After having been wheeled out of storage on the 19th of May, the fuselage of Spitfire Mk 22 PK624 has been undergoing a strip down exercise. All the innards have been removed as at last Sunday and the hulk was trundled off to the other end of the airfield for a very hot hose down.

Years of accumulated grime, and a good stiff coating of wax protection was washed away down Duxfords drains to allow an inspection of the underlying metalwork. Trundling back to the hangar and a dry off with large amounts of tissue paper (no expense spared...) showed up some areas of sheet corrosion, but no more than had originally been anticipated.

The fuselage is now ready to be paint stripped properly and will sent away for bead blasting in the very near future. Work will begin on some of the bits removed from the fuselage, with the plan to pick up the wings themselves in the medium term.