Upholstery and Radiator Completion

Kind of a short post tonight.  Still been busy with Kelch Museum airplanes and will probably continue for the next couple of weeks.  I got the Curtiss 12W annualed and flown last week - everything went fine.  Got Mike Williams '28 Stearman C3B annualed, and now ready to start on the Kelch C3B.  Heading up this Friday to get going on that.

Good news, though, the L-P is ready for cover!  I've actually been stalling a little bit.  Our airport (Ogle Co. Airport in Mt. Morris, IL) has its large fly-in on July 4th.  A lot of folks will be stopping by to see the progress so I wanted to leave the engine on until after that.

I finished the cockpit upholstery.  Here are pics of that...

Right side - front

Outside of right side

Left side - front

Outside of left side

As I mentioned in the last post, the top edge will be secured after the fabric is installed.  The rest is all laced in.

And, I got the radiator painted and assembled.  Here you'll get your first look at the trim color of the airplane.  I had plenty of the original sheet metal with the correct color red to match.  It's a deep red, much darker than insignia red.  The airplane is painted silver overall with this red trim.  Photographs of the airplane showed that the radiator covers and shutters were also painted red.

So, sometime after the 4th, I'll be pulling the engine and prepping the fuselage for cover.  The airplane will be done in Ceconite and Randolph dope.  I've covered airplanes with every system out there (except water-base) and the Ceconite/dope is what I like best.  It's forgiving, easy to spray and maintain, and most importantly - looks correct on antique airplanes!

It may be a little bit longer than normal on the next post, so hang in there.  Hope everyone has a nice 4th!