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Hi all I’m currently working on my interior, I have a 66E model. Most of the interior was out and lots missing, I have an upholstery shop doing the seats right now, I ordered carpet from Airtex. 2 questions, 1. Does carpet go between the seats where it’s Johnson bar goes? 2 what goes on the vertical wall in front of the rear seat? Anyone have pics?

Years ago I received the carpet from Airtex for the Johnson bar area but my plane had a plastic in that area. you can order one here: https://vantageassoc.com/mooney-m20-k740054-503-407.html As for the wall under the seat: I seem to remember that piece of carpet came with the side kit from Airtex.

Just had AIRTEX carpet installed in my 67 F. Could have spent more time fitting up the carpet between the seats. The previous carpet tucked under the plastic. Careful trimming the side panels to fit; those things are aggravating to install; we ended up with a gap in the back corner as you can see but once the seats are in you don't see it. The panel below the back seats was attached with velcro; hopefully it stays stuck. Your AIRTEX side panels should come mounted to a backing board.

And to top off the bladder install, fresh new carpet... because when you remove the old sides panels to access the fuel senders, they fall apart and carpet backing goes everywhere. I admire anyone that does interior work. Crawling around in there trimming around the vents, valves, gear extension crank, and locating all the original screw holes hurts. Buy the carpet and Advil well in advance of your start date. AIRTEX is taking four months to deliver.

@Ragsf15e No, ALL mooney’s are CAR3. I have never heard of anyone wanting burn certs for a pre-buy, but they aren’t expensive or hard to obtain, most anything will pass as the reg pretty much says if it doesn’t burn vigorously it’s OK. Surely Airtex can or will supply burn certs on request, it’s just not tough or expensive to meet Certs so why wouldn’t they? From memory your supposed to placard the airplane no smoking if you don’t have burn certs, but even if you have certs if you don’t placard it you have to have an ashtray for each seat, there is no way if I were paying big bucks for an interior that I would have ash trays, so I’d placard it anyway. For anyone who is replacing the foam in your seat I strongly recommend Oregon Aero cushions, Maule has absolutely horrible seats, couldn’t fly an hour without my back killing me, Oregon aero seat foam transformed the seats, it’s not so much the foam as it’s the foams shape that made the difference. It will seem like a lot of money for just foam, but it’s worth it.

I also recommend talking to both Jimmy Garrison (I bought my plane through him) and Richard Simile. Best is to get the plane closest to your desires over all. Both for price and for downtime. You don't want to buy a plane and the first two years you can't fly it due to the work being done. Your price for avionics is about right. But will likely creep up a bit. But I recommend you fly with what ever you have and read the threads here on what other people did. Others commented on the paint price. Interior redo is from maybe $5 for the carpet and sear upholstery to do it yourself, to about $12,000 for shop installed Airtex with plastic repair and painting, to $15,000 or more for a custom shop redo. Gold standard is Aero Comfort, and they are $18,000 not including removal, shipping to/from and reinstall. They no longer offer these services, but when they did, the total was around $25,000. FYI, your price for a reman is actually about half that actual cost, and a bit low for an overhaul. A reman comes with a new logbook and serial number and 0 hours. So, if you got a plane for free, you are looking at $80,000 for factory reman, $30,000 for paint, $15,000 for interior, $100,000 for avionics, so you have a sweet ride, but have over $225,000 in the plane. Assuming nothing else needs to be done. And, this is a plane you are going to outgrow with your family quite quickly.

22 feet of Door seal welt purchased from AirTex. Part # DT-82 Slate-A 70 + Shipping from 13035 (OBO)

The last price I got from AeroComfort was $18,000. But, that requires that someone remove the interior, ship it to them, then reinstall it. They no longer offer those services. There are a number of local shops around the country that do aircraft interiors. I used Roberto's Aircraft Interiors, now located at New Garden airport (N57) in SE PA. He did nice work, for a lot less than AeroComfort. Mine was done during an avionics upgrade, so my airplane was not at his shop. So it was not a priority for him. He replaced the poster board and other backings with Kydex. All materials have burn certs. My local FBO quoted about $12K for an Airtex interior install, including the Airtex interior. They would remove, repair and paint all the plastic parts.

Over the last couple years I’ve done mine and used multiple sources. The last piece I have are my seats. I talked to Hector at AEROCOMFORT Tuesday who is currently doing my glareshield and trim. I am sending my seats to him after the holidays. For everyone’s S/A he is discontinuing complete drop off GA interiors as of 1 January. He is on contract with AIRBUS who is taking a bulk of their time but he will do GA just not drop off complete interiors. When you want to send something in, plan early. i did my plastic on my own and had AIRTEX send me the carpet. I recommend diving in and doing some yourself, it’s a great way to get to know your airplane while you wait to send your seats off you can always add a cushion. Aircraftspruce lists a number of them for a temporary until you decide what to do.

