The battleship Missouri's superstructure of late looks like it is being shrink-wrapped.

The white plastic wrap and scaffolding beneath it are barriers to keep paint and rust out of the environment as work proceeds on a restoration project that's soon going to become a lot more dramatic.

On Oct. 14, the "Mighty Mo" is expected to make the two-mile transit from its home off Ford Island to Drydock No. 4 in the Pearl Harbor shipyard.

There, the 887-foot, 45,000-ton retired battleship — famous as the site of Japan's surrender in Tokyo Bay ending World War II, and now a memorial and museum — will be repainted from top to bottom.

The repair of the Iowa-class battleship will hark back to former days, including the shipyard's famous efforts to refloat Pacific Fleet ships to fight again after the attacks of Dec. 7, 1941.

Michael A. Carr, president and chief operation officer for the Battleship Missouri Memorial, said the drydock contracts total $15.6 million, but workers also will be taking advantage of the uninterrupted access to the ship that drydocking provides by simultaneously completing other renovations.

Carr said the total cost of all the projects is approximately $18 million.

"The battleship Missouri is currently scheduled to be in drydock from Oct. 14 through Jan. 7," Carr said. "If these dates hold firm, the last day the Missouri will be open to visitor tours is Oct. 9. We will re-open as soon as possible once the ship returns to the pier in January."

Scaffolding and the plastic painting barriers are already encapsulating a large portion of the ship's superstructure so that crews can begin preliminary sanding and stripping the surface to bare metal.

Keith DeMello, a spokesman for the battleship memorial, said most of the tour route remains open with the work being done now.

"There's a little bit of detour that we've worked into the general tour route, but the key areas that our visitors like to see, they can see," DeMello said.

The "surrender deck," kamikaze impact area, gun turret No. 1 and below-decks areas remain open, he said.

The date of the Mighty Mo's transit to the shipyard depends on completion of repairs to the guided-missile cruiser Port Royal, which ran aground off Honolulu airport on Feb. 5.

Since Feb. 19, the 9,600-ton Port Royal has been in Drydock No. 4 for up to $40 million in repairs. The cruiser is on track to refloat later this month, and the Missouri will take its place.

"We're still (scheduled for drydocking) in October. That's a good thing," DeMello said. "It's a good time of year to be in drydock. It's not the peak summer (visitation) time."