Repairing the Pilot
After stripping and bead blasting the damaged pilot I realized that I would have to take it completely apart to fix it. As a result of the fall damage, the main frame piece was bent upward, and both the side frame solder joints were broken. The pilot shield and supporting attachments were also bent and broken. The pilot steps had broken off and were missing on both sides. Once the pilot was taken apart it was a relatively easy matter to straighten out each of the individual pieces. I then used solder paste along with a resistance soldering iron to put all the pieces back together again. I made a pair of replacement pilot steps from 16 mil brass sheet stock. When finished I bead blasted the pilot one more time to clean up all the oxidation caused by soldering.
Here are before and after pictures:
Page 4 - Last updated April 19, 2004