Messerschmitt Bf-108 - Restoration Update #01 A - March 2018

all right we are all set so it's week's aircraft and we are gonna talk about our future project that we pulled into the shop here this week and that is the Messerschmitt 108 we just basically finished the cooper-young meister we're doing some work on our Stieglitz off with 44 and so we decided to kind of carry on with the German theme and hopefully do a nice restoration on our Messerschmitt 108 and if you're not familiar with the airplane give it a little bit history of the 108 in general a lot of people familiar with the Messerschmitt 109 which of course was the firm famous German fighter for war 2 but the 108 of course came before that and it is a Willy Messerschmitt design but it was actually built by the Bavarian aircraft factory this is actually before Messerschmitt wasn't Messerschmitt even though it was actually run by Willy Messerschmitt and basically they design this airplane not as a military aircraft it was designed as a sport airplane or touring aircraft there's actually a four-seat airplane and basically like Kani in the equivalence of says no or Bonanza nowadays and so they built and designed this wonderful airplane actually 1935 was this airplane went into production and it was a very advanced airplane for his timeframe because it was all-metal construction although it does have fabric covered control services but the rest of the structure is completely all metal it has a Argus 240 horsepower engine which is also used in the fuse of Storch and and some other German aircraft very reliable very very good engine that we've had a lot of luck with and it also came with a three different variations of propeller either a fixed wooden propeller which wasn't on it right now a variable pitch which was actually controlled by little hand crank inside or an air driven controlled the prop I had a little kind of a weird little spinner on the front of it that actually drove a controller that control the pitch at the propeller when we finish this every time we're gonna go with with the hand adjustable in the inside the airplane the basic construction is all-metal very sleek design I think this thing cruises our top speed is like around 200 miles an hour which is which is pretty amazing and the aircraft set all kinds of records at one Air Races during the war and it was just it was just hailed all over the place it's just a very advanced airplane for its - its timeframe then of course as it got closer to lure to getting into high gear one awaits were pressed into service as liaison airplanes in fact some of them were built strictly as military airplanes but our particular aircraft was built as a civilian airplane and it was built in Germany in 1938 and I point that out because this airplane was built in a variety places they started out building their plane in Germany production was then moved into France during the war and they continued to build the aircraft there then after the war was over the French thought it was such a wonderful design that they continue to build the airplane but of course they ran out of Argos engines so they had the rien Genet with a Renault French engine and then they went on to do some other changes to it is actually a nose wheel version of the airplane which at that point it doesn't get very attractive it gets a little bit ugly at that point but the true 108 that everybody likes and a more valuable or their airplanes that are built in Germany and then this air particular airplane was built at that point now interesting it's an interesting history on it built in 38 the asura plane actually ended up in South America actually in Chile and we're not sure how it got there or when it got there but there of course there was a large German population in Chile at the time before and after the war so somebody at some point imported the airplane into South America and at that time the logbook starts it at 1942 now it had time on a prior to that had 350 hours prior to 1942 so we don't know if that time was flown in South America or was flown in Germany who was eventually purchased by a gentleman named Otto wise WEEI s and he flew the airplane for a number of years flew from 1942 to 1958 and the airplane has approximately eight hundred and fifty six hours on the airframe from what the logbooks show us a very complete log but that has a lot of great information eventually at some point we don't really know how but there was a gentleman from the United States by the name of David Schneider who lived in Miami has anybody after that knows somebody about this person or has a family member he would like to actually talk to somebody that get some more information he found out about the airplane and he went to South America and he purchased the aircraft from auto and he imported the airplane into the United States and this was 1982 unfortunately after only having her plan for a little while not even a year he passed away and the family had the airplane they lost interest in your plane because it was kind of David's dream I guess to build the airplane so their plane went up for sale and they placed an ad in trade a plane and that's work Kermit saw the airplane and this is way back and he purchased the airplane from the Snyder family and we've had it in storage ever since it was down in Miami we transported up to this facility was across the street for a number of years and every time I would go across the street and storage and look at the airplane I would just just drool over