Phil's 757 Project

[phil744]

Phil,

Due to a computer crash extremely late reaction.

Wondered where you were, good to hear from you again,

Okay, been busy as of late with other sims and non sim components, so not done much on my own from the last post, apart from pushing levers whilst making airplane noises.

I was supposed to have a visitor to the workshop today, but we both got our wires crossed, so that didn't happen, he was supposed to be picking up his order and spending a few hours with the quad measuring it all up then drawing it up for release for other builders, so this morning i pulled the quad into the shop, up onto a desk, ready for his arrival, whilst stood there with brew in one hand a screwdriver appeared in the other, up until now i have not done anything with the quad, just looked at it, but i just thought i would tease myself by removing the flaps lightplate and cover and have a sneaky peak at the mechanism and the complexity that laid ahead..........

15 hours later i has completely stripped the quad down to what can only be described as the mother of all airfix kits, gutted out the redundant wiring out of it, overhauled the reverser's interlocks replaced the speedbrake L&R cam followers bearings, roller snatch bearings for the reverser's themselves, reverser's position chocks ( they were completely worn out causing the levers to stick, still on the CNC being carved from a large lump of alloy as i type this) designed the pot interface and mechanics to be built next  designed up an adaptor and gearbox that replaces the flaps position transmitter to use a wire wound multi turn pot, re greased and re assembled the levers and prepped the base of the TQ ready for paint.

Oops but u know what its like when you get into the "zone" never had my brew either, anyhow someone might be interested in what the guts of a 757 TQ look like so enjoy

[Nat Crea]

You cant beat Boeings engineering!!!
Looks unreal Phil...but they dont leave much space for us 

I just rebuilt my 737 TQ...what a frikin job...

Nat

[carlos hermida]

Incredible project Phil ! Nothing better than the real acft parts ! 

[matta757]

Looks incredible, Phil. Really, really nice job cleaning that thing up!

[astron]

Holy cow,thats a lot of stuff in a little box, well now we know what one looks like inside

Tom

[Edoradar]

Hi Phil, we're in touch often but I need to congrat with you here too and don't worry, be ready to host me for intense work on gauges 

Cheers bud!

[phil744]

Hi Phil, we're in touch often but I need to congrat with you here too and don't worry, be ready to host me for intense work on gauges 

Cheers bud!

hehehe no probs bud, but i got a long way to go to catch you up, ur MCP and NAV's should be done soon

Anyway, not much progress on the old75, been working in SA and not been back long so first day i was back in the workshop, then i get distracted by looking at naughty flight attendants lol, random i know.

So, im afraid its much of the same, stripping sanding and painting, but still feel its best to get it all out of the way first before i start interfacing and assembling everything, should be easy in the long run (famous last words)

So shot the TQ with brown tonight, funny thing with this colour is that it darkens over time, if anyone is building a brown Boeing and paints stuff don't worry at first if the colour appears a little more golden, as it dries the matting agent will tone down the colour, same as what you find in the real aircraft, parts appearing to be different colour shades, but in reality the colour is perfect its the matt finish that reflects the light different part to part giving the illusion of parts being a totally different shade to each other, not as bad with the grey stuff though.

But its a good feeling to se things finally coming together now, well for me, now got to design and build the gear box, pot mounts, slip clutch and motors to go into all this, but first i will re assemble the entire TQ and attack that at a later stage, if i leave it like this i know i will forget how it all goes back together and lose parts also, but cant do much right now til it all dries, cant wait to See it complete,

but i am happy so far with the results

[kondrat]

Hi Phil, nice work! Are you getting any emails? I sent you some , no response

Denis

[phil744]

Hi Phil, nice work! Are you getting any emails? I sent you some , no response

Denis

Hey Denis, yeah i got them but i am at work at the moment and they are on my other computer (yes they banned hotmail here also!!)

[kondrat]

Thanks Phil, when you have chance, please email me back.

