Beech talk friends,
Had a background and solid experience on industrial sewing machines and after seeing the cost of re-doing GA interiors, I decided to set up a small aviation upholstery bsns ~3 yrs ago-primarily to pay my Mooney 231 bills.
After doing many Beech, Mooney, Piper, Grumman and other interiors, I finally got around to doing my K interior with thought towards improving looks, utility, and ergonomics. Following is a fwd to rear narrative of this project along with attached pictures.
Glare shield: Covered in blackleather with an exposed red Italian stitch-a nice low profile look as tomaximize vis with no observed glare.
Crossbar: Covered in blackleather with exposed zig-zag hand stitch-good grab point when adjusting frontseats.
Yokes: Used 1/8 Aerolitefoam as backing. Black leather withbaseball hand stitch. Accomplished with yokesin the plane-a challenging, but achievable process. I became motivated to do this given the costby other vendors and pain to remove, ship, and reinstall. Re-did the Mooney emblems in brass via alaser engraver.
Overhead: Had to fix thepilot side Weemac vent-found the needed parts on Ebay. Cut access fm the back side, fixed, andre-plugged the access point with marine grade G-Flex epoxy and cloth-it is airtight! All other cracks, holes, weak areas werefixed. Primed, textured, painted,sealed. Overhead lighting was not working-culprit was an unknown inline glassfuse in the battery compt.
Co-Pilot door: Window fairingfixed and covered in one piece to tan leather stretched using steam andnot-so-secret juice (1part alcohol, 1 part baby shampoo, 2 parts water in asmall spray bottle). Bottom half Bruce Jaeger’s spatial interior panel, trimmed in silicon trim and attached withminimal screws.
Seats: These seats wheremy first leather job ~4yrs ago-while craftsmanship has dramatically improved,they still look good. I refoamed theseat bottoms in 2in firm aeroflex and 1in medium aeroflex foam-now feels like anew PC-12 that I had an opportunity to fly last month. Plan on eventuallyreplacing If I am able to find some affordable articulating seat frames and abucket rear seat conversion.
Window frames and side panels. I cut the window just below the fore-aft trim sections, I wrapped the remaining pilotwindow frame in single piece leather to avoid seams. The rear window frames fixed, reinforced,sanded, primed and painted to match the overhead color. The lower sections ofthe adjacent to front and rear seats and leg wells where fabricated in new 1/16in FAA grade Boltaron plastic-this eliminated large portions of deterioratingplastic, side carpeting and in my view has provided a cleaner/21st centurylook. Used dual lock to fasten panels(no screws!) for easy access in case of future maintenance.
Cargo Compt: Panel adjacent tothe cargo door was cut in Boltaron. Rear and right panel was backed withpolyboard and covered in leather with nice diamond stitching. Document holderwas made in polycarbonate and trimmed in leather. Fabricated and bent a cablewell in right rear panel to cover the wire bundle in this area. This piece was attached with blind rivets.Installed elongated D-Rings for easier access and eliminated those unsightlyand usually stained nylon white straps. Intent to use high quality bungees or nylon straps with ratchets frictionadapters when needed.
Hat rack. All cleaned, primedand repainted. Rear panel was backed with 1/8 in Aerolite foam, covered inleather and hand cut a leather Mooney logo with titanium tipped scissors thatwas carefully sown-I prefer this better than embroideries that are subject tofraying, fading and snags.
Flooring. I tend to use my Mooney in the utility mode andtherefore eliminated ALL carpeting with a much more durable and easy to cleanflight floor textured product with 1/4 in ensolite foam baking for comfort,insulation, and sound proofing. Flooringwill be snapped in with nickel plated snaps for easy removal if needed-gettingmany compliments on this durable floor which comes in a myriad of colors,textures and thickness.
Windlace, Pockets,and Armrests. Windlace made ofmatching window frame leather with a reduced 3/8in core like in the newermooneys. Pockets made of leather, insideare black leather with a boltaron plastic stiffer as backing-I made mine to fitmy IPad Mini, checklist, small flashlight, and small kneepad. The can be shaped in any way, placed anywhereafter the panels are in place, sets is in and pilot identifies his preferredlocation. I have not installed the armrest that I fabricated after realizingthe added room and minimal utility of a small armrest. Will fly the airplane a bit and make adecision on installing the arm rest which has a removable (snaps) leather pad.
Sorry in advance for providing long explanations-
Rico
Flying BullFrog LLC
hlenway@gmail.comN231C
