A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:37 am

January 7th - Buckle Straps

Another small step forwards on the canvas repairs. When I ordered the leather straps, I actually ordered one more than I needed by mistake. Two was enough for the six straps needed, but it was a couple of weeks before when I worked out the lengths needed and when I came to ordering, bought three in error. It turned out just as well, as this gave me spare material to replace the missing front buckles. I hadn't realised the two front ones were missing initially.

Two new lengths were cut for the front buckles and were folded in half and fed into my bandsaw to cut the centre slot. For many years I've had a leather punch, which I think belonged to my granddad. I've never needed to use it until now but the cutters were still sharp and made nice clean holes in the straps, ready for the new buckles.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by MP45 » Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:48 am

Looks great, thanks for the updates.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:50 am

Thanks.

January 10th - Buckle Repair & Tie-Up Straps

I found some small D-rings on Ebay which were pretty cheap. They aren't the right shape, but wanted the canvas useable and able to be rolled up, as soon as possible. These will do for now until I can make a proper set. The gloss, gunmetal finish was scrubbed off with fine wire wool and they were then given a couple of coats of olive drab.

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The last of the bits and pieces arrived in the post today, so late afternoon, I set to work. The new buckles were slotted onto the straps I made and riveted into the canvas. They weren't a bad match for size and shape of the original buckles. I'm sure they'll dull down and I can always give them a light wire wool to help that process. The third and original strap was also riveted in place, giving me a full set of buckles across the whole canvas.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:53 am

The six canvas straps, that hold the roof canvas when the sides are rolled up, were next. They were riveted onto the D-rings firstly. These rivets can be cut off when I get around to making the proper rectangle fittings. I'm going to have to mount these onto the wooden bow, rather than the metal curved corner piece. Other photos I've seen are mounted through the lower hole in the curved metal corner of the bow. The metalwork on my Dodge is I think Norwegian, and the metal is split into front and rear halves. There's a joint down the outer edge where the two pieces meet and where the original mounting hole was located.

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The ends of the leather were cut to a point and then I started the long job of punching out the holes for the buckles, based on a picture of an original for the hole spacing. One done, five to go.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:54 am

All the holes were marked out in pen first and then the slow job of punching out the holes began. After each punching, I had to pick out the leather waste from the tool. Unfortunately the tool has a blind hole, so the waste couldn't be poked out from the other side, but had to be picked out with a scalpel blade.

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At some point, I'll probably invest in a new canvas, possibly with a custom made rear curtain to accommodate the crane. This canvas would then return to being an overnight cover for the Jeeps at weekend shows. One of the straps is shown below, test fitted into the repaired rear buckle.

So I now have a repaired canvas and six new straps ready to be fitted, which is the next job. I'll try and do that inside the garage, but may have to take the garage door runner cross brace off to allow the full canvas and bows to be fitted.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Tue Jan 11, 2022 4:36 am

January 11th - Tie-Up Strap Fitting

On the morning of the 11th, I went out to the garage to fit the straps. The two rear bows could be fitted between the garage door runner, though the centre brace would have to come off if I wanted to fit the canvas. The front bow is tucked between the Dodge and garage wall. With the woodwork, canvas curtain, first aid kit and fire extinguisher bracket, it's heavy and awkward to lift out of that position, so I didn't bother fitting it to the Dodge.

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All the bows had existing holes from previous straps, though the holes were lower than the proper position, below the metal corner bracket. I fitted the straps to the front bow where it was, against the wall.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Tue Jan 11, 2022 4:38 am

With holes already there, I didn't bother making fresh holes in the correct position. When I get around to making some proper strap fittings, I might look into drilling the metalwork for the proper location and plugging the current holes.

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Since they'll be removed again at some point when I make some proper fixing hardware, I just used a little PVA glue to lock the threads for now. The excess bolt length will be trimmed off once those have dried. I think I'll have to get the Dodge out to try the canvas on, with the sides rolled up, as it will be easier than in the confined space of the garage.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:41 am

January 12th - Canvas Fitting

Despite my last comment, I decided to try and fit the canvas on the Dodge inside the garage, partly to recheck the height in relation to moving the garage door lintel. The garage door track cross brace had to be removed first, as the truck is taller than the door runner. Then the heavy front bow was jiggled out of its position against the wall and into place on the Dodge.