Thanks a lot,

Denis

[phil744]

will do

[phil744]

Ay up!

Things have really slowed down here, work commitments, parts for others so not much done over the past few weeks.

Just plodding along with the TQ re build, stripped the flaps and speedbrake lever greased up the bearings and decided to sandblast the actual levers them selves, leaves a nice uniform matt finish on the metal work, easy way to remove 20+ years of wear and tear, did the same for the flap gate and all came up well apart from me with greasy fingers spoiling the effect, but can be cleaned off, currently thinking about doing the same for the throttle levers but the jury is still out on that one, may just leave them the way they are.

Also designed up a 3 LED drop in conversion board for the annunciators, I want to keep current consumption as low as possable and keep everything 5V, pain interfacing when u have a mix of 5V, 12V and 28V all in one, so made a small PCB with 3 white 0805 SMD LEDs with there dropper resistors in there, all you got to do is remove the original bulb and drill a small hole in the back of the annunciator to feed the new cable through, the original cable and connectors are in a real bad state so just decided to replace everything, rather invest the time now than keep chasing electrical faults in the future.

Problem with the annunciators on the 767 is there fragile little buggers, made from GRP Nylon, it has a tendency to denature over time making them very brittle, one thing i find is remove the bulbs and the cap assembly and let them soak in hot water for a few hours, softens up the plastic and the glue also as these things are often super glued together during there life.

Next step for me now is figure out how to make replacement legends for them as a few of them have broke and i am converting my TQ to the later version so i have the body's but the wrong legends, that should be fun, i have an idea will keep you posted.

Also took the aft ped box to the car wash, wanted to blitz it before stripping and painting, they guys there looked at me strange when i told them what it was, even more when i asked them to do me a quote for a full valet for a 757, so when i ship the nose back to me i plan on having some fun first, turn up at the car wash with a 757 and ask them to clean that!

Sorry about the pic quality used phone cam, don know where other camera is

[matta757]

Phil,

I always get excited when I see "Phil's 757 Project" at the top of the list of topics on the right of the forum main page. Once again, your work is solid and impressive. Looking forward to the next update!

Best,
Matt

[Hessel Oosten]

 Looking forward to the next update TOOOOO !

Great, nice, instructive and more.

Hessel

[rhysb]

I'm just imagining the amount of brew you have been drinking! Sorry I have been quiet on this one Phil as work is mental but been following your work! Looking awesome bud an inspiration!!!
Hope to catch you soon!

[phil744]

Well, she is here finally And how the hell the chap who brought her here did not get arrested is beyond me






Guess where im sat right now

[phil744]

Well what a fun day today has been, the chap who brought her (btw, if your in the UK or north europe and need a deck shipping at a decent rate drop me a PM i know a chap)
who in my opinion is a legend sorted a crane out at the pick up end lo load her skywards, i was a little shocked when it arrived like that, now means i too need crane as he needs
is trailor back monday morning, so where the hell do i get a  crane from on a Sunday, well simple, go cash machine, draw out 100 quid then go to local motorway service station and wait

Soon enough one wagon arrived with nice Hiab on the back, offered him the job and flashed the cash and he said u want me to move a what??

So, crane sorted, everything set we lifted he up and over and dumped her by the door, now the fun begins

Never bothered measuring stuff or making a plan, if you make plan and it fails, your screwed, and it will, simple, looked at the deck, looked at the door and just went "yeah that will fit"

we had a pile of pallets, 2 pump trucks and an electric stacker truck, by now it was just myself and Dave, who was still in shell shock about what was dumped outside.

So, we set to work, basically got the nose ballanced on two pallets, one either side, problem we had is that the floor outside is lower then the floor inside and quite a steep ramp entering the unit, we allready know the electric stacker truck wont go over it straight.

