Tools, tools, tools

Steve,

email snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

He can let you know what kind of help he needs. The last I heard was they were looking for people to buy lots for resale or to auction themselves. I don't know too many specifics about that: I just get phone calls from Kim telling me what the latest finds are and asking me to post the availability.

John

I would suggest considering donating that particular gem to an aerospace museum which would be able to restore it and put it on display. This piece of history deserves to be out where people can appreciate it.

DO YOU NEED ANY HELP? I work on % basis, and have over 1,500 ebay sales, with 99.7 satisfaction. Piecing it out on ebay might be the best way to get the most money, but the longest and most labor intensive.

The P51 engine (if that's what it is) would be almost priceless. Heads or not.

Steve

IIRC, they used two different engines in the P51: Allison V-1710s in the early ones, and Rolls-Royce Merlins (mostly Packard-built) in the late ones.

The Merlin was far superior.

-- Ed Huntress

Ayep. And they're not sure which it is yet. They can see it, but not reach it for a good look. :)

I met a gentleman once who spoke of being mustered out of the service at the end of WWII and scheduled to be married in two weeks. Passing through Nevada on his way home he chanced across and purchased surplus for a total of $10,000 one P-51 Mustang and two spare engines, new in their shipping containers. It was nearly his total net worth at the time and his fiancée made him give them back.

David Merrill

Marriage could cost someone a lot of fortune indeed!

He may own the airplane, but damned if I can see how he could possibly reach the pedals...

Or, I think Tom Cruise owns a P51. Maybe he can use a spare in case his present one scientologically takes a crap.

That's a joke, son.

The museum would be a way for MANY people to enjoy the engine. I'm sure there's a body somewhere waiting for an engine.

Steve

He apparently keeps it in a large closet. I suppose he has to, it's a big thing to keep in a small closet.

Dude! SHE would have had to be the one to go. There's a lot of women out ther, but very few Mustangs.

Jim Chandler Mustang lover

At my father's funeral, January, 2002, two WW2 bombers and a P51 flew over. He was a flight engineer on bombers in the South Pacific. Yes, it would do good service in a flying specimen.

Steve

Almost every significant British plane in use in europe in WW2 was using the Merlin

Before i even start to research

the Merlin was used in Spitfires Hurricanes Lancasters Mosquitos Mustang P51B and later

Its easier to list the places it was not used in europe than list where it is used

I hope rolls royce still ahve the designs and patterns to an engine with that much historical significance

Someone here on this NG was making a scale replica a couple or three years ago. He had the castings made by a sophisticated aluminum casting company in Canada, IIRC. I wonder how his project ended up?

-- Ed Huntress

If i get good enough as an hsm to look at a project like that and call it anything less than crazy and impossible i'll consider myself to be able to do a pretty good job.

in the meantime i might look for old diesels and 1 cylinder engines to play with before i try digging into a racehorse piston engine like that. Let alone trying to scale the engine down whilst taking into account the "unshrinkables"

I don't remember who the guy was, but he sure sounded like he knew what he was doing, and he must have sunk a lot of money into it. I remember that he uploaded photos of the castings somewhere. Maybe it was to the Metalworking.com dropbox?

Anybody remember?

-- Ed Huntress

Aha! I found the 1/4-scale-model Merlin pix. Go to the dropbox (Metalworking.com), 2001_retired_files, and search on "Merlin."

It's an amazing piece of work, by Tom Kay. There is a text file that explains the project.

-- Ed Huntress