Keil Kraft Silver Hurricane Restoration

Hi Carl,

Welcome to CEF! We are glad to have a newcomer. Congratulations on a neat find.
Please tell us more about yourself so we can guide you best based on your experiences with other hobbies.

Keep coming back to CEF regularly. You will find topics sometimes drift from their original intent as if we are slightly ADD, but it adds to the entertainment value of those threads!

Are you looking to get into Control Line flying?
Have you flown control line before?  Do you have a buddy that will.help launch the model? Or are you doing this solo?

If so, I recommend a mild (well, drastic) change of course for you:

I strongly suggest a different model if you want to try the hobby. Do you have any transferable skills from other hobbies? Scratch-building a trainer isn't particularly difficult, and will yield a plane that can be repaired readily.

Build your first one, and don't become attached to it. Build two if you want to display your first build, and fly the second one.

Plans for scratchbuilt models are easily found. I also know of several cottage-industry vendors selling great starter kits, from simple basic flat plate to more intricate built-up wings/fuselage.

Back to your topic...

Continue in your quest to restore the model to your satisfaction. Keep in mind all plastic parts will be delicate, if not quite brittle. Or they will be soft/flexible to the point of warping and taking a warped set. Any solvent you use on the paint may damage the silver coating underneath. I would use engine fuel or alcohol to see if the paint lifts off, and then move up to more vigorous methods. Hot, soapy water will clean all of the plastics without damage. If you are lucky, the "add-on" paint may just flake off!

Your specified fuel appears to be a low/medium nitro content fuel. Find the latest thread regarding FitzFuels and get some 1/2A 15% nitro fuel. I believe Fitz will blend to your needs. There are other fual vendors that supply 1/2A fuel blended to suit your engine. Some.of us here buy whatever is available, and then doctor it to our desires.

That engine was from a period that castor oil was king of the lube for these little guys. I know a couple of my childhood friends ran Testors engines while I ran Cox engines. We often ran out engines on the same fuel. If I ran out of Cox fuel, I used their Testors fuel (and vice-versa).

Your battery is the basic BIG 1.5v battery. You can hook a couple of D-cells in parallel and wire them to your glowplug ignitor. I actually made a cheap plywood box to hold four D-cells and used about 20" of lamp cord for that. Wire up alligator clips if you don't want to cut your clip off the battery (I can't see how the wires connect to your old battery).

You can check the glowplug with only one D-cell just to see if it is good.

Take care disassembling the engine! Did the model come with engine wrenches?

The stuck engine should NOT go into your chosen solvent. Brake cleaner can cause damage to any plastic on that engine. But you will need to remove it from the model for service work. Begin by disassembling the engine as much as you can. Try to find a parts breakdown for that engine specifically. I would soak it in alcohol to try to flush the dried castor out of it.

Once dried, hit it with PB Blaster or WD-40 and a hair dryer to soften up the congealed castor in the threads of everything, the piston/cylinder,.and the crank/block nearing surfaces. Heat will be your friend...gentle heat over a period of time (more than two minutes) will be your friend. As it.loosens up, continue to slowly work it back to moving. Any tools should be small. If you hit this guy with anything over 6"-8" long, you risk damage to the crank pin or conrod.


From gentlest to more extreme cleaning methods:
Medicinal alcohol
Methanol (or fuel-NOT gasoline)
Gun cleaner
Hot soak in Pine-Sol or Fantastic 409
Hot soak in automotive antifreeze (search here for that one-remarkable!)

Others will be along with their favorite methods.