Precious Metal Gear Door ?

[wingman]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Hi Sandy! I was around the pit a couple of times-- long enough to drink some of Tom's beer, see all of Ted's latest photos of his kids and share many memories of Race crews of the past. It was early in the week though -- I get real busy when Race days start happening, and don't get up into the pits much...

Ted told me the same thing about the wedding pictures. Unfortunately any such photos do not exist -- either in my memories nor in the Wingman archives. I'm afraid that Ted is mistaken on this question.

Neal

[Nobody]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

[QUOTE=Unlimited Fan;106285]

Some years ago he was camping out on the back of the course before the Races. He wandered off into the sagebrush to take a ...um... ...to commune with nature for a moment. He returned with a 4 foot piece of fiberglass, painted grey, with faded lettering spelling something like "Spiratron" or "Vibratron" or some such. This had fallen off #5 many years before, and many had looked very hard for it.

That was the large hunk of Bondo that came off of #5 when it was Gunther Balz' "Roto Finish" airplane. 1972 I think.

[Sparrow]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

It was a piece of fiberglass, bondo, silver paint & etc. probably a foot or so wide and around 4ft long. Dwight had it around the shop for ahwile after he and Bucky did some swapping of stuff.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Did the Precious Metal crew ever find their landing gear door?

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Nope whole new door at the dismay of the owners pocketbook.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Nope whole new door at the dismay of the owners pocketbook.

Was the replacement door an "New" door as in Old New Stock NOS, or was it a old used door from 50 years ago or was it a door made in the last few years?

Curious how much a new door cost and what the finders fee would be for the lost door? It's out there somewhere.

Was it narrowed down to a small area where it fell off or is it "somewhere around the course" lost?

[Thom Richard]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

As far as the crew and friends of PM know, the door has not been located. Chances are someone picked it up and it's hanging in someones garage or it's been recycled.

The finder's fee is $500. No questions asked.

The doors are virtually unobtainium. The one we bought was a rebuilt unit done by the MacDonald's brothers. If you have a few months and about $22K, Pioneer or Teeters can and will build one for you. It's very hard to put a price on a door. It's whatever anyone is willing to pay. We were offered a new set in a box for $100K, for example.

If we find the old door and the internal parts are OK, we should be able to build up a spare for about $10K.

[Leo]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Wow.
Having walked around out in Lemmon Valley last Sunday looking for something else, there are a lot of places to hide in plain sight. There is also a LOT of junk out in the desert, makes us look like pigs.
I tend to agree that someone has found it though and it is garage decoration.

[Apteryx]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

We were offered a new set in a box for $100K, for example.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Funny that was the look Thom and I had too!

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Let's say we are referring to a gear door shown on Precious Metal, page 3, posted by DesertDawg?

Is it the inside piece that closes up the wheel well when the gear is retracted that was lost?

It's the size of a hub cap on a car, correct?

Is it sheet metal on the outside and inside with a frame between the two layers of sheet metal with no motor or gears inside?

Why is a new unit worth $22,000? Why is it so expensive? A hood to a car, car door etc is only a few thousand dollars and 4 times larger.

How does Pioneer/Teeters build a new one? Do they have the blue prints or mold for this? How is it made? Is a flat piece of metal put inside a hydraulic press and shaped over a mold? Take the two pieces and attach them to an internal frame by welds, bolts and nuts, screws or rivets?

Why can't a specialist build some in carbon fiber for a lot less money and a lot less weight?

And for $100,000 you would be purchasing a complete set of landing gear, the 4 doors, motors, wheels etc?

By AerialGunner: "If we find the old door and the internal parts are OK, we should be able to build up a spare for about $10K."

I can't quite figure out what you are saying here. Are there moving parts inside the gear door? What would you spend $10,000 on?

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Wow.
Having walked around out in Lemmon Valley last Sunday looking for something else, there are a lot of places to hide in plain sight. There is also a LOT of junk out in the desert, makes us look like pigs.
I tend to agree that someone has found it though and it is garage decoration.

Is it legal to walk the course when the race is over or is this private property and you would be considered tresspassing and is there a perimeter cyclone type fence or barb wire cattle type fence around the whole course?

Calling humans "pigs" is making pigs look bad. Not fair to the pigs. Most animals are pretty clean. Some humans are slobs, litterbugs...

[51fixer]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Let's say we are referring to a gear door shown on Precious Metal, page 3, posted by DesertDawg?

Is it the inside piece that closes up the wheel well when the gear is retracted that was lost?

It's the size of a hub cap on a car, correct?

Is it sheet metal on the outside and inside with a frame between the two layers of sheet metal with no motor or gears inside?

Why is a new unit worth $22,000? Why is it so expensive? A hood to a car, car door etc is only a few thousand dollars and 4 times larger.

How does Pioneer/Teeters build a new one? Do they have the blue prints or mold for this? How is it made? Is a flat piece of metal put inside a hydraulic press and shaped over a mold? Take the two pieces and attach them to an internal frame by welds, bolts and nuts, screws or rivets?

Why can't a specialist build some in carbon fiber for a lot less money and a lot less weight?

And for $100,000 you would be purchasing a complete set of landing gear, the 4 doors, motors, wheels etc?

By AerialGunner: "If we find the old door and the internal parts are OK, we should be able to build up a spare for about $10K."

I can't quite figure out what you are saying here. Are there moving parts inside the gear door? What would you spend $10,000 on?

Welcome to Aviation. Supply and demand.
The gear door inner skin is a complex stamping full of complex curves. The entire assy has an offset bend built into it. The front edge contacts 1st and the hyd actuator is attached to the rear edge and further pulls the rear edge up. There are latches mounted to castings with a linkage on the inside. These lock the door after the gear retracted.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

One could argue and say "Welcome to Business 101." If there is a demand, and the prices are way too high for an overpriced piece of metal, some smart metal or carbon fiber fabricator is going to build one for half the cost.

Are these new doors each one hand made or does somebody have a master mold to mass produce them?

Welcome to Aviation. Supply and demand.
The gear door inner skin is a complex stamping full of complex curves. The entire assy has an offset bend built into it. The front edge contacts 1st and the hyd actuator is attached to the rear edge and further pulls the rear edge up. There are latches mounted to castings with a linkage on the inside. These lock the door after the gear retracted.

[Leo]

Re: Precious Metal Gear Door ?

Is it legal to walk the course when the race is over or is this private property

I think the course is mostly on airport property although they hold Autocross out there and there is a cart track. Never really tried to poke around there, not wanting to be in trouble, but have inadvertantly wandered onto the north end following roads.
The area we searched is public land.
Knowing that door cost, I can only imagine what even a minimal damage belly excursion would cost!