John Greenlee (1656 Ardath, Wichita Falls TX 76301-6148) is making great progress on his Model 'A' Ford-powered Air Camper. John may be reached via email at JGreenlee@aol.com.
John Greenlee wrote in December, 1995:
Enclosed is a picture of my ship from a few months ago. I have since installed the wing center section and its associated cables, and the radiator mount. I also replaced the front cowl support. It was a little narrow, and I didn't care so much for the flat plywood arch as per the plans. One evening I got a wild hair and built a jig and laminated up an arch from spruce. It is now in place and looks and fits much better.
In December '95, John wrote to a BPA member:
I got my radiator back from its maker a few weeks ago, and am quite pleased with the results. Its not a radiator for a show car, mind you, but looks right in place on the Piet. The company that built it builds radiators for industrial (oil field) motors. I basically copied the dimensions from the radiator on Wilbur Graff's ship and supplied them a photo, and a Model T filler neck from Snyder's auto parts. (Snyder's is an antique car parts supplier in Ohio.) My radiator has 45 degree angled corners on the top tank, 4 rows of tubes, 7 fins per inch.
The builder was Bell Manufacturing in Bowie, TX. (That's a link to Bell's home page . . . gem) Their phone number is 1-800-433-0939. Talk to Dean. Bell fabricates old fashioned copper cores from scratch and solders all of their tanks up from sheet brass. I persuaded Dean to not paint the tanks, and paint the core black. The results are good. The only downside is the radiator has visible solder on the seams, and heat marks, etc. from the fabrication. To me, though, this adds a bit to the overall 'antique' effect.
My radiator model is Miss Victotria Anne Greenlee. She goes by 'Torie'. to her friends. Grant, you probably remember her, she attended her first Brodhead Reunion in 1994 when she was three weeks old. She made quite a contrast with Mr. Allen Rudolf!
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