Start to Fin - ish

Woke up to a snow squall Saturday and Sandy was opening at the Depot so I drove down to the Hook to get in some quality time with the twins. Two weeks ago I removed the last of the main fins from the missiles that left the small front fins (which had stripped hex-head cap screws) and the booster main fins - which just wouldn't let go. I opened up the sheet-metal last trip so this time I was going to remove the fins with their attaching hardware. 

Opening up the skin (the missile's and mine in a moment of brain-fade) allowed me moderate access to the rocket nozzle and the attachment points. Wedging a prybar in after removing the bolts and studs I was able to move the fin.

That's the point in time that I realized that since the fins each went through a hole in the sheet-metal, I would need to remove the fins with their corresponding metal fairing. The panel cutter makes that easy enough - the trick will be the welding all those pieces back into a full, round fairing again <sigh>. Hey, at least it comes apart, right? I found another three bolts too! Large locator pegs at the leading edge of the fin.

In the end, I had the three fins from the one booster removed and stood up against the rear overhead door soaking in Kroil. Hopefully the main pins will pull out of the brackets without too much grief. We'll see.

I finished the day by drilling out the last pair of front fins from that missile and calling it a day. As you can see, the project is moving along. Once all the dis-assembly is done I can begin to work on the repairs and bodywork. There was a level of concern among the guys that these were really in rough shape and, make no mistake, they were. I am to a point now that I can say that I believe that I am through the ugliest of it. I am learning the mechanics of the assembly and now actually know what I am in for. The rest is like a bad wreck that is not totaled. There's a *lot* more to be done, but it is repair work and assembly. It's still gonna be quite a ride <grin>.

'til next time... Blazing Skies!!

Specialty Tools

Well Sunday at the Hook was interesting to say the least. My last trip there with Bill Jackson left us with one main fin to be removed. We had removed the bolts we could, drilled out the rest and *still* couldn't budge it. Sandy took pity on me and covered the puppy classes I was supposed to take Quincy to Sunday morning so I headed south. I was anxious to get down to the project. I brought an air chisel with assorted bits for the fin and I'd gotten a panel cutter to work on the booster. After setting up and wailing on the fin for over 30 minutes (and feeling half deaf having forgotten my ear protectors) I finally gave up on the chisel. I mean this damn thing would not budge! I heaved, I tugged, I pushed and nothing happened. With all the other main fins off there was no way to work around this thing. I was getting really frustrated and more than a little angry. That's when I started looking around for "something different" and I found it:

Yeah, that's it - a 40 pound gas cylinder. The ring at the top and the ring at the bottom allow you to lift this thing horizontally in a clean and jerk motion and then bring it down as hard as I could on the fin. It took three shots with a lot of bellowing but I got the fin off!!! Interestingly the Park Rangers stopped by just afterwards and asked what all the "noise" was. I was just grinning like an idiot and said I was just  removing a fin.

The next task made use of the new panel cutter. Similar to the last main fin, we had removed all the attaching hardware to the booster fins but thay too would not budge. These are held in with a single central pin but I could not determine how to get them loose. Working on a seam that I ground down last trip I used the panel cutter to open the area around the fins:

You can get a great view of the booster's rocket motor venturi. Anyway, there are three brackets which I will attempt to remove (gingerly at first <g>). At this point, I soaked all fasteners down with Kroil and started to wind down the day's work.

Here's another view of the brackets:

It wasn't too cold on Sunday (you know, a balmy 40 degrees with an onshore breeze) but I had gotten a radiant propane heater and I wanted to have it assembled in the event that the next trip were really cold. Hey, it's winter and it's bound to happen at the worst possible time, right? So I got this unit from Home Depot:

The canopy is movable so I can direct the heat to the work area. It may not be as comfortable as Mario and Dominick have it out at Floyd Bennett but it's what I've got. They have an Ajax out there that they are restoring.  <Hi guys!> 

All in all not a bad day. Til the next time, Blazing Skies!

Starting 2012 with a little help from my friends

With the holidays behind us and Spring coming up fast it was time to get back to the twin Ajax missiles. Sandy Hook in January is a fiercely beautiful place. There were white-caps on the bay spraying up on the road and the wind was whipping around. Spending time banging on old missiles in an unheated building can lose some of its allure in the Winter months. However, I had the privilege of having Bill Jackson lending a hand. For those of you who do not not know him, Bill is the President of the Fort Hancock Nike Site Volunteer Association. He is a hellava tour guide and one of the primary driving forces of the Nike Site. He is also a great guy to have working with you on any project - and with things like this restoration there is a wide variety of unusual stuff that continually crops up. We changed lightbulbs, drilled out frozen bolts and chuckled about seeing our breath in the A&S building.

All in all it was a very productive day. We are down to the last Main Fin on the second Ajax. All the bolts  (which were frozen) were drilled out and the doggone thing still wouldn't let go (and by God we tried)! Ripped up a bunch of drill bits. Uncle Sam sure used great bolts! Next trip I'll be taking an air-chisel to it. We setup a secure area for the tool storage and developed a working plan for the removal of the booster fins.  A few more workdays like this and we will be ready to start some of the smaller component refinishing. I like to call it "Visual Progress". It doesn't so much move the project ahead (though it all adds up) as much as it gives you a sense of project direction, and more than a little satisfaction at seeing some parts nearing completion. It helps me to visualize where this is all going.

'Til next time.... Blazing Skies!

