Thanks, my grandfather was also a B-17 bombardier, trained at Brooks Field in Texas, that shift knob is beautiful, great idea!
In addition to the head badge I made a "Warning Star" decal today to replace the "FS-12-SPEED" top tube decal, because I'm converting it to a 6-Speed and that was the plane he few in that squadron. I realize some people would think that's silly, but that is what this build is all about, taking a crappy Free Spirit and having fun transforming it into something special, because sentimental value is priceless.
He was stationed in Newfoundland and that Naval Base was part of the Atlantic Barrier, North America's early warning detection from attack during the Cold War (that's why the squadron patch has Paul Revere on it, instead of the British are coming, it was the Russians are coming, haha). They would fly 15-hour shifts from Newfoundland to the Azores non-stop 24-hours a day looking for threats. What is the big deal? Well in the late 50's there was no modern satellites, computers, etc. It was still done the old school way under brutal conditions, there was no cancellations or 2-hour delays even with sub zero temps and 30" of snow, they flew regardless of weather conditions, you cleared the runway and rolled out, no excuses. My father took a Super8 color camcorder there in 1959 and that reel-to-reel film was stored in his closest for 50 years. I asked him repeatedly to let me convert it to DVD before it was too late (linear magnetic recordings deteriorate over time) and he repeatedly refused. Well about 10 years ago he finally gave in and let me digitally convert to, then I edited it in Movie Maker adding music and put it up on YouTube. Over the past 9 years there has been 15k views and lots of guys who also served there have commented so that's been pretty cool, here is the link...