The Rebuild (thread) of a YA F-18 twin

[Thomas_W]

So i found a helluva deal on a used and slightly damaged Yellow Aircraft F-18 twin. guy was asking $2000 shipped for the plane w/ the gear, 2 pipes, bypass and some new parts. So i drive 6 hours and pick it up for $1500 . upon getting back home i start accessing the damage (which was done during landing rollout). The wings are trashed and need replacements (which were included), one vertical fiberglass tip was broken, 3 gear doors are broken from the hinges, the forward former and center spline need re-installed and upgraded, and some other little odd's and ends. Basically, i had to spend $182 to get the things needed to convert it (formers, inlet ducts and other odds and ends i needed for repairs). from the Single Jetcat P-120 it had in it previously for the twin Ram750 plus' i plan on putting in it now. I've had it for 2 weeks now and have gotten most of the stuff needed to do the repairs, its just hard doing so as this jet is ALOT bigger than expected. The first thing i did was begin design of a removable nose cone so i could get to the batteries w/o having to remove the airsystem equipment tray in the nose. I made 2 bulkheads for the nose (one for the fuselage, the other for the nose cone), then a "T"-shaped shelf that ran forward into the nose cone to hold the batteries. Then i used .125" carbon tube as alignment pins and three 6-32 bolts and blind nuts to attach the nose cone to the fuselage, all thats left to do is to fill in the joint to make it less noticeable and that will be done. I'm also waiting on an order of balsa, air vavles, lines, servo's, cylinders, gauges, etc to get started on reworking the air system. Then the turbines should be here the end of next week, along w/ the 2 bypass' and tail pipes.

Well here's some pics of it so far:

[Thomas_W]

here's a few pics of the newly trimmed and reinforced forward spar bulkhead. i had to clearance it to fit the twin DF inlet ducts, as its originally designed for a single turbine setup. I also then put 2 layers of 3/32" carbon fiber on the front and rear of the bulkhead. The rear part i left so the spar receivers are held in place by the CF plate. I also plan on taking a piece of 1/4" ply and routing it out to fit over the carbon fiber and completely surrounding the spar receiver so there is no chance in it rotating.

[dubd]

Wow, that is a lot of work. Good luck with the repairs!

[Andrew Bird]

Nice job. It looks like you enjoy the challenge!

Keep the photos coming

[Thomas_W]

Here's the completed forward spar carry-thru bulkhead. I'm now looking for another pair of turbines as my original deal fell thru, so if anyone knows where i could find a pair of Ram 750+'s or 1000's, i would be GREATLY indebted'.




The aluminum spar receivers are epoxied and held to the bulkhead w/ 6-32 hardware. They are then surrounded by the 1/4" ply that is routed to fit flush over the plywood and carbon fiber "finger" that you see in the pics earlier. With this setup, i believe it will be nearly impossible for the reciever to rotate. The orange "goop" you see on the hardware thru the carbon fiber is torque-seal, that way i can tell if the bolts and nuts ever loosen up. The bulkhead at the reciever area is 1/2" thick and the rest is is 9/16" thick. It is a much stiffer now than it was stock (which you can see in the 2nd engine compartment photo w/ the twin inlet ducts in place).

I'm definately enjoying the challenge, I am just not looking forward to stripping all the paint of the fuselage.

[Andrew Bird]

Good call on beefing up those receiving bulkheads, it looked way too thin for comfort around that area, especially for the twin set up.

The paint work will be a pain in the ass!

[yakwrecker]

You gotta love an F-18. Good luck with the repairs. have fun with it.

[Thomas_W]

yea, paint work is definately going to be a pain in the ass. there's some paint stripper made for fiberglass that i'm going to try on the damaged wings and vertical fin tip. hopefully it works out OK, so i dont have to sand all the paint off by hand.

[Andrew Bird]

I tried some primer on my Bandit that turned out really badly (paint came out of the can lumpy!) and ended up using some stripper. It worked out ok, so hopefully you'll be fine - it will just take time. Even if you do end up sanding back - some decent p400 wet and dry and some soapy water, it shouldn't take too long and you'll have a good base to paint from.

What scheme you going with?

[Thomas_W]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Andrew Bird
	I tried some primer on my Bandit that turned out really badly (paint came out of the can lumpy!) and ended up using some stripper. It worked out ok, so hopefully you'll be fine - it will just take time. Even if you do end up sanding back - some decent p400 wet and dry and some soapy water, it shouldn't take too long and you'll have a good base to paint from. What scheme you going with?

Honestly,
i haven't looked at scheme's much, but i've got one i like, if i could just find more detailed pics of it.




But i really haven't had much luck find good 3 view paint scheme's of the F-18 on the net.. so the search is still on, but whatever it gets, it'll be all "Dirtied" up.

[Thomas_W]

Today, i got the spar filler blocks epoxied into the wing and the front spar carry-through bulkhead tack'd into place. The wings are ready to be final fit to the fuselage now once i get the forward bulkhead and center spline hysoled and glassed into place. Then i've got to go to a friends shop to do the final assembly of the wings, as my building area isn't very large in my 2 bedroom apartment (its the dining area of my kitchen). You can see the root TE's were damaged in shipping, so i've got to repair that area also..I also got the new fiberglass vertical stab tip epoxied in place last night, so its starting to come alive. I also found a Ram 1000 for it, so that should be here friday as well. So about $4000 spent and another $6000 to go. lol

here's some pics of it w/ the wings on it when i was fitting the forward bulkhead in place.

[Thomas_W]

Well,
while i was at home today on my lunch break the postal worker delivered one of the bypass' for the project. Its an older CAI bypass, but i got 2 new bypass' for the P-200 bypass i got with the project when i bought it. So i decided to put it in the plane to see if the thing was going to fit like i'm hoping for. Looks like it will work out perfect for my application, but we'll see. Oh, and i scored an RTI Built Ram 1000 full autostart for $1500, so it should be here tommorrow or saturday..