Ford Island’s control tower withstood the Dec. 7, 1941, attack and the passage of nearly seven decades since then — most of it in disuse.

But Ken DeHoff, executive director of the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, said the iconic riveted-steel tower might not have made it through even one more year of neglect.

A restoration project started in February by the museum found that the observation deck’s concrete roof atop the 158-foot circular water tank was supported by badly corroded I-beams.

"If that had gone for another year, most likely that whole thing (observation deck) would have fallen down," DeHoff said.

The red-and-white barber-pole tower is being shorn up in more ways than one.

Beneath a cocoon of white barrier plastic encircling a vast spider web of scaffolding, crews have cut off rusted steel, sandblasted off 90 percent of the tower’s old paint and primed bare metal.

The work is part of a $7 million project that in reality might cost $8 million or more to renovate, repaint and reuse one of the most visible symbols of Pearl Harbor’s war years.

The public likely will get its first glimpse of the repaired tower in November, DeHoff said.

"We’re so excited to have the control tower painted and ready for the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor," DeHoff said.

Scott Ruppel, project manager for the restoration with Kiewit Building Group, said the new aviation orange and off-white paint will be shiny and bright — in sharp contrast to the rusty red and dirty beige that until recently adorned the tower.

DeHoff said he believes the last time the tower was painted was for the filming of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" in 1970.

"Let me put it this way: This is already the Eiffel Tower of Ford Island. You are going to see it from a long, long ways away," Ruppel said.

AS FAR BACK as 2001, the nonprofit Pacific Aviation Museum envisioned leasing the adjacent landmark tower. The Navy, museum and Ford Island Ventures — the property landlord — finally signed the deal on Sept. 2.

The museum wants to use the two-story operations building for a research center and library where the public could read about World War II, a curatorial center and administrative offices.

The two-story "aerological tower" on top of that — which stood on Dec. 7, 1941, and from which one of the first radio broadcasts of the attack was made — will be used for meeting rooms.

But both of those projects are being sidetracked by $600,000 in extra costs — some of it from I-beam replacements needed on the upper observation deck.

"When we chipped the concrete off (the I-beams), workers refused to work up there any longer, so we had to immediately go up there and shore up that concrete roof," DeHoff said.

There are eight 15-foot-long heavy I-beams vertically supporting the 20-foot-wide octagonal observation deck concrete roof. Five beams will be replaced, officials said. Temporary supports have been put in place.

Ruppel said the I-beams provided resistance to twisting from high winds, and the corrosion compromised that strength.

"If the wind created an oscillation motion, you’d have problems," he said.

The water tower was a dark color at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. The crow’s nest observation deck was completed in 1942, officials said.

Concave window frames have been removed, and so has the observation deck floor, revealing the circular water tank below. The beams corroded because the window glass was removed long ago, and the openings were never boarded up, allowing rain in, officials said.

Three rusting catwalks around the tower and 17 flights of rickety metal stairs also have been removed.

Ruppel said 44 tons of steel will be replaced — a task that will start in the next few weeks. Rivets were used on the water tank and tower, but that’s obsolete technology now, so new steel will be affixed by welding or with bolts and the appearance of a rivet will be created, officials said.

So far, 22 tons of sand have been used to blast off the old, thick, lead-based paint.

DeHoff said money budgeted for windows and other work in the two-story operations building and aerological tower had to be diverted to pay the extra costs for the observation deck repairs. In the meantime the windows will be boarded up.

"We’ll have to wait (on the lower-level projects) until we raise more money," DeHoff said.

Trash and graffiti have been removed from the operations building, and crews painted walls and took out asbestos floor tiles and ceiling tiles containing arsenic.

The work being done now has been projected to cost more than $4 million. The federal government provided $3.8 million. Longer-term projects, including the renovation of the small elevator, might push the total repair cost to $8 million or more, museum officials said.

The renovation cost is part of a $100 million capital campaign to expand the museum into three hangars on Ford Island. The museum hopes to eventually be able to take visitors to the observation deck of the control tower.

Except for a handful of old rifle and pistol blank cartridges, not much in the way of additional history was uncovered. But there was one discovery that put the work in perspective.

James Padua, a sandblaster and painter with the Zelinsky Co., found a spot on the water tank where "1941" was engraved.

"That kind of gave me a little chicken skin," Padua said.