[MVP] Mugga

What a fantastic project! I can remember the F15 Eagle being introduced into service and how exciting and high-tech it was... all that seems like yesterday! Now, we have one cut up being converted into a home flight simulator... how seriously cool is that!

Took some time this evening to disassemble the nose-wheel off the Sabre so that it could be cleaned up, painted and reinstalled with a fresh Goodyear Tyre. The removal was pretty straight forward with the axle nut locking pin removed and the nut taken off and the wheel simply sliding off the nose-leg. The bearings from each side of the wheel were entirely dry and frozen so they were placed into a container of Jet-A1 and gently worked until they were once again free and moving. The hub was media blasted to remove old paint and corrosion, then following it was given a wash and quick pickle, then primed and painted. Standard RAAF silver was used on the wheels, and then several coats of "Rustoleum Wheel Clear" with a Satin finish. I can fully recommend the paint, easy to apply and hard wearing. Many thanks to Nathan from our MVP team who donated an original 1960's Goodyear Aircraft Rib tyre for the simpit! These original tyres are incredibly hard to find and are no longer available and were used exclusively on the F86 Sabre and T33 Shooting Star. The new tyre certainly adds that freshly overhauled look to the wheel assembly! The tyre has an inner tube that is inserted first, then the two halves of the hub are inserted into the tyre and then cross bolted and torqued to spec. And, the finished product now proudly bolted back onto the Sabre sim pit. Another small job done, bringing us a little closer to the finish line!

Apologies as I forgot to post the following photos several weeks back. The photos below are of a factory new canopy clear for the MVP Sabre sim pit and is a rare find! This unit was manufactured in 1956 and has been in storage in Australia since it was made. The canopy clear is covered in a special protective film, which you remove once you have installed. Many thanks to Stephen and his team for agreeing to sell us this important component!

A big thank you to Nathan from the MVP team who was on hand today to attach the transport wheels to the forward fuselage section! The rear of the forward fuselage was lifted up using the pallet forklift and a custom set of attachment brackets were then bolted to the centre section box. Nathan then attached a custom axle fabricated from a set of old FJ Holden stub-axles and wheel hubs! The assembly was then finished off with an original set of 1953 FJ Holden steel wheels rubber treads! The front of the forward fuselage section was then lifted using 2tonne nylon load straps tied through the 30mm gun port cheek plates. With the front of the Sabre lifted, we then placed an aircraft lifting jack under the forward fuselage jacking point to secure everything. Fortunately the entire nose-wheel retracting mechanism was vastly disassembled, enabling us to easily kick-down the nose-leg into the lowered position. However, the rotation linkages are all missing, so when it lowered down, the wheel fork was 90degrees to the centreline. A quick video of the first nose gear drop in possibly 40+years! As evidenced by the enormous amount of dirt and debris it dropped onto the floor! Again, many thanks to Nathan for getting things done today. Using a heavy duty pry-bar, we then managed to pull the gear fork back to centreline. The nose-leg assembly and wheel fork have a fair amount of surface rust, given that they had been laying in the belly of the Sabre for the past 40+ years outside in the rain and dirt.

Thanks mate! I am on the mend. They're saying about a month recovery time.

Thanks mate! The project is absolutely awesome... unfortunately I have been a little delayed from getting back onto the tools as a result of a car accident, which has left me with a broken back with the L1 and L2 vertebrae suffering compression fractures. The good news is that my back is healing and I should be able to get out to the hangar again this Saturday to supervise the team continuing the great work! Don't stress it... this bird was well past any hope of restoration to flight... in fact the centre section wing attach mounts were rotten, so it was unlikely we could have even put the wings back on it for static display. In many respects, this airframe is super lucky as it has not been turned into pots and pans and will live on as a kick-ass full fidelity flight simulator!

Have done some experimenting with the LIDAR 3D Scanner on my iPhone 14 Pro today. I have ordered an EINSTAR 3D Scanner and when that arrives we will be taking a range of accurate scans of the exterior and interior structures. Those scans will then be imported into 3DSMAX and will be used for reference materials.

A big thank you to our friends at the Mildura Sabre Restoration group for their kind donation of a range of cockpit panels today. These included the left hand console and side kick-panel, the right hand console kick panel, left hand rudder kick panel, left and right hand floor panels and more.

