News
Work on our GMC CCKW 353 is still ongoing. Since our “Jimmy” stood motionless for a very long time, it was necessary to replace all the components of the brake system. So now it has new wiring, brake linings, but also brake fluid. Next in line will be the ride.
When renovating a historic airplane, it’s important to have everything in order. As for the German German plane, it is doubly important. 🙂 Tomorrow we will have an important milestone, we will begin to dismantle the heart of our Messerschmitt, the Argus As 10C engine. As you can see, each individual component has its place ready. Wish us luck.
It was only a few hours of work, but the result made us happy. Our Piper has served a wide range of users, US ARMY AIR FORCE, several civilian users in France and Belgium, and is now with us. In the following photos, you can see the gradual removal of color layers.
After we tested that our engine was running, we started to disassemble everything. We drained the fuel tank and found that it was in perfect condition, without any corrosion. All she had to do was rinse. Then the more demanding work began, it was necessary to disassemble, clean and reassemble the carburetor, fuel pump and gasoline filter. The exhaust pipe has a crack, so welding and straightening await us. After years of standing, we cleaned the body of the car.
Today we launched our GMC CCKW 353B, great news for us. According to the records we have, the last major service took place in the service center of the Norwegian Army in 1981. The last ride was in 1985, when it was obtained from the army by the owner from whom we bought the car. First it was necessary to change the oil, which was really bad, clean the oil filter, spark plugs, play around with the carburetor and add operating fluids. Today we took the fuel from the canister and connected a new battery. But GMC started on the first try. Amazing car. Today, only five cylinders in the engine were running, but the boys say that soon it will be all six again.
Attention, the video is with sound!