thrustnut

I think welding would be the safest option, but when this happened in an old Bronco I had, I removed the seat mount, removed all the bent metal and re-enforced the mounting area with aluminum patches front and back extending aprox. three inches out from the broken edge, and secured with cherry max rivets. I drilled the mounting holes through both skin patches, and used large area washers on the bolt to give it more surface area to bite on. I figured this kind of repair would be suitable for aircraft skin, should be good for a seat mount.

My wife went up to Braaps with me yesterday (about 2.5 hrs each way over the pass) to pick up a chunk of door frame I need for a rust repair. She was super cool about the whole thing, and all it cost me was a couple hours shopping with her after word...which of course I did with a smile. Some of us just get lucky!

Can I have the blower?

I lived down in So. Cal. for my first 18 years, and I can say from experence as much as I dislike the winters here with the snow and ice, I would take it any day over the traffic and smog down there.

You need to get a book if you don't have one allready. The tool you'r looking for is a piston ring compressor, you can rent them at Auto Zone, Schucks, ect... But I would recomend stoping untill you have a book in hand (the book will have pictures of the compressor in use to show you how it's done). Just my .02.

Wow, nice video.... I just love to see Z's put down those kind of ET's THANKS!

So you do know if your doing a rebuild it's a good idea to bring all the parts to a machine shop and get them checked right? Or at least plasti-gauge? I did both. Not trying to be rude, just don't want to see you waste money. If you need any tips on what should go out to be checked, be sure to ask or search

Yah Tony, I would say 03-04 is when it started. I joined in 98 and made Staff my second time testing. I was the #1 non-selected in my career field first time (missed it by less then a point) the crappy thing was my WAPS scores where higher then some that made it, but I had just enough TIS to test, so that score was pretty low. I made it my second time by a land slide. The problem was right around the time I joined was when the AF figured out that they had cut too many people, so they started recruiting like crazy, then all the mid-level that never wanted any more then SSGT or TSGT started retiring, so they where running thin on mid-level managers so they needed to promote allot to re-build the middle tier...thus the great Staff give away. They scores you needed to make it where ridiculous. I had a couple friends not study and walk in there first time and make it. My biggest reason for getting out was that it seemed to me that the people we had in my AFSC in charge where the worst to have in those positions, the only reason they where there was because they had hung around the longest. We had a TSgt (who made MSgt and is now receiving a retirement somewhere) who was our shop super who could not work on aircraft without a supervisor (me..E5, and he WAS my reporting official). The one time I let him work by himself it was to change a syncrophaser...there's only one per aircraft, its a big electronic box that can only go in one way, what could go wrong? Well, he did it while I went to HIS meeting, then he came and got me to run the airplane because he was not qualified to run it. So we head out and he starts heading to the wrong row of planes and I say "hey, we are over here" and he shrugs and follows me to the nose. I grab the forms to look over his work and sign it off and he says "I think I messed up" uh...how? "I changed the sync on a different plane". Oh SH%$...that plane is flying in 10 min, and needs a power run...great. So I run it, it checks good but the Captain wants an answer NOW... and he look at me to go in and take the heat... FU BUDDY...GET IN THERE AND MAN UP! I have a ton more about this JA... Remember that when you pay your taxes... Sorry to jack the thread... call it post traumatic stress syndrome or something...

Yup, prop wash as well. I was the last group to have to "earn" E-5, before the great Staff give away. Came is as an AB also, so had to earn them all. Got sick of working for idiots that diddn't know the first thing about the engine, so here I am on the outside...working for more idiots who don't know a thing about airplanes.

LOL...thats the one... the best part is most of the time the guy in the tailpipe with the multimeter thinks he's actually looking for a reading.

We had a couple pretty cool ones. My favorites where sending Airmen over to the SP's to get some K9P, having Airmen collect "air samples" from the dry bays on C-130's. We had one kid take samples from every dry bay (5 of 'em in a 130) every hour for eight hours, write the time, date and bay on the bag, then put them in a box with his info on it on the Captains desk for the morning meting. The Captain was thrilled with the box of empty baggies. The best was "echo checks" on the engines. I think you can find a video of this on youtube. Good times! BTW: If a Sra was actually doing this, and not in on it he's a goober...you should know better by then.

I agree. FI is nice, that's what my 77 had, but IMO carbs are easer to troubleshoot if you run into a problem. It will cost a bit less to stay with carbs, there is allot of stuff that goes into the FI system that you may not be thinking of right off. I did the Arizona Z setup with a Carter 4BBL and am pretty happy with the result. It is a straight up install and won't take long to get it running. I prefer Carter over Holley, I think they are easer to tune on the fly. You don't have to strip the carb down to change rods, seats springs ect. If you go for one, be sure to install an off road needle and seat kit, they don't like being mounted sideways.