The team got back into things this Saturday, removing the last of the centre section fuel tank accessories ahead of the tank removal next week. Once that work had been completed, the focus was back on the removal of the ailerons from the left and right hand wing panels. First up was the right hand wing, which was lifted onto our heavy duty stands. Unfortunately the wing access panels that would permit us to carefully remove the aileron hinge pins were all frozen into position with rusted screws and hardware, forcing us to apply more agricultural removal methods. Enter the recip saw and angle grinder with a cut off wheel. Some careful cutting and the aileron was free of the wing. The MVP team have traded the ailerons for a range of cockpit parts and a new old-stock canopy clear. For those with an interest, I took some detail photos of the aileron mass balance assemblies, which I would be certain very few people within the DCS World would have ever seen before.

Another massive job today was the left hand side forward windscreen quarter panel surround. This area on the aircraft is extremely corroded and damaged, with all the fixing screws either frozen in, or their anchor nuts corroded off the frames. The result was four hours of solid cold chisel work to break up the frame sections and to free them from the aircraft. Plenty of ACF50 has been applied throughout to help loosen up nuts, bolts and screws. In addition has been some liberal use of the Koken impact driver!

Several hours of time spent in the cockpit today, removing the instrument panel supports and frame for repair and refurbishment. Time was also spent removing old electrical harnesses, hydraulic and pneumatic plumbing. Over the next month our team aims to have the cockpit completely stripped and back to a bare shell for corrosion cleanup, repair, priming and repainting. Once the structure has been cleaned up we will begin refitting the cockpit for the simulator. The instrument panel support and frame were removed from the cockpit so that they could be repaired and repainted. Unfortunately, someone has previously tried to pull the panel from the aircraft, bending and twisting the frames. Some light panel beating got everything back into general shape.

Thanks for the post and YES! we are always on the lookout for F86 Sabre parts. If you have cockpit, console, radio, instruments, switch-panels, lighting or any other parts, please let us know. You can PM me here on the DCS Forum or you can post a message into the MVP Discord. Many thanks to our MVP team member Nathan for such a big effort today, making strong progress with the removal of all the internal plumbing, electrical harnesses and other accessories. Nathan has a CAC Sabre in his workshop which will one-day return to flight. Many of the parts and accessories removed from the MVP sim pit Sabre will find their way into Nathan's airworthy restoration collection for use as patterns or for spares. With much of the piping and items removed, you can now see where the corrosion has been working away at the main structural frames that make up the centre section. Far too many years outside and in the weather with moisture helping accelerate the corrosion reaction between dissimilar metals.

Got some time after work today to finish cleaning back the instrument panel glare-shield. Took the time to de-rivet some of the more corroded sections, cleaned them up and then riveted them back together again. After everything was cleaned back and treated, it was given a quick coat of grey primer. Once I have the remaining glare-shield accessories and components ready, I will then give everything a coat of black paint and protective clear coat prior to reassembly. More time spent cleaning out the left and right hand side gun bays, which over the past 35+ years have filled with dirt and organic materials of all kinds! Many thanks to Judd for jumping on the shop vac to get this done!

The above photos are the first pass in the media cabinet with medium glass bead. The paintwork came off easily and the surface corrosion was removed nicely. Even managed to reveal a range of component part numbers etc. The parts will receive another light blasting before they are given an Alumi-Prep scrub and light Alodine coating before paintwork.

Managed to get my hands on some more new tools today! The bench top folder is fantastic and makes those smaller light sheet-metal jobs easy! And, after destroying three phillips head screwdrivers, I have gone and bought myself a good set with a life-time warranty! Took some time today to prepare the cockpit instrument panel glare-shield for media blasting in the new cabinet! All electrical items were removed, all screws and fixings taken out, placards off etc. Lots of rusted nuts and bolts requiring drilling and cutting to remove!

Lastly, we finally got the fixing screws on the aft right hand side fuselage panel, behind which is the hydraulic tank and various fuel senders etc. All compartments will be cleaned out and given a thorough ACF50 soaking before being closed out again.

