Dream Wacos Collection

First Restoration

From the extant records the first time the aircraft was restored was September 4, 1945.  The logs indicate the airplane nosed over and was completely rebuilt.

Second Restoration

There are log entries indicating the airplane was moved across the country from Maine and was located in Northern California by 5/11/1946. On 5/25/46 the aircraft nosed over while taxiing. 

The ship was rebuilt as of July 15, 1947. 

Third Restoration

The ship was recovered on October 7, 1969.

The airplane was then stored until April 10, 1972 and then reregistered (2^nd time) as N4544.

It was annualed until May 23, 1975. 

Fourth Restoration – John Reed Owner – Russ Harmuth Restorer

The airframe was restored as original including new wood in the fuselage and wings, all new control cables and new or overhauled instruments were installed.  It was recovered with Poly Fiber and finished in Santa Fe red on October 1, 1999. 

All restorations involve many craftsmen and without being able to track their time spent it’s not possible to calculate the total hours in a project.  I have Russ Harmuth’s monthly invoices beginning in October of 1994 through November of 2000.  There appear to be roughly 24 months missing but the labor for the months I have totals 1,647.5 hours.  I estimate that that is roughly half of the hours required to restore the airplane. 

The project began in October of 1994 with Russ Harmuth picking up the project in two trips and ferrying it to his shop. 

He began the restoration by stripping the engine cowl, disassembling the rudder pedal arms and the tail wheel strut. 

In November o 1994 he began disassembly of the firewall, instrument panel, windshield and began cleaning and sandblasting parts.

By January of 1995 he was reinstalling rudder pedals and doing various work on the cabin area. 

By June work on the fuselage formers and stringers was well underway as well as rebuilding rear windows and rigging push rod tubes, and working on engine baffles.

In July of 1995 he continued work on the fuselage installing battery box, and trimming with a total of 43 hours. 

By January of that year he was working on brakes (which were Hayes and subsequently replaced with Cleveland’s in 2002 post restoration).

In February of 1995 he continued work on the lower fuselage installing formers and stringers and began the disassembly of the engine which he ultimately performed a field overhaul on.  Interestingly he ordered, for $350 a “dishpan” for the engine area.  Many prices have skyrocketed in the last thirty years, particularly labor rates, but dispans haven’t as I just paid $500 for one in 2024. 

In April he built the seat assemblies for the rear seat, started fitting upper formers, continued engine disassembly and varnished wood. 

By August of 1995 he was still disassembling engine parts and spent 45 hours varnishing. 

By September of that year he was reassembling the engine.

The engine was finished in September and he began work installing shock brackets on the fuselage. 

In November of 1995 the engine was installed and work began installing engine baffling, assembling the oil cooler, laying out the instrument panel and working on axles. 

By January of 1996 work continued on the fuselage and engine compartment as well as laying out the instrument panel.  Instruments had been sent to Instrument Pro in Oakland, California for overhaul and they had them done in under sixty days.  By the end of spring the instrument panel was finished. 

In August the luggage compartment was fabricated and work began stripping fairing. In October the empennage was covered and in October the fabric for the fuselage and wings was purchased for just under $5,000 from Poly Fiber.  Also that month covering and taping began. 

In December of 1996 the old ailerons were disassembled and refabricated.  The ceiling was insulated and antennas installed.  The front seats were disassembled, sand blasted and painted.  Air vent brackets were fabricated, the parking brake system installed.

In August of 1997 carpet and foam was purchased for $132!  It was installed for $640.  In September the headliner was sewn which took 17 hours at $W30/hr.  A lot of interior hardware finishing was accomplished in this month.  By October the carpet and sidewall installation was completed. 

In November the rear seat back was recovered along with the front seats.  Eyebrow lights were installed as were the com jacks. 

In January of 1998 the vertical fin and rudder were installed.  Fuselage fabric was shrunk and first coat of Poly Brush applied as well as the beginning of installation of finish tapes. 

In February work continued on taping and ironing. 

In March of 1998 the fuselage was painted. 

In April painting continued and final assembly of fuselage parts began.  Also gear legs were installed. 

In July the engine and its component parts were hooked up. 

In September the cabin door was installed. 

In January of 1999 the wheel pants were fitted, pinstriping was painted and final interior work done. 

In August of 2000 fairings were sanded, primed and painted and rubber channeling installed. 

First flight took place in October of 2000. 

Fifth Restoration- Tony Caldwell Owner – Oren Redsun and Nerio Festa

When I purchased the plane from John Reed in December of 2022 it had just 59 hours total time on the airframe since restoration 22 years earlier.  The engine had the same amount of time on it but just under that since it had been torn down for an IRAN after a nose over incident.  It had hardly been flown in the previous sixteen years. 

The paint and interior appeared to be in good condition with the need for a good cleaning and spruce up. 

I was concerned about the condition of the engine which had last been overhauled in 1995 and which appeared to have been overhauled twice before.  The wiring loom was in poor condition and it looked like the engine nose case and cylinders had not been repainted in many decades.  It appeared that the engine hoses, with a useful life of 7-8 years had not been replaced since overhaul.

The main landing gear legs would not hold hydraulic oil and the tires age was indeterminate but past useful service life. 

Most of the exterior hardware had surface corrosion and interior parts were dull as was the propeller. 

The bottom of the aircraft was covered with a lot of oil and dirt.

After flying the three miles from Sonoma County Airport to Sonoma Skypark we began a serious refurbishment. 

We began with a serious exterior cleaning which took about eight hours.  The paint was in excellent shape on the wings and fuselage. 

I had Jamie Lyons polish and ceramic coat the exterior which took about forty hours.  This brought the paint back to new condition with the exception of chips in primarily the cowing and forward fuselage metal which had a number of chips and scratches.

We jacked the airplane up and built temporary gear legs to support it, removed the landing gear and sent to Jon Nace for overhaul.  The gear was then reinstalled.

The engine was sent to Radial Engines LTD who sent back a newly overhauled Jacobs R755B2 engine with 275 horsepower.  This is an increase from the Jacobs L4 it replaced.  This engine, along with new baffles, new mounting ring, new starter and new Magneto have been installed.

Before installing the engine the firewall was thoroughly cleaned and sealed.  All new rubber hoses, braided lines, scat tubing and rubber bushings were installed.  The engine and supporting equipment was installed followed by the propeller which was polished and had new gaskets installed before remounting. 

We discovered that the rear seat support system was broken and hand been improperly repaired so we removed the repairs and fabricated a new support system. 

Brake lines were replaced and new tires fitted on all three wheels when the landing gear struts were reinstalled.  While doing this we found an improper repair to a lower longeron which was repaired and the fabric in that section was repaired. 

The wing walk which was very worn was repainted.

The control wheels and yoke were polished. 

All surface corrosion from wing fittings, Grimes lights and other exterior brightwork was removed. 

The metal latches for the engine access panels were replaced.  The chips and scratches in sheet metal were repainted. 

We installed a Garmin GDL 82 for ADSB compliance. 

What’s Left to Do:

I am planning on replacing the carpet which isn’t period correct and is pretty soiled.