Restoration snag on my Mustang

That’s a common issue with those, clean it up really good and glue it back together with liquid styrene cement, available at most hobby shops, get both sides really soft, and let it set overnight, carefully drill out possible glue clog, warm up vinyl tubing prior to installation.
The slickest fix is to used a small muffler pressure tap and drill it out and screw it in, or like you're saying a piece of tubing with JB weld.

Be prepared to do a lot more repairs to it after it likely crashes. If it's really nice you might consider selling it and by a couple balsa kits instead...balsa flys better, not as cool, but does fly better!

I have some styrene liquid cement on hand and that is the first method I'll try. I've used it before for other plastic repairs and seemed to work fine. I like the idea of the pressure fitting which will be the second solution if the cement doesn't work. I'll be getting a few balsa kits anyway without having to sell my Cox stuff. I had two kits back in the early/mid senenties and they did fly much better. Very nimble with less control input than the plastic planes. I'm resurrecting a Wanderer I built 30 years ago that I'm going to put my Golden Bee on for power assist, and I'm finishing up my Autogyro. Just waiting for some servos I ordered. After those two, I'll get some CL kits. If I fly the Mustang it will be just once over medium high grass, just to do it. I have a PT 19 that I will probably fly instead of the other three I have. I've got a complete spare 19 sans the engine pod/landing gear unit, which sooner or later I will come across.

good call on the grass, lol! a piece of carpet or cardboard helps with takeoffs.

Yeah, I really don't want to mess it up. You can spend a small fortune in spare parts planes while with balsa you can refabricate what you need with not too much difficulty. Except for the minor repair of the tank, the 51 is in exceptional shape. It looks as though it was flown over grass maybe three times and a moderate cleanup afterwards and then stored for 40 years. I tore the engine down and the only thing after a good cleaning that it needs is a glow head and fuel line. It's possible that after the glow head burned out, the owner didn't want to mess with it. That's how some of my friends aquired lightly used Cox planes for cheap in the old days- some people didn't have the know-how to want to mess with them so they got disinterested and sold them for fives bucks.

also check bellcrank post for cracks, along with engine mounting post on fuselage a major stress point if crashed. most commmon repair areas

I used my liquid styrene cement yesterday and seemed to do the trick. Held the fuse upright this morning and carefully reamed hole with a small pin vise, allowing any particle to be removed downward with the bit. I gave it moderate pressure side to side with my thumb to make sure that the fitting stayed in place and it looks good. Motor is all back together and waiting now on a decal set.

After getting sidetracked with completing my Autogyro, I finally got the P 51 finished. The styrene glue repair did not hold up so i tried the pressure fitting option and it works fine. I ended up putting that fuselage away for a rainy day because I had purchased another 1971 D model that came with an entire extra excellent condition fuselage assembly with tank fitting intact and not fatigued by old hardened fuel line. The complete 51 is in the same condition. So now I'm cleaning that one up and now I'll have two operational D models plus an extra fuse. I've since then purchased a Thompson Trophy. This was the last Cox plane I owned when I was in my early teens, so I had to have it. As soon as I figure how to post photos I'll get some up. I also picked up a P 40 that I'm currently cleaning up and restoring, so now I'm up to eight planes, two Corsairs, two D model Mustangs, two PT 19's, a P 39 Airacobra, and a P 40. I'm stopping right there (for now ) until I build a balsa 1/2A now that I'm done with the Scout Autogyro.

[left]

I figured since I was fooling with the camera, I would finally get up a pic of the completed Cox Mustang resto.

Wow, it looks just like it did 40 years ago. That was the first plane I ever bought, never having even seen anyone fly a model plane before. When I got it home I couldn't get it to crank, and neither could my Dad. I'm sure I could crank it today. But Dad took it back and exchanged it for a black Stuka. That was a beauty too, but it turned out to be a bad idea for a kid that didn't know how to fly.

I have a second Mustang like this one and I recently started it up in my garage. It was stubborn also, but I found out that I had to open up the needle valve 4 1/2 turns to get it to crank over with plenty of priming being done. After getting it dialed in, it ran at top rpm at about 3 1/2 turns from closed position. Actually, my first Cox plane was the Stuka, which I got on Xmas day 1969. My first flight the following spring resulted in a crash. Not exactly the trainer type.

That is a nice Mustang, looks like you got a red Corsair also.

bottomgun wrote:... Actually, my first Cox plane was the Stuka, which I got on Xmas day 1969. My first flight the following spring resulted in a crash. Not exactly the trainer type.

My Dad was a master gluer, so he kept it together for a few one flight weekends, but I slagged it on every flight. Straight up and straight down. He finally came home one day with a PT 19. I crashed it too, but the rubber bands were my savior, and I finally learned how to fly out a full tank.

crankbndr wrote:That is a nice Mustang, looks like you got a red Corsair also.

I have both a first and second version Thompson Trophy. The first version like the one I had in 1971 has the bellcrank on the very bottom of the wing with the control wire exposed. The second version has the bellcrank in the fuse as with all later Corsairs, although both of these have side mounted engines. The first version I bought has some heat damage near the tailwheel/skid area on the right side of the fuse, but I can't complain since I got it for twenty-five dollars at our local swapmeet. I wouldn't be so hesitant about flying that one. I'll get pics up of both those completed projects later this evening.

Here's a pic of the Version 2 Thompson Trophy. Motor still side-mounted but bellcrank moved to the inside of the fuse.

Didn't see a red corsair yet. Last week I was outbid on ebay for a blue one .
The Blue one was the first cox modell that I ever seen when I was at Hamleys london as a kid in the late eighties.

Nice job on the Corsair, what are you using on the plastic to make it shine? Are those repo decals?

For the plastic, I'm using Mother's Aluminum Magwheel Polish which is available at most automotive parts supply stores. I originally bought it to polish up the motor crankcases and tanks on Babe Bee engines, and then experimented on a small area of a PT 19 fuselage and it seemed to work very good. It will get rid of small surface stains that are not to imbedded into the plastic. It has such fine abrasives that I've used it on clear plastic as well with good results, although I mostly use Meguire's plastic headlamp polish for that. The decals are from an Ebay vendor that goes by the name of " Drywall 1661". I have bought several items from him and is good to deal with. I also got some from EX Models.