Ohh yeah I'd be trying to haul that over the fence..no only kidding.. as much as they look good as lakesters its good to see them with the vintage planes. JW do you have a build thread for your tank?
Thats great information, if I had enough time on my hands I could map out flight paths and proabable drop zones and go tank hunting. The money they fetch when they do come up for sale it could be profitable. Would I be right in thinking that the drop tanks would mostly have been droped over the sea to avoid them landing on civilians?
Havent had much time on the tank this week but started turning up the crank hub and lower supercharger V belt pully. Also did a quick mock up of the exhaust pipes, I've used 1 1/2" tube for this, think this will give enough flow, any race flathead gurus out there got an opinion on this?
Those look good, But, if you go to the salt they can't point down at the salt. I don't have a build thread for mine yet as it moving too slow at present but what i have done is on the thread ''Belly Tank'' or check out my albums. JW
Good call, might use some 45 bends near the ends that would probably bring them out parallel or pointing slightly up from the ground.
WOW!!! I am a pilot and the P-38 has always held my imagination. That must have been quite the pilots dream. SO COOL
When my Pop was flying P-38s in the South Pacific during WWII, Charles Lindbergh, himself, came out to show the boys how to achieve maximum flight time. He had it so lean that it burnt out the engines. When asked about the conditions of the engines, he replied, well I can't solve all of you problems.
This might sound kind of fuddy duddy but while they were once cheap surplus items, I would think any surviving unaltered droptanks today would be better off returned to the domain of the few surviving fighters that can mount and display them. Making your own is definitely the right choice, and you are doing a great job at it.
Wow, what a cool build. Probably a bit of a way from you, but Marco at Jaurez Fab in Lancing, near Brighton, has a tube bender and is happy to bend tube for people.
Not a great deal to look at this week, I've been working on the crank hub to mount the V belt pully for the blower, I could order these parts from the States but I like making this stuff. Still got to cut the V belt groves , one for the water pump and three or four for the blower oh and possibly one for the hilborn injection pump! more on that later.
Nice job on the pulley adaptor. Broached keyway? Pretty fancy stuff. I enjoy a bit of machining, but that is a bit beyond my skill set. Mart.
Hi Mart Yes broached the keyway, never done one before and left it till last job on the hub, was a bit scared I was gonna wreck it but it went very smoothly, made a guide bush then just pushed the broach through with a 10 ton hydraulic press. I was watching your new water pump overhaul vid on youtube at the weekend as I'm planning to do a pair of truck pumps overall and custom pulleys.
Managed to get a whole afternoon working on the tank yesterday so decided to redo my exhaust, I wasnt happy with the first set that were mocked up out of 1 1/2" tube so went to a 1 3/4" and swept them back more so they are pointing more to the rear than out the side, should give me better aero. Much happier with the way they are now.
Great build. Thanks for the post. Like I've said before....It's a good thing I don't live next door....I'd be bugging (assisting) you all the time. Gary
This is a really cool build. I'll be following your work. Always fun to watch a real good fabricator/machinist. It's guys like you that show us how to add to our skill sets.
Got some time in the workshop this weekend, made some progress with the blower pullys. Just got to make the ideler pully and a couple of new waterpump pullys. Takes forever turning these but gonna look good when there done. Did a bit of internet shopping last week and found this Buma honing machine, been looking for one of these to pair with my Buma boring bar and they just dont come up for sale very often, but this turned up ten mins down the road..score.
The Jalopy Journal
