Charlie Gay sent in photos of his Stinson V-77 project, N743PM:
It's moving along. Hopefully flying soon. Wish I could keep this one.
We had to make most of the bump cowl for the R-985. I could salvage enough bumps from wrecked cowls to have some skins to start with. The english wheel and leather slapper work great for dents.
All the framing is new to fit the V-77 firewall mounts. Harbor Freight sells a great tubing rolling machine with three rollers and crank wheel for $180. Really handy for this kind of work.
Going for low drag. No external cowl scoops, all flush rivets and fasteners on the whole airplane. I bonded the cowl skins with AeroPoxy to keep oil from coming through the seams and keep rivets from working in the future.
Carpet edges are not bound yet. We made the chrome steps from raw streamline stock. Bent over a mandrel filled with sand dug up from our field by the river. Pauls Chrome near Pittsburg did the chroming. I highly recommend them.
We can manufacture new gear leg bushings and heat treated internal shock pins if anyone needs them. Pitot tube was found new in the box online.
Charlie Gay
