My apologies if this has been covered beforehand, however Assembling my 32 hood panels took me back a few years to my military stint & my tour of duty with the 1st. Air Cav & servicing as a crew chief on Huey's & OH-13's, I recall how everyone struggled with the proper pronunciation (sounds like zooss incidentally) at any rate with all the news media surrounding the Ukraine war perhaps it's time we extended homage to William Dzus (Volodyar) Dzus who in the 1930's pioneered the system & it's unique method to quickly access service panels without fumbling with loose fasteners.While several variations surfaced through the years, in most situations a simple coin in your pocket can serve as the only tool requirements to get to the workings concealed by the many years of aircraft cowling & certainly our hot rods if you so choose to incorporate a Ukranian contribution.
In the Navy we all carried "Dzus Keys" on our tool belts and if we got caught using a coin we were threatened with extra duty. With the way engine cowlings are falling off airliners now a days they should send their mechanics back to air frame school.
Summit Racing has some Dzus fasteners. A P-38, man does that bring back memories. I'll bet half the people reading this don't know what one looks like. I once carried one on my keychain until it opened one day and it dug into my thigh. I think I still have it somewhere, gotta look.
IIRC the original (?) Dzus factory was located here on Long Island NY in West Islip. They had a toxic waste stream out the back into a brook and down to the Great South Bay. A lot of people got sick and the whole place turned into a superfund site.
P-38?.........I always understood that a P38 was a twin tailed Lockheed Lightning fighter of WW2 fame.....learnt something today.....andyd
Many places sell them. Prices vary accordingly. Pay attention to flush head, button head, spring loaded and the various lenghts used for panel thickness. It's easy to make your own flush mount recess tool if you have access to a lathe. machine the holes in the panels before you rivet the springs to the tab.
"Snoopy Tool" I always liked Dzus fasteners better than the more modern quarter-turn fasteners used now... I used to buy a lot of Dzus stuff from Aircraft Spruce, also got some stainless Dzus fasteners from someplace that escapes me now. Lots of different sizes, lengths and styles available so do your homework before ordering. And you generally need different installation tools for each size and type of head.
I have used Dzus fasteners for 50 years on race cars. I have grown fond of the Allen head, dome style, and use a T-handle wrench. The lakester has in excess of 300 buttons.
The Aussie version of a P-38 has a spoon on one end, and is called a Field Ration Eating Device (FRED). It is more commonly known as a !@#$%^& Ridiculous Eating Device. Cheers, Harv
My FED uses the recessed Allen head type to hold the bodywork on. I use a t-handle wrench too. Only about 20 buttons in the FED. I used four slot head spring loaded ones to hold the rear cargo floor in my avatar... taught me that they are very fussy about installed depth. Cheers, Harv
P-38 waaaay back....I had a boss that made P-38 coffee.... Drink 1 and P-38 ....he called it "airplane coffee"
Marty I'm not sure they are still in business but I really like the flat head versions from Full Bore.
I used www.aa-mfg.com in the last year. Good service and as reasonable of pricing as there is. Dzus has never been real cheap. If you're doing much buy 100 at a time and there might be a price break.
Speedway Motors sells their version in the race catalog or online, not sure how closely it might be to the real deal however listed in steel & aluminum, the dimple tool is also listed...as for the P -38 designation, andydodge you might be glad to know both accounts are correct, a can opener & aircraft share equal airtime on this one.
Some of the bus manufactures we supplied used to use them. I got to know the Southco rep in our area, and we started using some of their products on our roof top HVAC systems. SouthCo seems to still sell them. It shows the Dzus registered trade mark symbol. https://southco.com/en_us_int/fasteners/emdzusemreg-quarter-turn-fasteners
I've gotten my last couple batches from these guys: https://www.s-sengineering.com/ They manufacture the weld-on plates and dimpling tools. Definitely an old school operation...you have to call or fax your order and the last time I ordered the only payment option was COD. The inconvenience was worth it for the low prices on genuine Dzus fasteners. They're also one of the few places I've found that carries the large flush buttons in aluminum.
P-38 can opener. I carried one of these for years out of habit. Finally lost it one day. The can opener that is!
When I was cleaning out the shop after selling the building I found my pops old snoopy tool. I was surprised at how much they went for on eBay.
Does anyone know how I can rivet on those little plates that go behind the fastener? Attaching the panel to another and there isn't room for the backside of a pop rivet.
This is the type the USMC and Navy issued to, in my case, Aviation electronic techs and electricians way back in 1969. The guys in survival shop would sew small seat straps together and make a pouch that hung off your belt vertically. The Dzus blade locks open by pushing on the brass bar in the photo just above the knifes silver looking end. Looks like the proper spelling of the manufacturer can be seen on the lower part of the blade, Camillus and New York below that. I had several when I left the USMC as they were expendable supply and you could requisition a new one monthly. While working in a dealership bodyshop I found they to be great wool buffer pads old/excess compound simply by locking the Dzus blade open and applying it to a spinning buffer pad. ps sorry for it's condition this has been sitting unused in my toolbox since 1971 53 years LOL.
There are some panels on Airstreams that protect the front of the trailer from rock damage that are attached with some Chinese crap fasteners. I replaced them with Dzus fasteners from Speedway and it turned out that the Dzus hold down springs could quickly replace the Chinese junk using the same mounting holes. A lot of AS owners used Dzus after I posted on their forum.
One way to do it if you have access to the back of the panel is to use flush solid rivets, with the head countersunk into the back side of your panel. The rivet tail will be visible from the front side of the panel, but solid rivets done properly don't look bad.
A buddy of mine Jerry Hill, had a race car fab shop for years, built Dragsters and Funny Cars. It was in his estate, and that's how I acquired the Whitney Jenson punch, with the die in place. Makes it fast when doing multiples.
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