Over restoration

It’s great to see now that with the advances in paint mostly no-one shoots gloss paint over them which was the norm in the 70’s and 80’s, from the BBMF to the few warbirds in private hands. The argument was that it used less fuel and engine power to push it through the air and it soon looked dirty and unkempt to the public if a true war era finish was used.

I’m involved with my father’s old motorcycles aged from 100 years old to 68 years old and I’m continually amazed by what can be made or re-engineered to make any vehicle perform as intended again, P9374’s prop being the most outstanding article, presuambly now the tools and knowledge are there more can be made-at a price!:eek:

Personally I don’t think it’s over-restoration so much as enthusiastic cleaning schedules 😀

A great example here in New Zealand is Brendon Deere’s Spitfire Mk.IX. She was restored with everything as from the factory (bar guns and cannon), a 75 per cent matte/25 per cent gloss finish, and has developed an excellent “patina” since her first flight in 2009. Over at Wings Over New Zealand we have a thread dedicated to this wonderful aircraft: http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=popular&action=display&thread=17596

[QUOTE=paul178;1988583]Jeepman, go on, you know you want to!:D Get someone else to hacksaw the grill out if you are squeamish:diablo:

[QUOTE]

We’re straying into G503.com or HMVF territory here….. so mods please delete if appropriate

I contemplated it for the next project, particularly as these guys do all the bits

http://www.ww2fabrications.com/

But I’d only do it to a repro body. By the way they used bolt croppers to take out the bars on the grille – not a hacksaw 😉

Jeepman, go on, you know you want to!:D Get someone else to hacksaw the grill out if you are squeamish:diablo:

We’re straying into G503.com or HMVF territory here….. so mods please delete if appropriate

I contemplated it for the next project, particularly as these guys do all the bits

http://www.ww2fabrications.com/

But I’d only do it to a repro body. By the way they used bolt croppers to take out the bars on the grille – not a hacksaw 😉

‘If you cant see some oil, it means there’s probably none in it’.
Proper aeroplane !

The excellence of modern paints must be a big problem, but matt finishes are an option via matting additives, aren’t they?

I guess people don’t want to spend millions on a restoration just to make it look b*****ed!

Personally , i would like to see them restored to factory condition but not concours standard. As well as my interest in WW11 aircraft i also have restored an 1968 International tractor, it has been mechanically been restored to fullworking order and to leave it in its faded and rusty state would detract from the large amount of effort put into it to get it working again, so it has been given an extensive respray.
The same applies to restored aircraft imo.

Jeepman, go on, you know you want to!:D Get someone else to hacksaw the grill out if you are squeamish:diablo:

I’m rebuilding a ’43 Ford GPW Jeep at present. While it will be freshly painted when complete, I’m trying to keep as much originality as possible. I’m repairing as many damaged parts as possible rather than replacing them with NOS or repro parts. This steering wheel nut is an example.

I really like scruffy, used looking warbirds. A look through wartime pictures shows just how rough some of them got. While the Hangar 11 P-40 was probably a bit over done by the films art department, it was really nice to see, and I’d like to see a few more aircraft with subtle artificially produced faded and chipped paintwork.

My absolute favorite Spit Daz, before they put fresh paint and wing tips back on her. I absolutely loved the chipped, faded, and weathered finish. I plan to model AR501 in that livery, weathering and all, at some point before I die.

If you haven’t got it already, I recommend:

Spitfire: Flying Legend

It has a great section on the Mk.V, with plenty of close-ups for reference.

Ther has to be a happy medium between the overly shiny and/or polished bare metal of some warbirds and the current fad of “barn find” collector cars where some like to keep them as tatty as possible to show how historically sensitive they are.

An example of the latter…in a recent car magazine they had a story of some guy with a pre WWI “brass-era” auto. He kept the original paint (which is fine) but it had a rats nest interior covered with a horse blanket (not fine unless the horse blanket came from the factory) and he proudly said he wouln’t polish the brass radiator shell. Come on, cleaning is not the same as restoring. If the original owner were alive today and still using the car, I’m sure he’s at least polish the thing. We’ve all seen Antiques roadshow where some poor bloke is told that his old piece of furniture would be worth a fortune if grand dad hadn’t refinished it in the 30s. And i can undrstand that, but the people who do own original ancient furniture are allowed to dust them. Likewise, old paintings can be cleaned to remove centuries of dirt/grime and smoke residue.

Another extreme example was a guy in the UK who has a pair of 50s Bently Continental R-type coupes. He was photographed with his large dogs on them…trying to give the impression of..”I have so much money, I can afford to let my huge dogs scratch and dent valuable antiques”.

At least airworthyness regs prevent such nonsense in the historic aircraft world…otherwise we might see some idiot flying with fabric and engines well past their “Best by” date.

Spitfire AR501 (in her clipped-wing mode) had a great patina on her up until, I think, about 2000 or so.

My absolute favorite Spit Daz, before they put fresh paint and wing tips back on her. I absolutely loved the chipped, faded, and weathered finish. I plan to model AR501 in that livery, weathering and all, at some point before I die.

Spitfire AR501 (in her clipped-wing mode) had a great patina on her up until, I think, about 2000 or so.

Whenever I took a static CH47 to an airshow I always asked for the scruffiest ‘just back from the war’ look, hung a few guns off it and parked it next to the pristine show queens….we always seemed to get more attention. A bit of grime helps put the ‘war’ into warbird; it helps to recall the waste, pain and suffering in the stories behind the aircraft. It’s all part of the narrative.

WB556 has its original 1949 factory paint. Unfortunately most of the fuselage is being reskinned as part of the airworthy rebuild but I am flattening out the original skins and several are making very striking wall hangings. Every marking on the whole aircraft is hand painted, to a good standard but the brush marks are still visible in the registration, yellow stripe and roundels. I love the personal connection these bits give me to the workers in the De Havilland factory all those years ago. Sort of like the tool marks in an old mine.

Once the restoration is complete the silver will be spayed but all other markings will be applied as per the originals by a coach-painter.

It happens soon enough….!

I think that there is a place for both. Every a/c started-out pristine. Military a/c tend to get a harder life, and all the old matte schemes were notorious for degrading quickly. It also depends on what one is starting off with. At the end of the day, any a/c that’s used regularly soon acquires a natural patina at a depressinly rapid rate…both inside and out.
As for wood and fabric a/c – it happens even faster……! :diablo:

I couldn’t agree more! Beautiful though they are, the Spitfires that leave Area 51 at Duxford have panel gaps that Mercedes can’t hold a light to! I wonder what has become if the lovely Dutch Mk9 Spit they received in 2007ish? It was covered in patina (many dings and dents) but was less like a new build for it.

I have a British sports car that will grow old gracefully, stone chips and all, because that is my desire. IF I owned a warbird, it’d be very well patina’d externally and immaculate under the skin…

I restore cars for a living and if I had my way they would all get a rub down with WD-40 and left alone! But unfortunately the guys paying for the Resto don’t always feel that way. In my 35 years at this I’ve only had one customer want it done that way and funnily enough it was a 1950 Jeep! mechanically perfect but it looked like we’d just dragged it out of the barn.

Personally, I quite like them like this.http://www.flickr.com/photos/24101413@N03/7246750070/in/photostream/