad astra
http://www.projectnorthstar.ca/