The then decided hypothesis was to take a run up, me at the front steering, dave at the back with the stacker truck, and beleve it or belive it not it did work to a degree, actually we got it stuck, well stuck, reanson is simple, when the deck floor is sat level it gives us 1 inch either side of the door clearence, problem is the nose and how its cut means it wants to rest 30 degrees nose up, making the whole package much longer, as it went through the door it dropped slightly and we could not rase it any more, the door frame itself was suspending the nose of the ground pushing with one finger and it would swing, we did contemplate having a 757 theamed hammok instead but decided to continue with the original plan.

After much laughing smoking and coffee drinking we formulated a plan, not how to move the nose end through the door but how to explain to the landlord tomorrow morning of why there is a trans-atlantic jet wedged in his door way.

Couple of extra pallets towards the rear with third pump truck and we got the deck level again and just drove her straight in to the opposite end of the unit, swung her round
and pushed her into her temporary new home, very very simple about 2 hours in total.

[Bob Reed]

Glad it is all in safe and sound! Can't wait ti start seeing the pics of you working on it!

[phil744]

Cheers Bob,

Bit of house keeping today, cut out all the old wiring behind the MIP and tried to vacuum some of the loose bits up, then being a child i am threw it together with the bits I allready have

One question that's been on my mind is would a 767 MIP set fit into a 757 nose, and it does

Finally i got me something that looks like a plane

To say I'm happy would be an understatement right now, any way I'm off to go make airplane noises for the rest of the day

[Dan321]

Great pictures phil. You know the 757 is definitely my favourite aircraft, I just love those throttles.

If a 757 was as easy to acquire parts for as the 737 in the simulator would I would of done the 757 no doubt about it.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

Dan

[Perik]

Wow, Phil

You're a really fast moving guy!!!
and I can imagine the turbine sounds coming out of the cockpitframe....

Thx for the update - both of the shell progress and your painting
process in the other thread. It's a great info / inspiration for the rest of us.

One day I may ask for access / a visit and get some measurement of the shell and TQ.

[phil744]

One day I may ask for access / a visit and get some measurement of the shell and TQ.

Your more than welcome, the TQ measurments are in hand, takes a little time

[phil744]

Apart from making airplane noises i have done a little bit, mainly sat in there drinking coffee and planning, mapping where to place stuff, computers, PSU, electronics that sort of stuff, one thing i want to avoid is a shell with a few hundred cables trailing onto the floor to a pile of computers, basically i want to keep everything within the shell itself, so now be a good time just to plan it all through,makes hardware selection a little better because you know exactly what you need.

Anyhow first job as always is strip it clean it then re build it, today i attacked all the wiring around inside and behind the maintenance/observer stand, started as a precision skilled job with proper electrical wire snips and a calculated plan then ended up using a bolt cropper, its the only thing that could get through this stuff, and i mean its tough.
that's basically it, it took a whole day! then sand and clean out the rest of it ready for paint.

However, the day i have been dreadding for a long long time was finally upon, the inaugural inspection and certification by the "SOH" (significant other half) AKA the missus! (she didn't know)

Naturally i had excuses lined up, the main one being "well you asked me to sort the flights so i did" and quality line like "i told you ages ago and you didn't mind" and the best one "you not remember???"

But, she took one look and went "F***ing hell that's well cool" (classy girl i know), jumped in and started pressing buttons and making aeroplane noises (admit more of a stuka dive bomber than an RR equipped 757, will work on that), i was impressed when she knew how to use the lock override function on the landing gear.

So, I'm a little shocked, don't know if i should be pleased or scared, i get the feeling my demise is being plotted as i type this....

So, few pics showing the maintenance section under the skin and pile of wires ready for the weigh in, and a pretty overall shot of where i will be sleeping tonight

Phil

[phil744]

this may make you laugh, the day she arrived

http://www.flickr.com/photos/project75/6122969879/in/photostream

[Bob Reed]

Wow Phil! Listen to you giggle! Like Christmas, huh? Good for you!