Finally got the Pulsar seats mounted in the Z. Had to fab some seat boxes due to the seat bottom being completely different, but they turned out great (I think). I like them WAY better then my racing seats.

Here's a couple pictures of the damaged area and another piece I need. The area I would want cut out is the drivers side forward door sill from the lower hinge down to the scuff plate and from the edge where the door seal mounts (as close to it as possible) to about an inch into the door hinge area. The other piece is from the back of a 77 with the slanted up rear hatch area that covers the tail light area. Its the passenger side piece. If anyone can help me out, it would be appreciated. Hey Braap, that would be cool, but this weekend is pretty booked (my 30th B-day) so it would be a while befor I could get up there. I had a couple cam questions for you when you have some spare time also Thanks again

I need a repair pannel cut out of the drivers side door jam area. My Z is a 77 but I would think the door sills are pretty universal from one S30 to another. PM or reply to bigbadzcar@aol.com if you have anything. Thanks

I did a tour of that aircraft and hung out with the crew for a while up here at the Bend airport a couple years back. Gotta love those old war birds!

It should be fun...just don't do a preflight!

Epic could be an amazing product, however they had the wrong people in place at the company. I was told when I was hired on that an A&P didn't mean anything to them, and boy was it true. We (the three of us A&P's that worked) found allot of problems with the aircraft, some pretty major such as landing gear support arm bolts shanked out and loose, wing spar attach bolts too short/bolt has no thread protrusion (actually where about 1/4 of the way backed out of the nut). With the right builder, they where outstanding aircraft. But hey, an A&P is nothing, anyone can build an airplane. If you ever get the chance, go fly one...the performance is amazing!

I know the gunships are called "Specter" because you can't hear them untill they are right on top of you and by then it's a little late to run. They call A10's "Devil Cross" over in the middle east because of the high banking turn they do before they come in to straif. I guess they look like a cross in the sky.

I always thought "Puff" and "Spooky" refered to AC-130's. I will check out the other planes, thanks for the info. Also gotta love "Bouncing Bettys" and "Daisy Cutters" check those out if you get a chance.

I am sort of in your same position, I have been throwing around the fuel cell idea for a while now. I don't think you can use the stock filler because most cells have the filler directly on top, trying to route your stock filler to it would be challenging. I'm sure it could be done, just not sure I would want to put the effort into it. As far as the ohm scale, I'm pretty sure GM uses 0-90 and if no one gets back to you, just pull the gauge and check it empty and full. As for fuel sloshing, I think most tanks are baffled so that fuel sloshing is kept at a minimum. I don't think it would work as well in a racing application, but for street driving I would think one pickup would be fine. If you want to be 110% sure, build a slosh box. Not sure how much this helps, just helping you bounce ideas. Let me know if you find somthing out about the ohm reading.

That one was built before I started there, but I was involved in three LT builds while I worked there. They are pretty crazy, they have the big Pratt PT-6 engines and can accelerate in an almost vertical climb. I worked the flight line/delivery section there and was one of four A&P's in the building. I pretty much played clean up after all the idiots that worked there. I also got Epic's twin engine plane through it's flight testing. That was pretty cool. Also have a little time (10 years) on 130's and T-38's... been around a little.

The most recent C-130 is the J which is much upgraded over the H. It is all glass with HUD, they removed the engineer position, the engines are completely different and they have six bladed carbon fiber props which have replaceable blades. They are the biggest downside that I know of to the J model. The carbon won't take the abuse in the dessert like aluminum will (duh). It was also the other way around, the government was trying to replace the C-130 with the C-17. You are correct though, neither can really do the others job. I worked at Epic air for a while building total carbon fiber turboprop kit planes. Pretty cool design, EXTREMELY overpowered, however poor workmanship on the line and bad management from the front office got them shut down. The planes are pretty cool looking if you ever get the chance to be close to one. My sig pic is an Epic LT, if you can make it out.

Hey Josh, an A10 is not a jet, its a turbo fan. They are used because they are a turbofan, not a jet. A jet can't fly as slow and burns allot more fuel. Turboprops are still used allot in today's military, mostly for troop insertion/extraction, cargo drops and search and rescue operations. They are used for the same reasons as in Vietnam (where the C-130 got it's start) slow, precise, heavy lift, oh yah...they can taxi in reverse as well making short field take offs (less then 100 yards) possible. Some have said that the C-17 will take over the C-130's role in the future, but I don't think it will happen. You want to see some amazing turboprop action, check out AC-130's on youtube. I have a couple shells sitting in my garage. Nothin says lovin like a gunship.

Supras are pretty cool. If I ever had another classic import, it would be an older Turbo Supra