A-W Meteor NF.14 WS788 Restoration Project

[Old Rigger]

Thanks for the update Blue_2 and the intake ring certainly improves the overall look now, will be good to see both on permanently and when the paintwork is restored it will be an achievement deserved from all the effort that has gone into the aircraft, and no doubt will continue.

[Blue_2]

Nice to see 788's story is still being followed out there!
Now we are into the festive season, or as my friend the late Steve Hague used to call it the Great Seasonal Unpleasantness, but work still continues on our little jet. Rich is working on the GGS tray at home; he sent me an update on his progress the other day and I hope he will post one here too for you all to see. I finished work for Christmas late last week, and so have been able to sneak a jet day in. I intend to have another day on 788 today, as therapy for braving town and hordes of Christmas shoppers yesterday!
So, what has been happening with 788? Well we have as you may recall a bit of a mystery regarding her wings, in that they are not her wings! So on Friday I decided to try and open up a few wing access hatches in the hope that there would be a serial pencilled in one which would give us a clue as to the wings' origin. Most of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon was spent doing this, and all I managed to do was muddy the water further! Opening the wing leading edges confused matters further, the port one being NF14, and the starboard one NF12...



And the port wingtip light appears to be off NF.14 WS809, scrapped at Lyneham in 1963!

So the breakdown of the wings is as follows:
Centre section-NF14. Definitely original to 788.
Outer wings-Unknown NF12
Port outer wing leading edge-NF14
Starboard outer wing leading edge-NF12
Port inner wing leading edge-NF11
Starboard inner wing leading edge-NF14
Port wingtip light-NF14 WS809.
Confused yet? Because we are!
Seeing as the wings were offering no clues I retreated to the radio bay to finish the job of removing the Gee racking from the aircraft. Some hacksawing later and the 2 rusted-in anti-vibration mounts were out, and the remains of the racking cleared.

The rack has corroded very badly, but it seems to have sacrificed itself for the greater good as the beam the rack sits on is still in perfect condition. The reason the rack's rear half had basically dissolved? Water ingress from two sources. Firstly the grommet around the aerial mounted directly above it had seen better days; I found and fitted a not new but a far better one. Secondly, there is a drain from the cockpit canopy rail shuttle well to the starboard side of the fuselage. I suspected this was blocked, and allowing water to overflow into the radio bay directly onto the Gee rack. This indeed proved to be the case, so I got on with the thoroughly unpleasant task of digging decades of soil out of the well first.

Spot the new(er) aerial grommet too?!
I then returned to the radio bay to take a look at the drain pipe itself, and found 2 things. Thing number one, it was blocked solid. And thing number two, it had split!

The split is 'upstream' of the blockage; I assume that water has collected here, frozen, and therefore split the pipe. So out the pipe came, the split was sleeved, blockage cleared, pipe refitted...

And hey presto!

For the first time in a lot of years the water is dumped over the side rather than pouring into 788's bowels and rotting them out.
The Gee rack itself was beyond redemption, but between it and another set of racking I had kicking around I was able to make up a replacement. Just in case the shiny new one we have been offered doesn't come to pass; us Yorkshire folk like to play it safe!

While I was in the radio bay on Friday I noticed that the downward ident light was only held in with one bolt.This situation has now been rectified; it is now held in with no bolts!



I decided to take it home for a quick refurb



primed

freshly painted and reassembled



And even tested serviceable!

[Old Rigger]

Thanks for latest update, seems to be a mixed bag of aircraft bits that make up the whole, could make a good history project to tie all the details together of the donor aircraft. Considering that each aircraft was built with no interchangeability requirements like there is these days, it is amazing they fitted together so well.

[Spitfire]

Good to see refurbed bits going back on with new screws and bolts ... I have seen 'refurbed' projects where bits have been spruced up and then reattached with the original and non-spruced bolts etc
Seems a waste of time as they'll only deteriorate that much quicker.
I suppose there may be some fasteners of a unique style or type that you can't replace - that must be tricky

[Aceyone]

Always good to read the updates,thanks for posting

[Blue_2]

16/03/2017 Update

I had an unexpected day off work today, so I spent the day at the jet. It was a good thing I did too! More on that later...
Firstly, the nose door. I managed to get the inside of the door rubbed back and painted

After masking was removed, it looked quite presentable

The dataplates still show manufacture date of the door. Its clearly not 788's original door as she was in service before this date!

First job today was to put the door on for the time being.

My jobs for the day were to replace the port wingtip, and to refit the windscreen demister rail so Rich can get the GGS tray back in on his next visit. While I was working on the wingtip, a chap came up to speak to me. Turned out he follows our project, and had popped in to see us on the off chance that firstly we were there and secondly that we might need some bits he just happened to have in the boot of his car. Given that the 788 team policy is to accept all offered gifts (except pianos!) I jumped at the offerings...

4 elevator rods, 4 aileron rods, and a tank bay brace! Many thanks!
As I headed over for lunch the museum's fighters from a far earlier time were getting some exercise...





After lunch I got the wingtip off. You can see here why I elected to change it...

The replacement in place. This is a brand new piece, never fitted to a jet



The demister rail then went on. After which I perched the instrument panel in place, and temporarily fitted the 2 glare shields.

As I was packing up the sun came out!

And yes, that nosewheel door is freshly painted in silver. I can now confirm that 788 will be restored as "C" of 1 Air Navigation School in the silver and orange scheme she wore in the 1960's

I said a while ago 788 had a bright future, didn't I?!!

[Old Rigger]

Thanks for the update, was wondering how it was going, and it is coming together nicely. Look forward to how she will look once re-painted.