Wanted: New Interior

[ToddDPT]

Hey everyone, I'm in the process of a pre-buy of a 201 (my first Mooney!) and we are wanting to upgrade the interior after the purchase.  Can anyone recommend a quality place here in or near California?

Thanks.

[IFlyMooney]

I recentlly had my seats redone in my 231 in Redlands, CA.  Excellent job for a very good price.  PM me if your interested in more information.

[mooneygirl]

Hi Todd

ArtCraft Paint is a family-owned shop that does interiors as well as paint.  We have recommended six or seven Mooneys to their shop and no one has been disappointed. http://www.ArtCraftPaint.com   Teresa Venegas is the owner.

 

Santa Maria is located on the Central Coast of California KSMX

 

All the best

Jolie

[Parker_Woodruff]

Box your interior up and send it to San Antonio, TX to Aero Comfort.  Seriously.  I'm in process right now and am very impressed with their work at a reasonable price.

[DaV8or]

Quote: Parker_Woodruff

Box your interior up and send it to San Antonio, TX to Aero Comfort.  Seriously.  I'm in process right now and am very impressed with their work at a reasonable price.

[PTK]

Buy a nice FAA approved leather that you like and take your seats to a local auto re upholstery shop.  You will save a ton of money! You can also buy some memory foam if you need it.  Make sure you get burn certificates for everything for your logs. If you are doing carpet you can also buy that and have it shipped to you.  My advise is don't rush because rushing wastes money.  I did mine this way and saved approx $4K over an "aviation" interior shop!!!  There is nothing NOTHING an "aviation" interior shop will do for your interior that cannot be done at local auto reupholster.  Search around and I'm sure you'll find somebody.  I would never ship my seats to someone across the country!!  This is the biggest joke I've heard.  And even more scary is that some actually do it!!  What are you going to do when you need something corrected or some type of follow up.  You are going to resend them across the country?

[mooneygirl]

We have used the auto-shop method too, twice. Once with leather and once with my cloth seats. I was able to get memory foam and beef up my seat and lumbar area. Saved a bundle.  We used a good auto shop in Santa Maria, CA.

[MooneyMitch]

We purchased material from AirTex Aircraft Interiors.  All seats and side panels were sewn by a local auto upholstery shop.  Excellent work.   All other labor was performed by ME [who would have ever thought!]  Many MooneySpace folks have done this and you can to.  If we can help, please ask any of us. 

Attached is Jolie's E model after the fact.

[mjc]

I've used Giotto's Aircraft Interiors at San Jose International and have had only good experiences. They reupholstered my seats and headrests, and fabricated new baggage area side panels for me. The prices were very fair, for the seats they were the same as a local auto shop wanted. I've seen everything from Cherokees to Citations there. There's no landing or parking fee at SJC if you're visiting a shop on the field. If you contact them, ask for Don Hare.

[Parker_Woodruff]

Quote: allsmiles

Buy a nice FAA approved leather that you like and take your seats to a local auto re upholstery shop.  You will save a ton of money! You can also buy some memory foam if you need it.  Make sure you get burn certificates for everything for your logs. If you are doing carpet you can also buy that and have it shipped to you.  My advise is don't rush because rushing wastes money.  I did mine this way and saved approx $4K over an "aviation" interior shop!!!  There is nothing NOTHING an "aviation" interior shop will do for your interior that cannot be done at local auto reupholster.  Search around and I'm sure you'll find somebody.  I would never ship my seats to someone across the country!!  This is the biggest joke I've heard.  And even more scary is that some actually do it!!  What are you going to do when you need something corrected or some type of follow up.  You are going to resend them across the country?

[N201MKTurbo]

The last time I had my seats done I used an auto shop. The guy at the shop said he knew exactly what to do. When he was done he presented me with a burn cert. for every piece of material used with a sample of each stapled to each cert. He did a great job $200 each for the front seats and $300 for the rear – wool fabric and new foam. He turned them in two days.

[Parker_Woodruff]

Quote: N201MKTurbo

The last time I had my seats done I used an auto shop. The guy at the shop said he knew exactly what to do. When he was done he presented me with a burn cert. for every piece of material used with a sample of each stapled to each cert. He did a great job $200 each for the front seats and $300 for the rear – wool fabric and new foam. He turned them in two days.

[PTK]

Negative. My interior: All new leather seats and headrests, memory foam all four seats, embroyderry on headrests, brand new carpeting with serging and backing, refinish interior panels with elastomeric color coal (SEM): Grand total $1900 plus I oaid for my own leather and carpeting about 600$ TOTAL 2500$ and change.

I removed and reinstalled the plastic interior panels and carpeting. Took me four days, took the shop 2 weeks. Saved a bundle. And you know what they are local to me. I can always visit them if I need something rather than shipping seats across the country!! Give me a break!!

[Parker_Woodruff]

Quote: allsmiles

I removed and reinstalled the plastic interior panels and carpeting. Took me four days, took the shop 2 weeks. Saved a bundle. And you know what they are local to me. I can always visit them if I need something rather than shipping seats across the country!! Give me a break!!

[231BB]

For a turn key solution, with a high attention to detail, talk to Buchanan Aviation Services in Concord, CA (KCCR). You can see some pictures of their work under 231BB Photo gallery. Buchanan will strip the interior down, powder coat all interior metal components in a complementary color, cover panels, install door welt trim, fabric trim carpets, etc.

[ToddDPT]

Wow!  Thanks everyone for the great ideas.  Looks like we have a lot of options.

[davidfreedman]

Here's one more for you...

I went the auto-shop route last year which a fellow Mooney-owner did prior to me with a great result.  New Life Upholstry 310-841-6556 in Los Angeles.  They stripped the interior down to the frame, reinforce and repaired all the plastic, covered it all with microfiber, took care of the seats, side panels, kick panels, headliner, carpets...all approved materials They did a beautiful job.  Three squawks coming out of it:  1)  they pinched the tubes to the airvents which travel through the headliner 2) the heat rating on the glue that they used for side panel inserts was insufficient and wasn't holding on hot days.  3)  Slight wrinkles in the covering on the door.  First two issues remediated.

Last issue which was my own screwup...I wanted to do two-tone gray.  The darker gray ended up having a bluish tint which I didn't notice when I was looking at the swatch.  Clashes with my maroon paint...but I need new paint anyway.