Spent the friday evening pumping aircraft corrosion treatment ACF50 throughout the nose compartment of the airframe. Because the aircraft had been stored outside for 35+ years, much of the internal structure is showing signs of aluminum corrosion, which if left unchecked will continue to eat away at the structure causing further damage. Whilst we are restoring the forward fuselage and cockpit for static/simulator use, there would be no point letting it unnecessarily corrode away! Another benefit of flooding the compartment with ACF50 is that it works its way into all of the nuts, bolts and fasteners. This makes removing them much easier and in most cases avoids having to grind and cut everything out. After several weeks of soaking the fixing screws we also successfully removed the composite radar nose cover from the airframe, which revealed the Radar Ranging unit! Such an interesting piece of old technology. The composite cover has degraded and is badly damaged and will require a replica to be made up. At this stage we are thinking of building up a balsa wood unit, which will then be used to take a fibreglass copy from.

Added a new Media Blasting Cabinet and English Wheel to the restoration workshop today. The media cabinet will make cleaning down components much faster and easier, helping speed things up. The English Wheel is something that I have always wanted to learn how to use, so it is more for the fun of developing skills.

Managed to add a shrinker stretcher to the tooling collection this evening, jagging a Hare & Forbes unit off Facebook marketplace. This nifty bit of kit enables you to shrink and stretch sheet metal components, to help achieve curvatures etc! Essential if you are doing any level of aluminum aircraft building or restoration etc.

The aft portion of the forward fuselage was loaded up and has been sent to a workshop where it will have all of its internal accessories removed. Once all of the internal plumbing, equipment and accessories have been removed, the fuselage section will be cut into wall-art sections. Each panel will then be polished up to a mirror finish and will have A94-965 serial numbers and artwork applied.

We managed to get the upper nose cowling removed from the Sabre today to give us an idea as to what is still installed. The plan is to remove all of the original avionics and electrical items, leaving the entire compartment empty. A few of the boys at the workshop today suggested that we install a fridge and ice-maker for cold beers and cocktails, others suggested installing a set of DJ decks, or a sound system. All good suggestions. The team were back onsite Saturday to get the rear fuselage section dismantled and loaded onto the transport trailer, where it will now be road-transported to Western Australia. The horizontal tail-plane, fin, rudder and speed-brake assemblies will be used as part of a Canadair Mk6 Sabre restoration. A big shout out to the MVP team for their efforts this weekend!

Managed to squeeze in some time today, getting stuck into the cockpit and windscreen assembly. The quarter glass panels in the forward windscreen assembly on A94-965 were removed, in preparation for de-riveting the assembly from the aircraft. The windscreen structure and skins are badly corroded and will be replaced with a NOS production spare that was acquired and is held in our parts store. The unit removed from the aircraft will be sold off. The instrument panel glare-shield was also removed from A94-965 today. This unit will be disassembled to components and everything given a fresh coat of paint, then reassembled. All new placards will be applied. The glare-shield will then be installed into the production spare front windshield assembly for re-installation onto 965.

Are you Sydney based mate?

Took some time this evening to mock up the external scheme that will be applied to the cockpit section!

Some interior cockpit photos showing the condition inside it. The last job I got to this evening was to start clearing out the years of dirt, leaves and other crap from inside with the shop vac. The next step is to the get the pressure washer in there and to blast it all out, so that it can all be prepared for a new coat of primer paint. Today we tackled the ‘big cut’ of the forward fuselage section, removing approx 1.8m from the aft end. We had originally hoped to use a 9-inch cutter, but elected to use a smaller 4-inch to get into all the tight places. Yesterday we removed all of the internal plumbing and equipment that connected the cut line, so today it was an exercise of simply cutting through the structure and carefully moving the section away. We successfully removed the aft section of the forward fuselage today, having spent the evening yesterday disconnecting all internal plumbing and wiring in the area of the cut line. The forklift proved to be an immensely useful resource, being able to neatly tilt the lifting tines forward and evenly under the tail section. The next step in the journey is to fabricate and attach a suitable rolling stand. There has been much debate in the workshop today as to how we should approach a solution. One suggestion is that we fabricate a rear stand mounted off the centre section, and using the nosegear for the front. This would enable the unit to be towed around etc, but introduces additional height which will make sim cockpit harder to operate.