Phil's 757 Project

[phil744]

Now then..

Had a bit of time to myself recently, rare occurrence I know so decided to bite the bullet and make a start with my build, there is only so much planning and approaching the challenge with a level mind and mapping things out but the more I look into it the more questions I come up with, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and get my finger out and finally make a start!!


So... where to start? Well the only main part I got is the MIP, its not from the same aircraft, I know the main CAPT and FO came from N307AA as for the two outer pieces I have no idea, so nothing matches up, but be honest who cares, it adds a bit of character to it, because several airplanes have already laid down there lives to build this sim nothing matches up, colour,  instrument config, and not to mention the fact this is from a 20 year old airplane so its not in the best condition, infact its disgusting if im honest, yeah I would like to keep the used feel about it, but I just cant live with the condition of this thing, so best route it a complete restoration, strip it sand it and re paint it, so this is what I did.









Apologies but I have not got the original pictures at hand showing the before condition, then you can appreciate how minging this thing was, but I will upload those later, I stripped the paint of using cellulose thinners, I found out just by chance here that it would melt away the original top coat but leave the green primer intact, I wanted to keep that as over the year when things get chipped and scratches it exposes the green primer and just adds to the overall realism, tricky stuff like round the panel dzus fasteners I sandblasted then applied a coat of 2K acid etch primer because of the bare metal, then a coat of matt black, reason for this is that's how I will make the panels for it, and the undercoat has an effect on the outcome of the colour on brown (not noticeable on 737 and A320 grey colours) hence the stealth MIP (I actually preferred that and for a moment thought about following Kens approach of changing the entire colour of the flight deck to suit personal tastes, I admit the brown can be hard on the eye, but a 75 in black?  Managed to find a real bargain on eBay, matched set of new VSI gauges paid 25 US for the pair, a quick coat of baby poo brown and they look the part, something else to interface later.



As for the panels I was in two minds, restore the originals or just make a new set, had a good look over the originals and there in such bad condition even I cant repair them, so best bet was to make a new set entirely from scratch, and lets be honest I have been making panels for such a long time may as well build some for myself, also because im using LED's it means that everything will match up in the long run, and I know a few people have been after 75/76 MIP panels so did a small run of them, but here is the semi finished MIP








Next job now apart from from the MIP re build is make small PCB boards that convert the annunciators to run off 5V and are LED driven to make as much of the electrical system run at the same Voltage, machine the engine select panel, engine standby gauges and the ISIS gauge, the 2 autoland panels, this is going to be fun

But, finally i have made a start, long way to go yet though

[Nat Crea]

Im in love Phil...especially those last few MIP pics

Nat

[XOrionFE]

Holy crap Phil!   I have to say that you do absolutely amazing work and some of the best I have seen out there to date.   Just amazing and this is going to be very cool to watch come together.   Cant wait to see the progression.

Amazing!

Scott

[phil744]

Cheers guys, nice feeling to see it come together finally, just want to light it all up now, then spend another night making plane noises (think the men in white coats need to take me away )

Anyhow, a rather large box arrived on Friday! yup the ped box arrived, even has the phone



And today's little mission, 700 mile round trip to go and measure up the nose and make a plan on how the hell i get it back here, but we think we have it sorted, so here is some pics of my baby, V8-RBA, former royal brunei 757-200, the first large jet for royal brunei and this jet certainly put them on the map, so a lot of history behind her, okay its missing a lot but considering how i obtained her its a true bargain, its got everything i cant make and more, and under the floor the important mechanical stuff is the cleanest i hae seen, anyhow enjoy the pictures

[MLeavy737]

Looks great Phil!! looks like alot of fun working with the real stuff! hope to try that someday.. After my sim in finished of course Keep it up!

Mike Leavy

[matta757]

Phil,

This SERIOUSLY looks unbelievable. You have made my homemade makeshift 757 look woefully inadequate. I can't wait to see this thing come along. Thanks too for the PM about the panels, we'll be in touch my friend 

Regards,
Matt

[ivar hestnes]

Looks amazing buddy. Nothing beats the real thing.
Guess you will lock yourself in for the next few months now. No reason to go outside anymore. Just make sure you keep the fridge full of brew

[Nat Crea]

OK...do we all now agree we are a bit mental??? 