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:

Day 3 Mid-Week Review

Last weekend, disassembly took a backseat to the tours, but was by no means a washout. I learned more about the properties of the Aircraft Stripper. We got a nice air compressor, and I had the foresight to keep taking pictures. Pictures in general and specifically digital photography offers a view of a point in time and space.I wanted to document the corrosion and deterioration of the missile rocket nozzle. My pictures, particularly the ones I choose to share here, offer me an opportunity to review the tasks at hand and discuss the possible solutions to the problems that age and weather have wreaked. Case in point:

When I took this picture I was concerned with (and still am) the best way to rebuild the badly damaged and missing material. So in the process of exploration I tried sticking the camera into the missile body to "see" the inside. What I got did not further the nozzle solution but threw a whole new light on the possibility of opening up the missile!

I looked at this one and saw the side panel screws. Hmmm. I stuck my arm further in and found more:



This is where I truly began having a new respect for the little digital camera. I set it for Macro closeups and started taking pictures of the inside of the fasteners. Most of this is "by guess and by gosh" since I had my arm stuck up inside and just made my best guess as to what I needed to shoot.

The good news is that it *MAY* be possible to get penetrating oil to assist in breaking these free. Boy I hope so, the thought of drilling them all is ugly <shiver>. So I ordered a gallon of Kroil. We shall see if it lives up to its reputation.

Meantime, I started cataloging the areas like the nozzle. This was what I found under the first main fin I removed. It's gonna be a challenge.

Oh well, 'til next time......... Blazing Skies!

Day Two; 10-8-2011

Well the day dawned with sunshine and great promise but did not turn out quite the way it was planned. I was down at the Hook at 9:30 (it's always easier when Sandy's leaving for work at the Home Depot early too). Picking up where I left off  from the prior week I was curious what the state of the stripper I left on two fin bolts would be - it seemed to be somewhat pliable but it was dry to the point of knowing not to leave it for that long again. Anyway, it was time to start on the smaller leading fins - these are held in with allen head cap screws which had been painted in pretty bad.  Back to the stripper:

Digging out the cap screws is going to be interesting; the stripper and paint form a thick paste and it is difficult to get a majority of it out of the screw head. I ended up with the allen wrench not pushing far enough in to the head because of the paste to get a good grip.

While wishing I had a good air line to blow it clear, I heard a truck pull up and it turned out to be Ken Braswell and his Father-in-Law, Bob. Bob is a WWII vet and graciously offered to loan us his air compressor. Well, they had the unit in the truck! I spent some time unloading it with them  and talking. By this time it was almost noon. Saturday was one of the scheduled tour dates for our IFC (The Integrated Fire Control i.e. the radar & vans) area. I got a call from Tony Tannucilli, our MP (volunteer) that we we only had Bill Jackson available for the tours and he was faced with a Boy Scout Troop as well as civilians - could I get up there and assist. I closed up the shop and went up to lend a hand.

I must say it was one of the busiest tour days I have ever encountered. We counted 110 folks through the gates and just Bill & I were giving the tours. Funny thing though, these folks were all truly interested. They asked lots of intelligent questions (young & old alike) and they actively participated in the tour. One gentleman was with the FAA and added a lot of great stories about the HIPAR radar; another fellow had been in the Navy and work worked with cryptography and helped explain how that worked in a system like ours. There was also a Nike vet who explained the failsafes on a nuclear weapon to the group. The groups took on a dynamic all their own and before we knew it we had run past closing time.

In the end, I did not make much headway on the missiles but I certainly reinforced the reason that I am doing them. "Til the next time....... Blazing Skies!"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oozlefinch is the unofficial historic mascot of the Air Defense Artillery – and formerly of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps. Oozlefinch is portrayed as a featherless bird that flies backwards (at supersonic speeds^[3]) and carries weapons of the Air Defense and Coastal Artillery, most often a Nike-Hercules Missile. Oozlefinch has been portrayed in many different forms and artistic interpretations through its history.^[4] Oozle's motto is "If it flies, it dies. Blazing skies." reinforcing the purpose of the Air Defense Artillery.

Day 1 - The Work Begins

October 1, 2011.... It seems like took forever but we are finally underway with this project. As with any undertaking the beginning was underwhelming. Before the work could begin the new facility had to straightened up, cleaned and swept.

We went from this:

To this:

After getting everything arranged so I could work around each of the missile sections I began in earnest. The chief issue with any refinishing project is surface preparation. In this case these missiles have been painted many, many times and in addition the underlying structure is deteriorating. Here are a couple of examples:

Using the nastiest paint stripper I could get (designed for Aircraft) I began to delve into the  problem of getting at the fasteners to dis-assemble the various components.



It soon became apparant that this was going to be a genuine challenge. I was uncovering years of paint coatings of various types:

I was finally able to remove the Main Fin bolts:

And with them out was able to pry off one fin:

In the refinishing trade this is known as "visual progress". In point of fact having only one fin removed does not constitute much of a milestone in the project but it finally appears that something has happened. More important is the fact that the process of dis-assembly is beginning to take shape - the "How the hell do I get THAT off" procedure is unfolding.

The day completed with two distinct challenges. The first was the missile's rocket nozzle. It is attached with two rows of flat head phillips machine screws. Using the stripper to get down to the original zinc oxide primer, I thought that I would be able to use an impact screwdriver to loosen/remove them. They do NOT move <sigh>.

After fighting to get the fin off (the problem is the mechanism for moving the aileron is seized) I found that I had uncovered significant concealed deterioration. This will need to be addressed. Just how will depend on how much more I find after removing the other fins.

Until next time....