Well I finally have an update to post here after 2 years.I finally sold the Wittman Tailwind I had, which freed up the space in my hangar to really crack down and start on the Thorp rebuild. Roughly a year ago or more, I received the crankshaft and camshaft back from the overhaul shop. They were able to turn both the crankshaft and camshaft and remove all pitting. AD's were complied with and the units were returned to me with fresh yellow tags. They currently sit in my climate controlled home office awaiting the future engine build.
Since the Tailwind sold right before Oshkosh, I had to wait until i got back from Airventure to start preparing for the Thorp project. Once home I spent about 2 solid weeks cleaning and preparing my hangar to become the shop it needed to be for this project. After some cursing, and throwing a lot of stuff in the dumpster, I finally got some space, and completed building a much needed work bench upgrade.
After getting the hangar in order, my first item on the list was to finally clean up the center wing. This had been hanging on the back wall of my hangar the past 2 years, waiting for the Tailwind to find a new home, and me to have the space and time to tackle cleaning this thing up. It was filthy, and during the purchase of the project I knew that mice had been inside of it at some point, as well as just dust and dirt from being stored in a dirt floor barn. The plan was to used compressed air and blow as much stuff out of the inside that I could, then follow up with Simple Green for aircraft and a pressure washer to really clean up the inside the best I could. Then strip the paint and it would be ready to mate to the fuselage...or so I thought.
After hanging it up and getting it outside in the light where I could see, there were some hidden mice nests in there that I had previously missed while assessing the condition. Upon pulling these out, it was instantly obvious that there was considerable corrosion hiding beneath
(Picture looking through outer right rib at the main spar)
To say that my heart sank upon realizing this is an understatement. Cleaning and stripping this wing was a weekend project in my head, and it would be ready to bolt up to the fuse right? After a couple of days spent cussing and shuffling around the house, I decided that the only way to be productive was to just tackle taking the wing apart. But first I wanted to strip the paint. After all I'd be reusing the skins right?
(Stripper doing its thing)
After getting the paint stripped and the wing as clean as I could get it, I pressed on. Time to start drilling.
(Just getting started on rivet removal)
(skin removed from left side)
Eventually I got everything opened up and got a better look at the damage:
These photos don't show it in very good detail, but after having some other people look at it, including my local A&P and IA, it was decided that taking the wing apart was a good move. The spar web definitely needs replaced. And at this point I'm hoping the spar caps are usable, however I won't know until I get everything completely apart.
I have a video on my YouTube channel showing much more detail. I will be documenting everything there, as well as attempting to write posts over here on the forum.
Link to YouTube Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBSQR7K3Xxo
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