Nat

[Aerosim Solutions]

Good stuff Phil,
I have also had to 'schedule' time for rebuilding my own sim, every third customer on my list is "Gwyn"!! When that name comes up my sim gets a week otherwise it will just sit there untouched.
I'm making A320 flap and spoiler mechanisms at the moment for a member of 'the other team' lol!!! It's all good fun, looking forward to watching your sim go...

Cheers, Gwyn

[phil744]

OK...do we all now agree we are a bit mental??? 

Nat

Yup, in the words of Oscar Levant "There's a fine line between genius and insanity" I for one crossed that line many years ago

Will dig up some more info on my bird, it was in airliners mag so just ordered a back issue, going to email the airlines that operated her to see if they can share something also

Small issue has come about, Knobs, and getting hold of decent ones, I for one tried making my own years ago with good results but the whole process of casting with resins and stuff is something i cant be bothered with, messy affair and in some respects it can be a risk to your health, but its time to re visit the matter using a different approach, injection mold them, so after a brew and a scratch of ones head i set about designing and producing a moulding tool to produce a set of knobs,decided to start with the knobs found on the NAV1 radios and the most common type used on the 75, no particular reason but its a good place to start, so fired up the CNC, found a large block of aluminium and started to play.

First issue I came across is selecting what bit to use, the smallest radius found is 0.5mm, required a 1mm bit, that i didn't have so used a 1.25 bit, 3 flute, problem is the negative cavity for one of the molds is 24mm deep and obtaining a 1.25 bit that is fluted greater than 24mm is imposable, so ground down my own bit to suit, first cockup i made is that the taper i put on the bit was greater than the draft angle on one of the cavity, this caused the tool to clash 22mm down, but i never noticed until the job was done, this caused the bit to step away leaving a small step in the mold and leaving deep machine marks in the side walls of the cavity that were too deep to polish out, when i realised what happened i had allready removed the job from the CNC, obviously loosing its true zero position, but i thought i would continue and use this as a test and re make the tool later.

Knowing that i had made a mess of things i continued onto making the moving half of the tool, again i made a dogs breakfast of this also, but i tried out using a rotational sprue bush so i can select what knob i wanted to mold, 1,2 or all 4 if needs be, threw it on the machine and gave it a run on 2 of the 4, and to my supprise it ran spot on, shame the end result was not up to spec, but I'm gonna re do this one and others, and figure out how to over mold metal inserts into the knobs like the real things

But at first if you don't succeed have a brew and try again!

Anyhow, time to get my knob out (sorry just could not resist that) enjoy the pics

[matta757]

Hook me up! I desperately need those NAV knobs for my sim!

[astron]

Hey Phil, this is incredible,ive been wanting to get my hands on a 757 mip for a long time however they are not easy to come by.  is there any chance that you might be able to make a scale drawing of all the mip pieces? I know thats a tall order but i have a large waterjet machine that will cut aluminum very nicely,and it uses a (.dxf) format to cut with.  Or if it would be possible to make a full size scan of each part,i would gladly pay you for your effort. Im sure there are other people out there that would like to go with the 757,but finding real parts to get your measurements from is pretty rare.  I did find a 767 that a guy will lob the nose off of and also give me the internals,but were talking 40K usd.  you were a lucky guy to get your hands on this bird. any help would be appreciated.

Best regards,Tom

[Maurice]

I don't know if I should admire you or feel sorry for you. I guess it must be both because you are indeed an insane genius 

Maurice

[phil744]

Hey Phil, this is incredible,ive been wanting to get my hands on a 757 mip for a long time however they are not easy to come by.  is there any chance that you might be able to make a scale drawing of all the mip pieces? I know thats a tall order but i have a large waterjet machine that will cut aluminum very nicely,and it uses a (.dxf) format to cut with.  Or if it would be possible to make a full size scan of each part,i would gladly pay you for your effort. Im sure there are other people out there that would like to go with the 757,but finding real parts to get your measurements from is pretty rare.  I did find a 767 that a guy will lob the nose off of and also give me the internals,but were talking 40K usd.  you were a lucky guy to get your hands on this bird. any help would be appreciated.

