Another Fine Restoration by Tom Sanders

Saturday, April 22, 2017
Overcast
8 C  46 F

Another Fine Restoration 

by Mr. Tom Sanders

Recently, I was fortunate enough to have hearted from Mr. Tom Sanders . Tom 

specializes in  creating and modifying old toys into customized finished models for his clients.

If you search my blog for "Tom Sanders", or Mr. Tom Sanders, you will find the many exemplary 

pieces of work that he has done in the near-distant past.

In Tom's own words:

Stacey et al,

"Another unique application. This time its to fix a wounded bird. I purchased this woeful Wyandotte Twin Engine Transport a few weeks back. It had suffered through a "stabilizer-ectomy" years ago when someone removed the two stabilizers. it was also missing its Fin, Propellers and the stock "panted" landing gear. Still, it is 1930's steel and worth making whole again. Years ago I had an interview with a past employee of Wyandotte All Metal Products, Inc. at an antique show in Michigan. He was the same gentleman that sold me that Wyandotte toy airplane Sirius "convertible". He related that Wyandotte had many concepts and plans to add to their toy line but WW2 and lost market shares dwindled the hopes for many of these concepts. One in particular was the idea of producing the Wyandotte Twin Engine Transport with a new stabilizer with twin fins that were popular on Lockheed airliners and the Beechcraft B-18 "Twin Beech" airplanes. Their goal was to come close to the airplane used as the get-away vehicle in the movie Casablanca.   

This airplane that I purchased pretty much fit the bill and so I proceeded to modify the airplane into a Lockheed 10a ala' Casablanca."

"Once again, another list of tasks-

1) remove the lead paint and inspect the steel and cust surfaces.

2) Cut, stamp and bend the stabilizer/fins combo piece and solder in place.

3) Remove the tail wheel (the wood wheel was saved for a future resto)

4) Cut and solder two steel plates under the stabilizer to allow the body lines to continue aft.

5) create a new tail wheel assembly featuring a wheel with an aluminum hub and rubber tire.

6) Create a new main gear system that also features wheels with aluminum hubs and rubber tires.

7) Paint the airplane using a period style Lockheed lightning bolt (for their Electra models) 

8) Install a Pair of Sandman Overhaul retro-fit prop kits.

That pretty much sums up the project. Interesting that it sold within 17 hours after I started my Buy-It-Now Auction to an ex Beech 18 pilot."

This customized restoration is another example of the fine work that Tom does through his company- Sandman Overhaul.

If you go to the web address below, you can see many examples of the fine work that Tom has done for his clients. It's certainly great to see what can be created with old toys to bring them 

"back to life".

So that's it for this Saturday. April has been a near-record for rainfall here in Quebec. Several of the cities around Montreal, Quebec have been inundated with rising levels of river water that have caused flooding. Hopefully, May will be a much better month, and the waters will abate.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.coim

The Tri-Motor Airplane Toys-Part II

Wednesday, August 6, 2014
           Overcast (Cloud) and warm

The Tri-Motor Airplane Toys

Part II

  It's hard to imagine that the Ford Tri-Motor airplane (the "real one") was made in 1925, a mere 18 years after the Wright Brothers successfully flew a heavier-than-air motorized airplane.  The record and invention books describe their airplane (with 5 people who witnessed the flight) as having flown  852 yards or 779.06 M.  By 1925, flight was somewhat "common", and airplanes could fly very long distances. Airplanes were getting bigger, flying longer, and hopefully were becoming safer.

  The Tri-Motor was a beautiful  aircraft , and since the invention of the motorized airplane was a mere 18 years old, seeing any plane was always a marvel of wonder and awe, especially if you lived in the countryside. The tri-motor became a airplane to model, and there were many, many different toymakers who created their own version (mostly exterior decoration and design) to their models. 

  If you read yesterdays post (The Tri-Motor Toy Airplanes _Part I), I realized that I would have to add at least 3 posts to present to you all of the beautiful toys that were made so long ago. Interestingly, many of the toys are within reach of most people who might want to buy one. Of course, the Fokker Cast Iron (Below) by Hubley is out of range for most of us.  What's also interesting about many of these toy airplanes, is that they were ingeniously designed to have all 3 propellers rotate. 

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

The "Fokker" Friendship Tri-Motor (below) is one of the rarer of all the Tri-Motor toys. In excellent condition, it can sell at auction in the $ 10,000 US and over range. It's rare,and has a clever  series of winding cables to allow all 3 propellers to rotate at once.

Although not mentioned in the written description, I have a feeling that this toy also had its 3 propellers rotate simultaneously (at the same time). The reason for my mentioning this is that I see a small winding coil underneath the wheel well just below the right propeller.

The top airplane is not a tri-motor, but a toy replica of Charles Lindbergh's aircraft that was the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

One of my favourite of the tri-motor toys is the Metalcraft version below. This on (the larger silver airplane) is not in the best shape, but I like this toy for its details. The toy came in a kit form, and children would assemble the toy parts together.

If you read some of the written descriptions of these toys, you'll keep reading "nickel" or nickel-plated" propellers and even other parts. What is also of interest is to see the crossover of the different older and newer processes of the American manufacturers. On this post you can see the much older cast iron toys, as well as the newer and more modern pressed steel toys.

If you venture over to Wikipedia and search for the Tri-Motor, you'll see a nice collection of photos. Of course, just type in the word "Tri-Motor", on any search engine and you'll see these beautiful airplanes - the real versions!

When something is invented and has a wide and universal appeal, it never goes out-of-date.

Like the real airplane, like the toys - timeless!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Great Old American Toy Airplanes

Tuesday, July 8, 2014
              Sunny and hot

Great Old American To Airplanes

   One of the things I like to do when writing blogs, is to return to people and companies who have permitted me to use their nice photos. I don't always remember to do this, and  I missed a nice opportunity to help Stout Auctions broadcast one of their fine auctions that was posted from 
April 5- 26, 2014. I'll have to be more remindful next time!

Please click here to visit this excellent resource and auctioneer

The reason for today's post title is the fact that Stout Auctions is a major auctioneer in the vintage and antique and modern model train  business. However, they will sell other types of toys, and this is another important principal" that I've learned to follow.  Just because a company or collector writes that he/she sells mostly one type of toy, does not mean that they don;t sell other types!

Did I mention that Stout Auctions takes excellent photographs for their listed items?

They take  plenty of photos to present all of the features of each item up for auction.

I almost didm;t use this item. However, when I looked closer, the engine cylinders on this listed are copper-coloured, compared with the aluminum-coloured and aluminum metal cylinders of the first  Buddy L monocoupe airplane.

Readers have written to me to ask if old toys should be restored and repainted.

The item above answer that question. The toy may not have received the highest bidding, but both the seller and the final winning bidder had interests in the restored toy.

Whomever collected this grouping of old American airplanes certainly must have spent a lot of time to find these beautiful toys. And for those winning bidders, they will keep these toys for the future time. That's the nice thing about collecting old toys - there will always be someone who will want to collect!

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com