Coastal Defense Day at Sandy Hook

I was sorta lazy getting this post out, sorry. Coastal Defense Day was May 20th. This was to be the day we started folding in the Launch Area into the tours - though I was to continue working on the twins and when folks came by to be one of the exhibits. It was a great day weather-wise. I threw open the bay doors and set to work. The dis-assembly process is getting to the end. I was able to remove the arming windows and mechanisms from Pollux.

I found the ID plates and pulled them to clean up. They will go back on after the refinishing. This one is also from Pollux:

I still have to fight with some of the fillers and vents; you can see two here along with the lanyard that started the missile's motor when the booster dropped off (it is above and to the far left of the section with the data plate). The actual lanyard has rusted off but the connector remains.

You begin to get a sense of the refinishing task ahead looking at the rust and corrosion. Oh well, I knew that going in.

Around this time I got a call from an old friend Ron Ananian - he is the Car Doctor on WOR radio. He was on the air and called to talk about the passing of Carroll Shelby earlier in the week. As some of you may know I am an incurable Hot Rodder. I have owned my old Blue Shelby for 43 years and enjoyed the opportunity to talk on national radio about how Carroll's cars changed my life and the automotive world. I had just finished talking with Ron when Tony T showed up with a group touring the Launch Area. We gave them a nice presentation and folded up the tent for the weekend.

til next time...... Blazing Skies

Two steps forward, one step back...

Today's post title is a reference to an exercise in humility. I had been somewhat upset over the overall progress, wanting to be further along. In retrospect, I am much farther along than I was, and the job is moving forward. This "lesson" came about after purchasing a 14 ton shop press to separate the booster fins from their brackets. As last week's post showed, I had to remove the cross bracing from the press in order to fit the fins, the press had to erectyed on large blocks  and I was not able to use the supplied press platform steel since the fin would not fit through it. Then I went to the IFC and gave tours with Bill so I was expecting to come back this week and breeze through the fins like a hot knife through butter. Ha! During the week I used one of my lunch hours to go to a shop I had not been to in probably 30 years; Victory Iron Works. The place was just as I remembered it and though all the staff are new to me they were absolutely courteous and helpful, even after I told them I was working on missiles <grin>. They cut me some angle iron to press against and let me pick up a bunch of cut-offs for spacers. Well the first thing to greet me Saturday morning was the ugly fact that the bottle jack had no hydraulic oil. The trip to the nearest Auto Parts store came up empty (unless I wanted a 5gallon can). The second nearest store was about 12 miles away, so off I went. They had a quart and I went back and filled the jack.

The next surprise was when the fin refused to separate and bent the presses securing pins:

It turns out that I had the angle iron too far outboard. The levelling plates got the fin in place but kept the iron too far away from the centerline. Breaking out the oxy-acetylene torch I reconfigured the angle iron to get closer to the center.

That did the trick, along with a bunch of hammering, Kroil, sweat and swearing  (not necessarily in that order).

So at the end of a full day's work I have one booster's fins added to the refinishing pile:

And one more Booster waiting to be started.

That's part of the joy and aggravation on a project like this. Working alone I get to make up my own tasklists. I have always done this in a seat of the pants fashion. I can't tell you why the booster fins got to be such a burr under my saddle. The rest of the project was going along nicely and I could have had a better "visual progress" day had I just kept working on the missile body dis-assembly. But the truth is, I knew that this was a difficult part of the project and it had to be brought into a similar timeline for refinishing. Besides, I want to be in a good mood for painting the twins. So I worked on a more difficult part to move it forward. Ther will be lots more to come.

Til next time....... Blazing Skies!!

The season gets busy...

Saturday started out early and exciting. It was a hazy day on the drive down to the Hook so I was ready to get a lot of work done. I had gone shopping for tools this past week and one of the items I bought was a 12 ton hydraulic press. It came knocked down which was just as well since it will need to be modified for my purposes.

I had to remove the cross bracing support across the bottom to accommodate the booster fin's length. Next I have to modify the support cross rails. It was right about at this point  that I found that Bill and Tony were inundated with tour takers and none of the other guides had shown up. So I locked the door and went to the IFC and assisted them with the tours. For a drizzly day we sure had a *lot* of people, but it was a fun time. They were pretty engaging as a group which makes it more fun as a tour guide.

Oh, and remember I mentioned last week about the gentleman from Texas? He is also restoring a pair of Ajax missiles but he was missing the nosecones. After I measured mine up and sent the information out, I got to thinking.... which is always dangerous for a guy like me. I offered to cast him a pair of nosecones in fiberglas using my missile's as a pattern. Maybe it just the old Hot-Rodder in me, but it should be fun and it will help another restorer in need. I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

"til next time..... Blazing Skies!!

Spring into Action

I worked out of phase with the NY56 Nike Volunteers this weekend; they gave the tours today but I went down to work on the twins yesterday.... and what a day it was!! We have accomplished some serious dis-assembly on Pollux:

The front of the missile has been broken down and can be photo-archived, stripped and repaired and made ready for refinishing.

I also had a request for help passed on by Tom Hoffman of National Park Service from gentleman down in Texas  who is also in the midst of an Ajax restoration. The unit he's working on is lacking a good nose cone. I did a lot of photographing and measuring for him and wish him all the best.

I also had a great surprise. These missiles have arming windows, yet I have not seen a display model that has not been paited over. On Castor one had been taken off and the arming circuitry that would normally be visible had been removed. On Pollux, the circuit boards (for lack of a better term) are still in place.