Best regards,Tom

Hey Tom, funny you mention that I had another 767 builder in the shop last week who spent the day measuring the MIP up, i just sent him the panel drawings so it all fits, hes planning on doing the same, design his own and get it cut, once its done i will fire it over to you

[astron]

Phil, i would sure appreciate that,you can send that info to my email at tbtransmission@gmail.com     thanks again

regards,Tom

[phil744]

Okay just done something very silly, but never in my life did I ever think i would get my hands on one of these

Officially skint, but happy, looks like im walking to work for the next couple of weeks

[jskibo]

Way to go Phil

[ETomlin]

Whoa Phil! That's incredible. That's about as hard to find as LJ45 parts Im sure. Congrats.

[astron]

Hey Phil, be careful,or you might have to take out a second mortgage on the house,this is how it all starts,     and if you get a chance take some pics i would love to see the inside of that throttle box,just for the heck of it,   unbelievable find!!!

Tom

[phil744]

Hey Phil, be careful,or you might have to take out a second mortgage on the house,this is how it all starts,     and if you get a chance take some pics i would love to see the inside of that throttle box,just for the heck of it,   unbelievable find!!!

Tom

Heheheh, or just sell the house and live in the workshop, actually i do that anyway, hmm just noticed its 3:50am, i got work in 3 hours, bugger! u know what its like you get stuck into something and the hours just fly by.

Anyhow, report on this weekends mayhem..

Supprise letter from the PO saying "customs to pay", uh oh, this don't sound good, so off i went to the PO and i got there and found a huge heavy box with my name on , however £170 GBP import duty, ouch! not happy, gets on my wick paying VAT on something that's lets be honest, scrap metal! anyway rant over, big box of gauges, i was so happy, i got all these gauges over the past 7 months from "aircraft stock" over on eBay, brilliant people to deal with, i asked when i buy something do they mind keeping hold of it to combine shipping, they had no problems with this, so every month i purchased 1 gauge at a time and built up a little collection over the months, okay there not true 757 parts, ex DC-10 and L10-11 (i got a soft spot for both those 3 holers, will miss them when they have gone) but there are things even i cant get hold of, but a bit of work and i can mod them to match 757 ones, all part of the fun,

The ever increasing MIP




Also managed to design up and make the MIP light plate PCB boards, spent most of this weekend with soldering iron in hand, had a go the  annunciator LED conversion PCB to but ran out of time before i could assemble one, something for next week pending work don't send me of somewhere, the panels worked out quite well, did a dry fit first before i laminate the PCB to the panels them selves, there are a few tweaks and resistor changes to make to balance out the illumination spread but not bad for the first attempt, saying that I should be good at this now, and I made a set for me now needing to source the correct panel screws, normally i use M4 but as this is going back onto OEM stuff the threads are different size, so will have a look to see if i can match up the same parts if not replace the rivnuts for metric ones,

Now going to offer up the TQ and PED, turn workshop lights off and sit and admire with a brew (sack going to bed)

[jackpilot]

Phil,
Anyone of us , this side, will be delighted to send you Phillips scews/bolts /nuts.
Usually size 6, 8 or 10.
Rob or Scott  should know ....
TBC

[phil744]

Cheers Jack

[astron]

Man this is incredible,  im just curious though Phil, Whats the trick to getting the real guages to work in FS? how will you go about that.

Tom

[phil744]

Man this is incredible,  im just curious though Phil, Whats the trick to getting the real guages to work in FS? how will you go about that.

Tom

Be honest with you, I have absolutly no idea how to do that as of yet, problem is the more i think about things like that the more questions i come up with and it puts me off the entire build, so all  im doing now is basically gathering parts to build the deck then start interfacing the whole lot gauge by gauge, panel by panel,

A friend of mine who is also building a 767 managed to interface the lot using a mix of opencockpits, SOIC and leo's cards, this guy is a true insparation and a gentleman also, his site, http://b767sim.blogspot.com/

the backup plan is to use flight illution gauges and merge the FI and real together, expensive option though

Phil ( have not forgot those drawings BTW)

[Hessel Oosten]

Phil,

Due to a computer crash extremely late reaction.

In fact a superfluous reaction too, because it's al said before: ***FANTASTIC !***

But another reaon to write is, to thank you for all the information you deal with this community !

Hessel