the airplane because it's just a fascinating little airplane and what's really fascinating about this aircraft is that it is an 80 years old 1938 it's 2018 now 80 year old airplane and the originality of this airplane is just astonishing a lot of these airplanes as time progresses especially Goulburn a year period there have been multiple changes to the airplanes damage modifications all kinds of strange things we've seen two airplanes that have been done these projects but this airplane has survived basically untouched there are a few modifications which we're going to talk about that we're done but mate other than that though it still retains like a hundred percent of its originality which is just fascinating to look at and it's actually a little bit sad because we're going to look at the airplane you're going to see how it survived on how original it is and it's it's great that's that way but then of course to restore this airplane to make it fly and make it safe we have to tear the entire plane apart and do a full restoration which we're excited about but on the flip side it's a little sad because this is the last time you will see the airplane to look this way and it has all this great patina on it it's not the original paint it's been painted over two or three times but still it's it's it's that's almost a shame that you can't just leave it like this and and and display but if you did that of course you couldn't fly because it's unsafe the way it is the paint's falling off of it control services need recovered engineer's overhauled all the wiring is bad an airplane Plexiglas is all bad but it's just a great opportunity to look at interplay n-- unrestored and a lot of airplanes we get don't look like this a good example that is the Stenson L one it was it was actually a pleasure to tear that airplane apart because there was so many modifications and was so unoriginal it didn't really matter but this airplane is a little bit different that so we're gonna be very careful when we take their plan apart we're gonna document everything very carefully so we make sure that we put it back together correctly and make course make everybody happy and make Herman happy and of course make the Germans happy because they look at this airplane of course is a part of their history we don't want to do anything to modify their plan to make it to American or to English so we're gonna keep real authentic to the design and the original ality of the airplane alright so we're gonna start talking about some details about this airplane and a lot of people ask us when we're doing a restoration well where do you start what do you do what's kind of the starting point of the airplane what I like to do is I like to kind of do an evaluation of the airplane kind of take an overall look of it and that kind of gives us a better idea I'm gonna plane as it going forward on your plane so that's actually what we're gonna do we're gonna walk through and kind of show you not only some cool things about the airplane but also some concerns and some planes we have for the restoration of course starting at the front we have the Argos engine now this is the original engine that came with the aircraft it does still rotate what's interesting it's an electric start airplane but it's also if your battery with that in the tensed started differently it's actually a hand crank start and has a starter that goes in here and you just turn it and you can see it turns to prop and the same time the little clicking noise you hear is a little impulse coupling in the bags which it gets it going so pretty neat that the original handles with the airplane that out that all still works this particular engine though since we don't know the history of it we're probably going to replace it Kermit when you bought the feast or Storch if we've had in a collection for many years which is also our Gaspard the same people that built that airplane did the restoration is actually overhauled the engine and Herman actually had them overhaul another engine and we'll show you that a little bit later and that's the engine probably gonna put on this airplane just so to save us a little bit of time also you'll notice that the cowling is off to your point the original cowling most of it was actually made of magnesium skins a lot of germs like to use a lot of magnesium with some of their skins the cowling was in pretty poor condition but we got very fortunate there was somebody in England that was looking to convert a 1:08 from a Renault powered airplane to an Argus and they didn't have a cowling hermits coming was a good pattern and we sent that to them and in return for them sending it as a pattern Kermit said that's fine but you had to make us a whole new cowling and so we actually have a completely manufacturer coming which will show you a little bit later but that's why the cowling was also we're excited about that it's going to save us a lot of it a lot of time also the propeller the velvet it's on ER right now is the fixed pitch wooden this airplane had the adjustable variable pitch but has a controller inside for that the airplane came at that propeller it was also in bad shape but then again there was somebody in Germany that was trying to recreate that prop they didn't have anything to go by Kerma sent that prop to a company called MT propellers they use that prop as a prototype or a guide to make new props and in return they built him a new problem so we have overhauled engine we have a new cowling and we