September 5, 2011 New photos were added today! Scroll down or Click Here… Restoration is underway with the restoration of the Mace B that was relocated last year from Wildwood, FL to the Indiana Military Museum in Vincennes, IN.
From: Jerry Brenner Sent: September 04, 2011 To: George Mindling; Joe Perkins; Max Butler; Robert Bolton; Russ Reston Cc: Frank Roales Subject: Last of the stencils and decals are off the bird and the tail section is ready for primer. Gentlemen, this will be the last of the photos for a while as we are almost to the point of finalizing sanding on the underside of the wings, tail assembly, and the main fuselage and once that’s done, it’s a matter of priming and painting the missile. As usual, the weather didn’t let us down yesterday as when I left Vincennes, it was 100 degrees on one of the signs outside of Vincennes, with a heat index of 110 degrees. As the subject says, the last of the stencils have been scraped off the missile assemblies, including both sides of the wings. What is interesting is that on the underside of the left wing, they painted over the USAF that was on the wing and put the star over it and you can see what it looks like in these pictures. Don’t know if I told you or not but Frank Roales is making up a video on the Missile from Orlando AFB to it’s current state of restoration and since he is not going out to Ca, I guess I will have to do for the answerman on any questions anyone may have. Enjoy the pictures and looking forward to the reunion as we have something to really talk about. By the way, spread the word on the Indiana Military Museum as it is a well kept secret in this tri-state area and I am getting people interested in it and more people are going up there. Jerry Brenner-USAF veteran, 1966-1970 Nuclear Weapons Specialist-MOS 46350 Rocket Jockey
From: Jerry Brenner Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 To: George Mindling; Joe Perkins; Max Butler; Robert Bolton; Russ Reston Subject: We are starting to paint the missile. Wet sanding seems to do the job before. Well gang, we have almost finished patching the holes in the missile that we found. We scraped off the decals on the nose section and the tail section and Frank (Roales) started sanding down the nose section this past weekend and when I got there today, we finished sanding it down, manually turning the nose until we got it done. We washed it down and Frank put a liberal coat of primer on the nose section that he could get to. It’s not a high visible coat but he put basically two coats on it. Also, be accident we found out that wet sanding was the way to go, as you can tell by the pictures of the wings, especially the split picture on the right wing and this was after Frank sprayed some cleaner on it and washed some of the dirt off. The next step is to sand down the tail section and the exhaust section and prime them. We still have to flip the wings over to get the underside, which will include taking off the stars that are on it and that entails manually scraping the decals off by hand but we are getting good at it. That’s all for now. enjoy the pictures as there will be more at the Reunion in San Diego. Looking forward to seeing all of you and filling you in on the details as we progress with the restoration. By the way, it’s fun talking about the missile as people stop by that are working on getting the new location ready. Frank and I have decided to make a tape to play for them as very few people have an idea what this missile is and what it’s capabilities are. Until later. Jerry Brenner-USAF veteran, 1966-1970 Nuclear Weapons Specialist-MOS 46350 Rocket Jockey
From: Jerry Brenner Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 To: Russ Reston Subject: RE: Mace work Thanks for posting the pictures at your convenience. As Frank and I discussed, this way members know we are working on the restoration and it’s not just a matter of scrapping off the paint and putting on a new coat. It’s been fun learning about restoration and as Frank (Frank Roales) says, by the time we get done, we will be aircraft maintenance and structural specialist. We will keep sending pictures as they become available. I am also putting some of them on FB (Facebook) and got a response from Bob Bolton, wishing he were able to be here to help us. Jerry Brenner-USAF veteran, 1966-1970 Nuclear Weapons Specialist-MOS 46350 Rocket Jockey
From: Frank Roales Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 To: Russ Reston; Max Butler Subject:Mace work Max & Russ; Thought you guys would be interested in the work Jerry (Brenner) and I are doing on the Mace. These are pictures from the last 2 sessions we have had. The heat here for both days had heat indexes over 105 so I guess you could say we might be a bit touched in the head for working outside on days that hot, but you do what you can when schedules coincide. (see what you are missing Max?) The repairs are actually going quite well and we are getting to be Mace bodymen LOL. There is still work to be done on the right wing, nose and some covers to be made for the fuselage along with more work to the intake lip. When repairs are done we plan to pressure wash it and see if that will make it paint ready. However we think that sand or pellet blasting may be necessary to get a good finish. Frank Roales & Jerry Brenner