The FM-2 Wildcat restoration project is approaching completion! The Air Zoo is a world-class, Smithsonian-affiliated aerospace and science museum, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Plan your visit: www.airzoo.org Merch: www.airzoostore.org
90%of paint work is prep. The painting is the easy part. Looks like this aircraft will turn out perfectly with all of the attention to detail. Excellent work. It is wonderful to see history being preserved.
Wow it's come so far, these guys doing the restoration are just doing a fantastic job. My Friends and I are looking forward to coming back to Michigan to see it again
I visited the ZOO last year. An AMAZING collection. I had the time, and wandered back to the restoration shop. Upon entering, I was greated by a docent. As I was about the only one there, we started talking. Eventualy, he welcomed me "behind the yellow ropes". I got to see and touch so much history. At one I point, I had the first stage engine of a Saturn V rocket engine hanging over my head...just looking up into the exhaust cone of that monster was worth the 14 hour trip.
Very nice appropriate comment he said that you can’t look at enough and you will find more things that need to be done. While I was a mechanic at a descent sized construction material supplier with a fleet of a dozen class b & a rigs, man gent decided to have “oil change service maintenance ” done elsewhere by a subcontractor, and have us only perform the major repairs. I tried to point out that during our service procedure we find more things wrong or about to go wrong to fix before they need major repairs.
I handled ac almost 30 yrs and was surprised how big these are in person. My granddad hauled a few of these on the Sargent Bay to the PIs. Not sure CVEs could handle F4s or F6s. Super nice job guys!
Paint it Plumb Crazy Purple with a Banana Yellow Lightning Stripe down the side. Chromed wheels & exhaust tips. The Starfighter looks awesome. This is going to be a very nice FM-2.
What was the WW2 process for painting on the production line. I would assume there would be minimal masking. Safety standards would have been a lot lower. Was there a separate paint shop & or even a booth adjacent to the line? Do any photos exist?
