Tony has landed! New warbird project in NZ

[KiwiZac]

Hey everyone,
Very exciting warbird news in New Zealand today: Jerry Yagen's Ki61 Hien project has arrived at Avspecs for restoration to fly:


This place is less than 5hr drive from me so you can bet I'll be there for the maiden if I can! This project has been in the pipeline for a while and it's wonderful to see images of it in NZ. It'll head off to Jerry's big Military Aircraft Museum collection at Virginia Beach (he also has a Mosquito and a couple of P-40s that were restored here) so US-based forumites will get to see it in a few years. I wouldn't be surprised if it was completed in time for one of the Easter airshows and then shipped home right afterward.

Awesome. This made my day.

[Captain Canada]

That is cool. Looks like it still needs a lot of work tho

[NARSES2]

Be good to see in the air with someone's Corsair or P.51 

Why is NZ the go to place for a lot of these renovations ?

[KiwiZac]

A lot of work! A company in Australia had been working on a couple of projects (someone at another forum said he saw enough for 2.5 Hiens in these pics! One is for Kermit Weeks) but there were various issues with the company which saw them shelved until very recently. However some work had been done around a decade ago, hence the looking-rather-nice fuse.

Why is NZ the go to place for a lot of these renovations ?

Many have asked, no-one seems to know the answer. Since the late 1990s we've developed one hell of a reputation for it, several projects from this company in particular have won Grand Champion and Golden Wrench awards at Oshkosh (Rod Lewis' P-40C and Jerry Yagen's Mosquito FB.26 to name two recent ones). A sister company across the airfield (Pioneer Aero Restorations) is doing a P-39 and Vought Kingfisher for Jerry too and has worked on the Pearl Harbor Kate, but has become known around the globe as a P-40 specialist. Add into the mix Sir Peter Jackson's WW1-focused The Vintage Aviator Limited and we have a great little industry going on. Makes for some exciting airshow lineups!

[zenrat]

Is the world of restored warbirds as pedantic and fussy as the world of concours car restorations?

[NARSES2]

Many have asked, no-one seems to know the answer. Since the late 1990s we've developed one hell of a reputation for it,

And once you have a reputation for good work then you get more work especially in what is still an esoteric field. As you say great for NZ enthusiasts, just wish we had more in the UK. Shuttleworth is great for the early stuff but it would be nice to see a more diverse collection of WWII types.

Wherever you are in the world it's still fantastic to see it going on and long may it continue 

[KiwiZac]

Is the world of restored warbirds as pedantic and fussy as the world of concours car restorations?

I have no experience of the car stuff so I couldn't say! But there is sometimes debate as to silly things like the interior colour on P-51D doors....

[PR19_Kit]

Some of the classic car people go to ridiculous lengths to keep their vehicles 'authentic', like having totally new parts re-manufactured when the entire world's stock of original parts have long gone.

Of course that means that such activities can only be carried out by the mega-rich, proving their exclusivity to us mere mortals....... 

[Cynic mode off]

There's one member in a club of which I'm the President, who's car has been off the road for 2-3 years now because it's lacking a steering arm. He could use one from what he considers a 'lesser vehicle' which is EXACTLY the same part but which is painted a different colour, but he won't do it because it wouldn't be 'authentic'.

My brain hurts sometimes...............

[zenrat]

In the world of muscle car restorations a remanufactured item wouldn't be acceptable.  When I stopped buying the magazines because of the effect they were having my blood pressure the latest way of increasing restoration cost ensuring originality was to insist any replacement parts were correctly date coded.  This means that if you fitted a new drive shaft for example, a part which may have been used in identical form over a number of years it wasn't good enough to find one with the correct part number, you had to find one that was made as near as possible to the time when the car was built.  It doesn't matter that one from the first year the car was made was identical in every way to one from the last year, it wouldn't be "right" unless it might actually have been fitted to the car when it was built.
A top quality restoration will cost a fortune, will be built to a much higher standard than was ever done on the production line (many hours will have been put into making the panel gaps perfect for example) and will be too precious to actually drive.  They even go to the extent of reproducing the chalk marks the various quality inspectors put on the cars as they came down the production line.

[PR19_Kit]

Good luck to the judges on checking the dates on a gearbox layshaft then...... 

[NARSES2]

Some of the classic car people go to ridiculous lengths to keep their vehicles 'authentic', like having totally new parts re-manufactured when the entire world's stock of original parts have long gone.

But then that's not authentic ? The vehicle thus becomes a "part replica" ? Bet you could start a few arguments with that viewpoint 

[zenrat]

Good luck to the judges on checking the dates on a gearbox layshaft then...... 

It's all recorded in the paperwork and is done not for show judges but for the bragging rights of the owner.
"Look what I spent.  Look at the lengths I went to.  Look how much 'better' that makes my car than yours".
And of course the cars that are worth most are those with the most and the least.  The biggest baddest engine with no AC, no power steering, no heater, radio delete...