have a brand new overall prop so again save us a lot of time it's gonna be great it's gonna have to don't have to do a lot of research it's gonna speed up things as we kind of move towards a fuselage of the airplane you'll see that the airplane is Plexiglas covering and amazingly enough I actually found a Plexiglas company in Pennsylvania I'm not quite sure why they had the moles but they actually had the molds to make new Plexiglas they must have produced her for somebody at some point find out about the company contact them and they made us a whole new set of glass with airplane again I think it's gonna save us a lot of time so that's all gonna come off and get redone it's a little sliding windows on it but the coolest thing every one of the coolest features of this airplane is how you get in it it has two big clamshell doors that open up there's a little latch here and these doors just fold all the way back and it hit a little rubber bumper here and that's access to the airplane it's just it's just beautiful the other side does the same thing and it's just easy to get in and out very unique to the airplane it still retains its original sun shades it's just amazing the actually would see that we can't reuse them but there some of them are torn but they're gonna be a good pattern to use when we make new ones the rope on the door here is when you're sitting in the airplane you can grab ahold of door and open and close it without slamming against the side of the fuselage again original all intact on the airplane the interior of the airplane like I said it's a four place aircraft extremely comfortable leather seats it's like the sports car of the sky this is the second combination of an airplane in a sports car the seats are in pretty rough shape and leather is torn they actually have feather filling inside when the feathers are all flying out of them so of course the Seas will come out and when those we'll find a good upholstery shop that does that kind of work and send all that and get inside the airplane it retains most of its original instruments although there are a few changes in there because of course it's airplane flew in South America so there are a few instruments that were labeled in Spanish so it could be flown legal there I'm sure it was a requirement at the time but basically the instrument panel is untouched it's got a couple of American instruments in it and I'm quite sure why those were added but other than that again untouched airplane you don't see that very often the floor inside the airplane all the electrics are still in all the plumbing still in it's a good guide to go by and all the carpeting is in the airplane it has a full set of carpeting it's all there now it's all pretty in rough shape but it's all there for us to use as a pattern is sent to a company that can reproduce that so that again is also amazing one of the most interesting facts not only the way the doors open it but it's the landing gear on the airplane it's a retractable gear aircraft but it's not hydraulic it is mechanical it has a ratcheting handle in between the two seats and you actually flip a switch up or down and you run this handle back and forth and it actually brings the gear up and down no hydraulics the only thing a hydraulic and airplane are the brakes flaps are also mechanical so real simple nothing to break easier plan to work on so of course the plan for this part is to remove all this change the Plexiglas have the seats redone instruments will come out sent out for overhaul some of this worked as far as parts and some of the internal for all a few other things we may actually have to send to Germany work with a guy named Dirk Bend if you're watching Dirk thanks to Rolly hope he's actually helped with some other projects that were doing here and he's a good source for information for parts because a lot of it is hard to find in the United States because it is a foreign airplane it is all metric and all the hardware in the airplane is metric but that's easily obtainable that's not too much of an issue most of the hardware that's in it is actually probably reusable after we replayed it have we moved back to the airplane and you see with the wings attached right here another interesting feature of the 108 of the civilian 108 or is that the wings fold after you're done flying it you don't have large hangar to store this and you actually pull a little lever and undoes it Sue's two little pins I'll Walker right here you pull the wing out a little bit and rotates right here and you can fold the wing up against the side of the fuselage so not only is it small in general but you can actually if you don't have a lot of room to store you can actually roll this thing inside of your garage and store the airplane there so again another interesting fact it still it retains a lot of its German stenciling I think this has to do with folding the wings and some of its got cleaning over here but that is all pretty much an attack will be able to take photographs that and measure all that so we can produce all that back onto the airplane as we move further back you'll see against some of the fairies on it and magnesium skins back here which in this case they're actually in very good condition so we're very lucky there and then back to the baggage compartment I'll here is where they made a modifications of the airplane which is unfortunate that it did this but the stead of the measurement 108 doesn't have a lot of fuel it doesn't hold that much fuel it has five