That's one of the details I am looking forward to having on these birds. Instead of the windows having been painted over a number of times, I am working at making them transparent again.

Well that wrapped up the day at the Hook. I left the A&S building looking forward to the next round. Currently we have one long and one short and a pile of parts that will be ready to spend some individualized work on.



Til next time.... Blazing Skies!!

The Spring start - redux

It was good to get back to work. With the Spring Schedule we started the Nike Site Tours on April 14th. The weather was summer-like and the people were enjoying all the sights at Sandy Hook. I met Bill Jackson early at the Lighthouse Keepers House and found that we were going to be really light on tour guides. Bill was just getting back into fighting shape after a bout of upper respiratory troubles so I chose to forgo the restoration to assist with tour guide duty. It was great; and seeing Tony and Bill after a long winter break made it all the better. We had a good crowd (including a large Boy Scout Troop) and picked up a couple of new tour guide candidates. It served as a great reminder as to why I am doing this restoration. There's something about standing in the IFC (Integrated Fire Control - i.e. Radar Area) talking about missiles but not having good displays for the folks to see.

Then following that first weekend I went to a presentation at the Wyckoff, NJ Historical Society on NY/93-94, the Nike Site in Franklin Lakes. This was a great presentation given by Jack Gouldsward and Richard Levine.  What made this even more special to me is that Franklin Lakes is my old Nike Site - Delta Battery, 7th Battalion, 112th Artillery.

By the time I went back to the Hook this past Saturday I was really looking forward to spending time with the "Twins". I was running a little late because I had to get my car ready. Onyx has 202,000 miles on her and over the winter I put a new front end on her but this was her Shakedown Cruise. She purred the whole way. Bill Jackson was already manning the gate with one of the new guides, Paul. While talking to them, Rose Ann and Jacob came up and Tony T. pulled in behind me.  I asked if they wanted me to stay and they told me to "get to work" so I went to the Launching Area and started.

I know that I haven't finished dis-assembly yet but this was one of those days that I needed some "visual progress". Castor probably has the worst deterioration so I chose to test a repair material.

The first pass looks promising, though the curing time was longer than I expected. It prevented me from getting a second pass on to have a bit more of my hoped for visual progress. Oh well, some days you take what you can get.

The fuel cylinders present an odd amalgam of problems. They range from extreme rust to extreme corrosion. I suspect that I will revisit my refinishing choices after removing all the coating materials.

Due to the condition of this group, I believe that they are as broken down as they are going to get for this project. As long as I can get a uniform surface preparation, this section will be refinished in its present assembled form.

I finished the day on Pollux. after grinding the joints clean I removed the nose cone first and then the forward warhead pod (there were 3 HE warheads on this bird) and the forward steering mechanism.

I left with a good feeling. I had begun the repairs (admittedly in a very small way) and made some very good headway into the balance of the disassembly. This last part was made happier by the fact that I did not have to break or drill anything to get this apart.

Saint Patrick's Day

Part of the success of a project like this is to keep hammering away at it. It seems like there are always a dozen more reasons for not going down to the Hook than there are for. This weekend was no different. I had a St. Patrick's Day party to go to for which we were responsible for bringing a Shepard's Pie. Sandy was opening the Pro Desk at the Depot so we agreed to meet back at the house when she got off at 3. So I made my way down to Sandy Hook and when I got there had a great meeting with Jennifer Wolff, the Supervisory Park Ranger. Took her to the A&S Building and went through what progress had been made, what tasks were due in the short term and things that the Park Service could do to help the progress. I brought Ranger Wolff back to her station and spent the rest of my day cleaning and putting stuff back in order then taking the garbage to the dumpster. The place looked good when I left and It will be easier to start in on the next visit. "Til next time..... Blazing Skies!!

Winter disassembly blues

It was a very windy day at the Hook Saturday. I was down early and got to the task of getting back into the project. This consists of unlocking the tool cages turning on the lights (the ones that work) polishing off the last of the Dunkin Donuts coffee and picking a place to resume. This week's goal was to remove the last of the small forward fins and antenna pods. These were the ones on both missiles with stripped out heads which also outlasted the drill bits I had started this project with.

Armed with 20 more drill bits and an attitude I went at it.

Part of what keeps me going is being able to visualize what my goal is for the twins. All the Ajax missiles I have been up close and personal with were inert display models - and most painted so many times that they begin to look fake. I have challenged myself to strip these units of the "working" parts, paint them all individually and then assemble them so the access hatches appear accessible, the fuel ports appear ready to accept fuel... you know? I don't want the fins to be painted in place, I want them to look like they *could* work. Maybe these birds will never fly again but they should give the visitors a glimpse of what these machines truly were.

Where was I, ah yes, after the fins and antennae were removed I moved on to the booster fins that I removed last time. Long story short, the pins do not budge. My next try will be to get the assembly to a machine shop with a heavy duty press and see if we can press the fin pin out of the aluminum support assembly.

By the way if any of you out there have been down this road (or just have a better idea), feel free to comment.

I finished the day removing pieces of fairing. These are soft aluminum and my initial attempts to use and impact screwdriver to remove the screws only deformed the panels so I am drilling out the screws and will need to create a whole new set of stand-offs to re-attach them. That brings with it a different can of worms since I currently do not have 220 volt power to heliarc with. That is tied into the need to get a real compressor to media blast..... but I digress.

Here's what it was looking like when I finished this trip:

'til next time, Blazing Skies!