Back at it

Boy, it's been a helluva month! Since I last wrote up my progress I rode out the "Halloween Storm" without electricity for 5 days (and losing all our food from the garden), blew the transmission in my daily driver (2005 Lincoln LS -2nd time) and broke a lower balljoint in my backup car (2001 Lincoln LS with 202,000 mi.). So all in all I did not get down to the Hook much.

The disassembly is coming along much as was to be expected with the level of weathering & corrosion, generally difficult with a couple of truly ornery parts. The last of the Main fins to be removed on the first missile ( I am naming them Castor and Pollux to keep track) had two bolts which would NOT break free. Using a large breaker bar with 6 point socket and still no-go. The problem is the depth of where they are seated as well as the thinness of the head. Left with few alternatives I ended up drilling out the heads:



This will allow me another shot at getting out the balance of the stud since these were hardened shouldered bolts:

That got the Main fins done so I started on the Guidance Antennas. These started off OK:

 Until I got to the one that snapped the Impact screwdriver bit:



All told it is a slow go but still moving forward.  The current state for the twins looks like this:

Castor:

Pollux: