Here is the April 06 report on the rebuild of AK295 the Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk. Main achievement is the completion of the cockpit paintwork and the cowl assembly progress.

The main focus this month has been the finalization of the fuselage preparation prior to paint. All the remaining brackets mounts and fasteners have been fitted to the structure of the fuse and we have masked and painted the cockpit area. Allied to this is the installation of the new radio tuning control panel fabricated last month.

The rear firewall armour plating has also been painted and new mounting brackets fabricated and this is now installed.

We have painted a number of overhauled cockpit fittings and parts and installed the rudder pedal mount assembly that was rebuilt last month.

We have repaired the cockpit heating/cooling valve bodies as well as manufactured new pulley guards for the gun charging pulley assemblies. We have fabricated new mount plates for the fuel selector gearbox mount and striped the gearbox for repair.

We have modified the rudder pedals back to the original Tomahawk configuration by welding on the lug that the brake backlash adjustment bolt fits into. Seems that the early Kittyhawk used Tomahawk pedals with this lug cut off, and it was a pair of these pedals that we had with the project.

We have fabricated a new battery box oxygen bottle mount structure for installation in the rear fuselage just inside the access door. This assembly is made up of a number of components and work continues on the floor section and port side components.

A large amount of time has been devoted to the cowling assembly. We have mounted the forward pan to the front of the motor allowing us to fit the components onto the aircraft. We fabricated a new pan attachment plate and have fitted the lord mount rubbers to the plate.

We have assembled up the top cowl trunk assembly and begun the fabrication of the side rails for all the elements of the cowl assembly. We have manufactured new side frame rail stiffeners also. We have begun the manufacture of the chin cowl skins and have wheeled up the bottom and side skins for this cowl. A number of cowl mounting brackets have been restored and fitted to the engine bearers to support the cowls. We have to manufacture a number of missing cowl fittings and we are making patterns for these to be cast.

We have begun the overhaul/modification of the tailwheel assembly. The item with the project was originally for the P36, and in very poor shape. We have removed (had to machine it out) the main drag tube from the end fittings and are sourcing new tube stock to build the correct tube for the P40B.