For two years the aircraft was continually being stripped down to enable the remaining fuselage to be airlifted this was finally done on November 5th 1979. She was then stored in the back of hangar #4 waiting for the restoration process to begin.

On March 24th, 1983 the enormous project finally started with Mr. Norm Etheridge to head the restoration project. Norm, an experienced and authorized aircraft engineer was assigned by the Department of Transport to certify the aircraft, and train others. The initial restoration crew was made up of Tim Mols, Wes Raginski, Caroline Sawyer, Michael Rossadivata & Bill Rothdeusch all of whom had just completed a one year aviation course at Centennial College in Toronto. With a Government grant the C.W.H.M. could now pay for some full-time help, little did Norm realize that it would take 10 years in all complete this project, something that some thought was impossible to do.

The working conditions were not very good. In the end of the hangar the window was the only light source, there were no overhead lights. The roof leaked a lot and there wasn't any heating. The fuselage was stripped of all paint and chromated, after any corrosion treatment was done. A crack was found in the undercarriage casting, this was replaced with a new one cast at R. Mitchell Inc of Montreal in August of 1984. The hydraulic system was repaired with new seals and they had to have new tools made to make them. This was done by the original maker of the seals, Dowty of England & Canada. All the bearings and hinge bolts in the bomb bay doors, had to be replaced. All of the timber parts had to be replaced, as did a lot of the old Perspex. The turrets were re-built and have been fitted out with replica guns, ammunition feeds and deactivated ammunition belt rounds.

As the engines were all seized replacements had to be found. A set were eventually found on KB-889 (one of the first batch of Canadian build Lancs) at Oshawa Airport, this aircraft was going to be shipped to Doug Arnold in England, but didn't need the engines. The job of overhauling the four plus a spare fell upon JRS Enterprises, at Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 1984 to 1986, whilst the engines were worked on, all of the other work related to the engines was done. The first engine arrived and was test run on April 14th 1986, the second on January 2nd 1987. It took 800 man hours of work, with two people per engine to get each engine ready for fitting onto the aircraft. The third engine was fitted by September, and the fourth by March the following year. The excitement was now mounting for a flight actually happening in 1988.