Dataplate ~ VIN.
It is interesting that the commentry regarding Glacier Girl from the Airventure site states;
Once the P-38 was located, they used a piece of equipment that resembled a top. It melted the ice by circulating hot water and pumping it through copper tubing coiled around the outside. The machine cut a 4-foot-wide hole, and they used it five times to enlarge the hole enough to remove the 7,000-pound center section of the plane.
But before that they had to free every piece of the plane from ice. They used a hot-water cannon with men going down the shafts using cables to disassemble the P-38 piece-by-piece before raising it to the surface.
Eventually, the plane and its pieces made it to project funder Roy Shoffner's hangar in Middlesboro, Kentucky, where restoration began in November 1992. "The more we took apart, the more we realized things were broken," he said. "In the end we had one piece left and a big pile of junk."
But because the plane was the only one of its kind they salvaged as much as possible, eventually salvaging 80 percent of the P-38F.
which perhaps explains why the restoration took so long. I saw the un-restored airframe and to say it was 'trashed' is to understate the meaning of trashed. I cannot remember a single panel which was not distorted or structural member not cracked. The lack of corrosion was very evident - but so was the damage.
Given the tropically conditions in Burma it will be interesting to see what state they are in (always presuming the very poor but very resourceful locals did not use them as raw materials within days of them being buried - if indeed they actually were buried.....)