That was easy compared to wrestling with the canvas in the confined space between the door runners to the side and roof trusses over my head, trying to stop it from sliding back off the bows as I fought it into position.

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I got there in the end and rolled up the right side. All was well.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Thu Jan 13, 2022 4:43 am

Despite the straps being mounted slightly lower than they should be, due to using the existing Norwegian holes, the canvas rolls up far enough to give a clear view to the side.

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It enabled me to get a better sense of the clearance, or lack of, between the truck roof and the position of the garage door lintel, once raised to its new position. The string in the last picture marks the lower edge of the new lintel, which will be moved right up to roof truss height. It doesn't leave much room for a frame around the door. I'm probably going to go with outward opening wooden doors and a custom thin frame over the top, as the various styles of metal doors all seem to require at least a 2 inch frame over the top of the door, often due to the locking mechanism.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:27 pm

January 21st - Warning Sign

When I took the Dodge out for the photoshoot, Lynne was following me in the Jeep. That won't always be the case, so I wanted to make the end of the crane more noticable for truck drivers coming up behind me. The crane is too high to be an issue for cars. I didn't want anything modern, so made this red wooden disc that attaches around the end of the crane with a bungee. It's quick to remove once at a show and fits inside the rear locker with the other crane accessories.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:50 am

March 19th/20th - Childseat Rework

Since 2015, the B-17 pilot's seat in the back of the Dodge supported my daughter's car seat. It fastened into the pilot's seat using the Isofix fittings and had a four point seat harness attache to the seat frame. By 2021, my daughter was getting a bit big for the seat, but we weren't out in the truck much, so it didn't matter too much. This year, I needed to do something about it. The picture to the left shows the B-17 pilot's seat and the childseat that fastened into it.

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The pilot's seat was still big enough, but it needed a new seat cushion and backrest. I bought some foam locally and ordered some olive drab linen online to cover the foam. I'm not great at sewing, so wifey was recruited to work with me on this project.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:51 am

The base was made from two pieces of foam, a 4 inch sheet glued to a 1 inch layer. I needed a fairly thick layer so my daughter's legs would be high enough to avoid resting on the metal front edge of the pilot's seat. This was cut into a cushion approximately 20 inches square, with the rear corners rounded to fit into the seat.

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Here's the base fitted into the seat. The backrest was going to be a 2 inch sheet. The base was the first piece started and the more complicated shape, due to the curves at the back and a chamfer at the front. The top, front and bottom material was one piece with two side strips that would fill the openings at the side and connect it all together.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:57 am

It took lots of test fits, pinning the material onto the foam, marking up stitch lines. Then taking it off, turning it inside out, sewing and trial fitting again until the whole material cover was a good fit.

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Most of it was machine sewed, with only the rear face hand sewn. Here, the second side is being fitted. It is already sewn onto the angled front face and is now being pinned to the foam to mark the seams.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:58 am

The seat base was completed on the evening of Saturday 19th. The rest was left for the following day.

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On Sunday morning, the foam backrest was cut on my bandsaw and then handed over to Lynne for the sewing. Since the back was thinner and a less complicated shape, she made a tube of fabric which was then machine sewn across the curved top and hand sewed on the bottom. A strip of Velcro was used to keep the back rest in place on the cushion.

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Re: A B-17 Fortress, Two Jeeps and a Dodge - My Ongoing MV Journey

Post by armyairforce » Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:59 am

Since my daughter has grown quite a bit since the pilot's seat was first made, the openings in the backrest for the seat belts were now too low. To fix this, I welded two loops onto the back of the seat at the top for the belts to pass through. They pass over the top of the seat cushion and down over the shoulders.

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I also cut off the Isofix loop fittings on the inside of the seat bucket, as they would interfere with the new seat cushion.

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