tanks I forget what the total capacity is at this time so whoever owned this airplane they were trying to get some more range out of it so in the baggage compartment they added a fuel tank severe foot laughs Ernest it's probably about 70 gallons there which would give you a look quite a bit more range there but unfortunately when they did this modification they drilled into the floor of the luggage compartment it did a couple of things that are you know it's not very neat so that's gonna come out and get put back original and we might have to actually rebuild the floor because the floor is pretty chewed oh there's a big hole board in the bottom of the floor and other things is they move the battery into the baggage compartment which is also very strange because they don't like don't only they put a fuel tank in the baggage room they put the battery in the baggage car which is not the safest thing to do and when they did that of course they drilled more holes and pulled the cables up into there and stuck it in there and of course it reduces the storage of the back department with all that so that's all gonna have to come out and put be put back originally one of the other concerns we have on the airplane are the skins this area right here has somebody must have been leaning up against this at some point that you can see this areas right here somebody did a little reinforcement repair behind that unfortunately you can't just repair this sex you can't just replace the skin the 1:08 is like the Messerschmitt 109 and that the skin is part of the structure of the former of them and the bulkhead in here was all stamped or stretched formed at the same time so this whole piece of skin goes from the center all around to here and to remake that piece would be pretty involved they've done that for the 109 but it's extremely classy and nobody's done it for the 108 so any damage here you might actually just have to do a repair to deal with that right there he'll take accesses through this hole right here this hole right here is a little plug for a PU if you need to stick your batteries didn't even stick in a now plug in there for external power and then again going back to the tail you see all the overlapping scans all fluffs riveted that's what made us are playing so fast then you can see the old the old chili of markings on it see CPW a which is the original registration for that's in the logbooks there were also two other registrations for the airplane in South America so I believe somebody else on the airplane prior to auto owning your point then going back a little bit further you'll see all pretty much a good condition but right here on both sides is that there's a hole and they're supposed to be a hole here because that's where the strut goes to support the horizontal stabilizer but for some reason this all got tore out on both sides now the good thing there is that this skin here probably can be replaced it's not one of these special skins up here we think we can just true us off and reproduce this piece and put it back the way it was the tail vertical horizontal stabilizer here is adjustable it had a control wheel in the cockpit that you can actually adjust the angle and the rudder is convention along with the vertical fin which are also in very good shape one of the things we're trying to determine on this airplane is how it might have been painted originally these airplanes especially civilian were painted either in three different colors they were either like a blue a cream color or a grey and of course this earth plane appears cream somebody had painted it over in South America but there are remnants of this lighter cream color which we're not sure if that's original we thought maybe that was initially but then as we sort of looking closer then there's all these little areas of this blue color which I believe is our LM 47 as a German I think it's a German colour we're not sure if that was the original colour of the airplane when it came from the factory or if it was something that was applied in South America and there's also some yellow on the airplane on the wings and we're trying to scrape away the painter carefully in a few areas to see what that's going to produce but again we're trying to find some history of the airplane and we don't want to just dive into and just rip all the paint off of it and hope that you know we find all the information we have to do this very carefully now what's interesting is every time I went across the street to look at the airplane the paint was falling off of it very slowly and I think I would have left they were playing across the street for another five years they would have stripped itself it would just piles of pay underneath the airplane and also inside they were playing to the paint's flaking away so of course it should be a fairly easy airplane to to strip because I could said most of the planes and paint is just falling off the aircraft so again there's the fuselage in very good shape couple concerns we have here and there but nothing that we don't think we can take care of and the next thing we're going to go on to is to show you the wings [Music]

Channel: Kermit Weeks Channel - Over 380 Videos to See!

Views: 294,020

Keywords: Kermit Weeks, Fantasy of Flight, Messerschmitt Bf-108, Mechanic's Corner, FoF Mechanic's Corner, Messerschmitt 109, German Aircraft, Airplane Restoration, Paul Stecewycz

Id: nYwoBGIMukA

Length: 21min 21sec (1281 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018