Warning: the old tool crib at the Pima Air Museum is a goldmine for weird hardware

I was down in Tucson last month visiting the Pima Air and Space Museum, which is always a good time. After the main tour, I wandered into their restoration hangar area and they had this old tool crib set up like a display. It was full of hardware from the 60s and 70s, stuff you just don't see anymore. I spotted a whole drawer of oddball AN970 washers with non-standard thicknesses, and a box of shear bolts marked for a specific C-130 flap actuator. It got me thinking about how much weird, one-off hardware is still flying on these old birds, and how tough it must be to source it now. What's the most obscure or hard-to-find piece of hardware you've ever had to track down for a repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason.margaret18h ago

Wait, they just had that stuff sitting out in the open? That's wild. Those C-130 shear bolts are probably impossible to find now. Makes you wonder what else is just hiding in drawers there.

caseyfox17h ago

Right? Wonder if anyone even knows the full inventory. What else do you think they've got stashed away?