It was fun, although it seemed like hardwork at the time.

Of course there will be a difference between something that has sat outside for years and something that has been operated continuously. You would expect to have to undertake major work, however if people weren’t prepared to carry out this kind of work the line up at Leg Ends would be somewhat empty. I’ll let you tell some of these guys that their aircraft have dubious histories and are in fact new build, I’ll be hiding behind a substantial structure so as to avoid the fall out.

A major overhaul it might have been, but it was pretty extensive, as ARCO thenselves say on their site ‘the airframe was completely dismantled down to it’s individual components and all stripped to bare metal. Each panel, frame, stringer and every rivet was meticulously inspected and replaced as necessary, the bulkhead and firewall being totally rebuilt and all the components overhauled individually. This famous Spitfire emerged from ARCo’s workshops ‘better than new’.

Yes she was elsewhere

Originally posted by Snapper
I was lost. Then I was found. Perhaps it’s the same with Janie. Was it en-route to Damascus? Enquiring minds wish to know.

So who thought she was missing? And when? Where did they look?

Nope it was en-route to Diss.

a small portion of the Leg Ends crowd failed to see her, but they looked no further than the flightline, after all the world revolves around that.

Some thought she was missing, others new better.

Nope

Originally posted by David Burke

As for information on which Hurricane’s and Spitfire’s are largely 1990’s built well I think the best way to find out is to look for the ones that never seem to feature a ‘before’ and ‘after’
picture in the rebuild articles.

So we can’t actually identify any ‘new build’ aircraft then? I’m just interested to know.