While both Saturday and Sunday have been picture perfect, lower temperatures made the stripping process a little slower as a result of reduced chemical effectiveness at lower ambient temperatures.

The result was that the top ‘finish coat’ layer of the paint would quickly separate, leaving the base primer 100% intact and free of stripper, requiring a full second application to remove it. This slowed our progress down.

The fuselage, ailerons and the horizontal stabiliser are all that remains to be paint stripped, with the team aiming to have these completed by the close of next weekend.

The fuselage will require extensive foil tape preparation to ensure the protection of the windscreen and rear window, along with closing up all openings that could let paint stripper into the airframe. We aim to get this work completed during the evenings this week coming.

With the flight controls stripped, each was given a detailed clean down and an extensive 3M scotchbrite rub down, followed by an Alumiprep treatment, to ensure that all surfaces were 100% clean and free of corrosion. Next stage will be the application of the alodine protective coating.

Many thanks to Richard Talbot, Jamie Schuts and Peter Morgan for lending a hand this weekend and for helping out with the BBQ lunchtime snags today! A quick shout out to David Winter who also came down to check on the restoration progress!

This past week we have located and secured a propellor for the aircraft (thanks to the team at Riverina Aviation College), along with a serviceable Rolls Royce 0-240A engine core. The team will travel to Albury this week to collect the engine components, which will be delivered to CG Engineering for Inspection and NDT testing.

The team will be back at it next weekend.