Many people who want a budget option will purchase a kit from Airtex and then either do a lot of work themselves (which is probably a $5k interior) or they hire an automotive interior company to do the seats and coverings that can be removed from the aircraft (which is still likely under $10k all in). There used to be a company in Pennsylvania that regularly offered a full $10k interior refurbishment on eBay, but their prices seem to have increased post-covid. ETA: https://www.ebay.com/itm/300334424661

My original interior used foam core. I installed Airtex panels. The corrugated material is very light and much stronger. It is also easy to punch holes through with an awl when locating the attaching screw holes. I like to reuse the existing screw holes because I didn’t want to drill blind and risk nicking a wire or something. Airtex would probably supply the material cut to size with their patterns if you want to do your own covering.

You can read what Airtex uses : https://www.airtexinteriors.com/catalog_items.php?cat=wallpanels

Double congratulations! Let me know what you figure out for upholstery. I have cloth airtex I'd like to change out eventually.

After a few iterations with the design, the test panel has arrived. The CB panel markings still need a revision (it will be rounded and separate sections instead of the solid lines and one big blob). You can also see the new switches fitted on the test panel. It might be a bit big if you are comparing to the ETA rockers, but looks nice after looking at a M20V panel at the factory. The avionics shop is also making quicker progress than I expected. Firewall front is done and looks great - luckily they also believe in functionality and clean looking result when it comes to their work. My turn to pick up the pace and finish the seat and wall panels that AirTex shipped and then on to interior panel repair. Enjoy the pictures:

I've put Airtex carpets with matching side panels in two M20Js (a 1978 and a 1994) and they both fit well. The carpet comes with foam backing and is light weight. The side panels come glued to corrugated plastic board. It's not a premium carpet that I'd put in my house, but it looks fine (to me) for a vehicle (comparable to my autos).

I looked into it priced that option years ago and Airtex was about the same, so I just decided to order from them. IIRC, surging the edges is what increased the price substantially and tipped the scale. This was in Seattle so your mileage may vary.

AIRTEX interiors are not the best, however the price was good and samples I received were nice enough so i ordered carpet kit 5-6 years ago. It's still looking good and I'm pleased with it. One thing to point out is that is (probably) 10lb lighter then the old wool carpet I had for years. I always wondered if the old one was really so heavy or just collected all the dirt and sand in it.

I used Hector at AEROCOMFORT and he is always my “ go to” guy who I call first.he did all my trim, mouse boots, glareshield, windless, etc. However sometimes he gets backed up. Another option is AIRTEX interiors. They sent me my carpet set (floors & door panels) when I did my interior in 2020. Hector will do all the custom logos, etc. AIRTEX does not. http://www.airtexinteriors.com

Depends on who did the paint and how good that is. The engine is a narrow-deck and depends again, if it it has a reground cam and lifters or new, and new or rebuilt cylinders. it only has one nav, and that’s GPS only. Deficient for a plane in this price range. the interior looks good but cheap, like, vinyl and cloth Airtex. Fine for a flight school 172 but this is an expensive plane.

What are everyone's thoughts on mixing and matching interior upgrades from different suppliers? I'm thinking about replacing the carpet with Airtex carpets, panels with a Jaeger/Wisconsin Aviation system, and then likely custom upholstery for the seats. For those familiar, are the Jaeger interiors actually easy to install?

If it’s your first interior, then no it’s not easy. If you’ve done an aircraft interior before, or you have a good amount of help from someone who has some experience, it’s not too bad. My Mooney was my 3rd aircraft interior, plus I’m an A&P. I thought it was a good mix of straightforward pieces, intuition, and common sense fabrication. Just be aware that there really aren’t any step-by-step instructions. I used Airtex for my seats and carpet. I’m very happy with it.

Airtex 345 from ACR According to my avionics shop, the ACK is prone to accidental activations. Enough so they gave me a deal on switching to the Airtex.

I ripped up the factory carpet with no problems. The Airtex carpet comes with foam backing. I just put down a light coat of 3M spray upholstery adhesive and glued the new carpet down. I had to lift portions a couple of times: once to get to the bolts that go through the floor pan to attach the gear up/down relays when I replaced them, and once to remove the gascolator. I just used a putty knife to separate the foam from the floor. It didn’t even damage the foam. The secret is to not use too much glue.

I was thinking about just doing the hook and loop on the bottom. Snaps are quite the labor extensive thing aren’t they? I don’t disagree I think snaps are far superior and look good. Just not sure if I want to do it to this plane. It seems Airtex and SCS are the only 2 options for kits. I’d like to hear from people who have used both.

As noted above, Airtex is probably the most reliable way to go, but they won’t match your existing seats. An idea to consider would be sheepskin covers, if you bought 2 then at least your front seats would match. A lot of people really like them.