Official C3 X-Wing Restoration Project Planning Thread

I have a couple of old aluminum Oxygen tanks that look like they might be the same diameter as the brocken laser cannon sheilds.

 

Zoo, right after we left on Sat. I remembered my R2 could of supplied AC power to open up the canopy. Drat!

 

Oh well... I have to meet with Matt this week to get them to relax a bit (and hopefully move the girl to another part of the musuem where we can actually work on her), so I'll grab it then and have DM get it to you.

I'm hoping to get a work day scheduled soon, so if you or DM or COS can find out which MG member was the welder who helped out last time, that would help a ton... Not much we can do until she's been stabilized.

 

The welder was a workmate of mine who has moved on. So we need to find another qualified welder (preferably who will donate their time instead of charging us). I have no problem buying rods for the museum's welder if we can use it again like we did last time.

It'll need to be rolled outside to be welded (fire hazard) or done in the other building (as looking at the arc can burn your retinas).

Once the welding is completed, we can put her together. Until then, she could hurt somebody. Hopefully we can find a welder before this weekend.

 

The guy who does the Spawn costumes is a welder I believe


I can talk to him this week if you want

 

That would be great, Becca. It's the only thing keeping us from being able to put her together right now.

 

I thought the second guy we had welding was an MGer? Oh well, just shows how well my mind works

Anyway... I have been telling everyone that until we get the stability issues fixed, she won't be put together. So, as soon as someone has a welder lined, please holler out

 

You'd be right, Zoo. It's the only thing I'm worried about - once she's welded, we can go about all the other cool stuff knowing she won't fall apart and hurt someone.

 

So much work to do, in the meantime we should be looking for some/thing/one/company to help with the financing end of this. Those wings, the engine pods, etc. will all cost $$$$$ and this group doesn't have endless funds & for a set few to always dish it out is no acceptable to me, but on the other hand I don't have a ton of time to go begging for $$$$$, so.....

Just some thoughts that I had time to type up, but I would love to help in anyway, maybe we can do a press release????? Let's brain storm, k?

 

You might speak with Chico about welding. I think he does, but don't quote me on that. I'll try and get a hold of him this week and let him know you're looking for a welder. I should be seeing him this weekend.

 

Well I can give him a ride if he does weld. They have all the equipment there - just no welder.

 

SOOO...UHHHH...

Lucasfilms...of all places...dosn't have money to dump into their museum piece that they had on tour?

 

I guess not. Thats what a few people thought. Somebody mentioned it at the meeting.

But I'm still curious about that.


What happened in the past? Did someone ask for money and got turned down? Why? Who asked? Who said "no"? How long ago did that happen?
Is it worth trying again? (I think it might be.)

Does WOTR invest money into any of their other planes?

 

We were offered to do the original fix ups for a budget of $300 from Mary Franklin, Sansweet dept. I'm not positive, but we didn't take the money but turned in receipt to show we were serious about caring for it.
The museum doesn't have the money, they can't even pay the electric bill (from what I hear?).
When R2 took a dump and someone was to repair R2 because of all the work we did & whoever it was said LFL didn't have the money to invest in R2, again, this is what I think I've heard.

So the answer would be, no-one has money to get her back in shape and if we want the honor of doing this, then the responsibility is ours.

 

Pretty much what she said

 

Minor corrections to the above statements.

Mary Franklin has repeatedly stated that LFL is willing to reimburse us for materials. All I have to do is submit the receipts to her. They won't front the money, just reimburse us after the fact. So please consider this a non-issue.

The only reason people think LFL won't is because we, as a group, decided NOT to submit them in the past. LFL has been more than gracious comping our C3 tix and getting us up close and personal with the stars. The fact that the C3 reimbursement went so slow was GenCon's fault - they screwed the 501st too.

Don Bies and the Droid team at ILM were going to try and fix R2 but I think they were too busy with the movie release promos at the time and they backed out. I don't know if he'd still be interested in helping...

I've never asked the museum for a dime, nor will I start. There's no need - I replace everything we've used in the past (and broken) and get them even more than we used.

I really don't think fixing her up will cost as much as it has in the past, but we could ask for donations from the fans in the 501st, Rebel Legion, and FanForce and do the whole certificate thing (not ownership but more of a thanks deal). In return, we'd add their names to a list of contributors/sponsors displayed with the bird.

So no worries about money yet - I haven't asked and if I do, my plan is posted above.

 

All Hail the Gooberhead!!!

Matthew at the museum has secured a welder for us. Has his own equipment, is a professional in the aerospace industry, and will work for free! Can't get better than that!

Only drawback is that he won't be available until Mid March, so, I vote we wait for him.

 

Well I'll gladly pay for the welding rods and materials. I know Matthew hates waiting, but it'll be worth it. Just a few more weeks...

 

Actually... His vote was for waiting as well

Hey COS, can you shoot me the laundry list of repairs before she can go back on display. I'm meeting with Matthew next Thursday afternoon about scheduling and such, and wanted to make sure he knew what was our plate... I only have a vague idea of some of the stuff you and hyperdyne have going. BB is working on getting the other signatures preserved and will be ready to re-paint the tail section and anything that needs it after repairs are done

 

I posted most of them on the last page, but I'll re-compile the list and post it tonight (mostly forgot to add R2 repair stuff).

The list is mostly cosmetic after the welding and fuselage shoring-up.

We do have to watch the fact that quite a few volunteers wanted their pre-teen kids to assist. Personally, there's not much that I feel a 7-9 year old can work on and I'd never want to take the liability of them getting hurt.

 

we should make him a pilot costume with the call sign "Gooberhead" painted on the helmet.


I am willing to make and donate the materials for the flack vest for that......

and depending on financing, the orange jump suit too...

 

Yeah, it might be better to take R2 back home with me for repair and rewiring work. I am going to donate a new robust dome rotation board that I developed after the xwing left. We will get that installed with new dome electronics if needed.

I was told the sound board works, so hopefully just some rewiring and getting everything back inside is the major issue with the sound stuff.

 

Hey Jim... I was told by Shawn that everything except for one of the LED displays works. The dome rotation motor had slipped down, but he shimmed it temporarily.

Please hold on to all your receipts so we can get you reimbursed - even to include invoicing HyperdyneLabs.com

 

I think Shawn said something about putting in some other magnets as well.

I'm going to head over there tomorrow to get it plugged in and get the R2 out... I figure DM can swing by after work sometime this week to pick it up for you, HD

 

Cool, sounds good zoo! That is great that there are new magnets too. Problem is the glass mag switches on R2's body are shattered. The C3 moving monkeys destroyed most of it.

Kev, that is great to hear. I can check out the circuit, hopefully its just some wire rework. I figured it would be a good time to redo some stuff too. I mean at C3 I had to do some commando wiring to fix the motor and all - it was ugly!