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North American ejection seat FJ-4


dustin
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Today I purchased this ejection seat, well because I always wanted one, and am having some trouble finding out more information about it. I would like to also perform some level of restoration on it too.

Can anyone tell me more about this seat and give me some direction as to where I can find some manuals or the like for the restoration process? I know it is early with a date of December 1956

Thank You in advance.

 

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Can anyone tell me more about this seat and give me some direction as to where I can find some manuals or the like for the restoration process? I know it is early with a date of December 1956

 

 

Hi Dustin,

 

Great seat, gonna be a lot of work to restore it, but it has the ejection curtain / handle.

It seems to miss the leg brace and feetrest, only thing I could find (need to dig deeper) are two images out of the FJ-4 manual.

 

Cheers,

Ron

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Excellent , thank you. That helps tell me how deep I stepped in it for a restoration. I'm concerned I'm not going to find the parts I need to get this early seat up to snuff. My intial idea is to clean it up and make a computer chair out of it. The propulsion tube maes t easy to make the adapation to a chair base without physically modifiying the chair itself. Have some cushions made up and viola!

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Hi Dustin,

 

You have the main components, I would not try to sandblast the frame as it looks rather corroded. But a nice touch up with the correct color of paint will do a lot.
Also making the proper parts yellow again would do it good. The missing parts will be a headache, best shot is to find another seat so one can be cannibalized.

What I found on the web:

 

There was apparently no specific color assigned to the ejection seat officially until May 1963, when they were to be painted dark gull grey;

 

On this image you see an FJ-3 seat lifted from the plane.

 

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Cheers and please keep us posted in this thread on any updates!

Ron

 

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I wish I had known what was missing when I got it, could have rummaged around the property to search for other pieces. I was having no luck in finding images when I Googled it before I bought it. Your effort has been very Helpful, thank you!

I think it was originally that grey, a list of flight equipment is stenciled on the side, so I'm inclined to believe that's the original paint job. Some of the nick nacks attached on the back are that sea green type color.

I was just going to give it a bath with a light pressure washing. While it waits in limbo I'll convert it to a usable chair, that will be a pretty easy task without actually altering the originality of the seat.

Do you or anyone know of any outfits that I could potentially source for bits and pieces? The first think I would like is the face curtain, its rotten.

 

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I wish I had known what was missing when I got it, could have rummaged around the property to search for other pieces.

Do you or anyone know of any outfits that I could potentially source for bits and pieces? The first think I would like is the face curtain, its rotten.

 

 

You can't go back and have another look?

Parts will be difficult, try Ebay and Flighthelmet.com.

Also there is a Facebook group for ejection seat collectors.

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Just found some more images online, this example is in the Pensacola museum.

Note the headrest covered in red, this has to be green canvas like material.

 

Cheers.

Ron

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Thank you very much HUD for taking some time to dig into this, its appreciated and insighful. Where I got the seat is a distnace away and not the easiest circumstance to get back in. Almost a one shot deal. The other issue is the clutter, I just don't think I'd have reign to rummage.

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Thank you very much HUD for taking some time to dig into this, its appreciated and insighful. Where I got the seat is a distnace away and not the easiest circumstance to get back in. Almost a one shot deal. The other issue is the clutter, I just don't think I'd have reign to rummage.

 

Hi Dustin,

 

More then welcome, please keep us updated in this threat about your restoring progress.

I will keep a look out for parts.

 

Cheers,

Ron

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