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M20K Interior

Flyin Bullfrog

By Flyin Bullfrog
in General Mooney Talk

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Flyin Bullfrog Contributor

Flyin Bullfrog

Posted
Posted

Mooney Team,

After doing many interiors, I finally got around to doing my K interior with thought towards improving looks, utility, and ergonomics. Following fwd to rear narrative of this project along with attached pictures.

Glare shield: Covered in black leather with an exposed red Italian stitch-a nice low profile look as to maximize vis with no observed glare. 

Crossbar: Covered in black leather with exposed zig-zag hand stitch-good grab point when adjusting front seats.

Yokes: Used 1/8 Aerolite foam as backing.  Black leather with baseball hand stitch.  Accomplished with yokes in the plane-a difficult, but achievable process.  I became motivated to do this given the cost by other vendors and pain to remove, ship, and reinstall.  Re-did the Mooney emblems in brass via a laser engraver. 

Overhead: Had to fix the pilot side Weemac vent-found the needed parts on Ebay.  Cut access fm the back side, fixed, and re-plugged the access point with marine grade G-Flex epoxy and cloth-it is airtight!  All other cracks, holes, weak areas were fixed.  Primed, textured, painted, sealed. Overhead lighting was not working-culprit was an unknown inline glass fuse in the battery compt.

Co-Pilot door: Window fairing fixed and covered in one piece to tan leather stretched using steam and not-so-secret juice (1part alcohol, 1 part baby shampoo, 2 parts water in a small spray bottle). Bottom half Bruce Jaeger’s  spatial interior panel, trimmed in silicon trim and attached with minimal screws. 

Seats: These seats where my first leather job ~4yrs ago-while craftsmanship has dramatically improved, they still look good.  I refoamed the seat bottoms in 2in firm aeroflex and 1in medium aeroflex foam-now feels like a new PC-12 that I had an opportunity to fly last month. Plan on eventually replacing If I am able to find some affordable articulating seat frames and a bucket rear seat conversion.

Window frames and side panels.  Inspired by discussion with Bruce Jaeger(Spatial Interiors), I was boldened to cut the window just below the fore-aft trim sections, I wrapped the remaining pilot window 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 of the adjacent to front and rear seats and leg wells where fabricated in new 1/16 in FAA grade Boltaron plastic-this eliminated large portions of deteriorating plastic, side carpeting and in my view has provided a cleaner/21st century look. I used Bruce's dual lock fastening technique plus his advice on Boltaron usage-result is a much preferred zero screws option for  easy access in case of future maintenance. Edges were trimmed in silicon trim that I purchased from Bruce.

Cargo Compt: Panel adjacent to the cargo door was cut in Boltaron. Rear and right panel was backed with polyboard and covered in leather with nice diamond stitching. Document holder was made in polycarbonate and trimmed in leather. Fabricated and bent a cable well 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 unsightly and usually stained nylon white straps.  Intent to use high quality bungees or nylon straps with ratchets friction adapters when needed.

Hat rack. All cleaned, primed and repainted. Rear panel was backed with 1/8 in Aerolite foam, covered in leather and hand cut a leather Mooney logo with titanium tipped scissors that was carefully sown-I prefer this better than embroideries that are subject to fraying, fading and snags.

Flooring.  I tend to use my Mooney in the utility mode and therefore eliminated ALL carpeting with a much more durable and easy to clean flight floor textured product with 1/4 in ensolite foam baking for comfort, insulation, and sound proofing.  Flooring will be snapped in with nickel plated snaps for easy removal if needed-getting many compliments on this durable floor which comes in a myriad of colors, textures and thickness.

Windlace, Pockets, and Armrests.  Windlace made of matching window frame leather with a reduced 3/8in core like in the newer mooneys.  Pockets made of leather, inside are black leather with a boltaron plastic stiffer as backing-I made mine to fit my IPad Mini, checklist, small flashlight, and small kneepad.  The can be shaped in any way, placed anywhere after the panels are in place, sets is in and pilot identifies his preferred location. I have not installed the armrest that I fabricated after realizing the added room and minimal utility of small armrest.  Will fly the airplane a bit and make a decision on installing the arm rest which has a removable (snaps) leather pad.

Sorry in advance for providing long explanations amidst the ongoing east Coast Snowmageddon.

Rico

N231!

Flying Bull Frog LLC

M20K_N231C_Interior_pdf.pdf

  • Like 3
carusoam Grand Master

carusoam

Posted
Posted

Way to go Rico!

Thanks for sharing the photos and details.

Excellent writing, photography, and descriptions.

Standby for the questions!  :)

Best regards,

-a-

  • 1 month later...
  • 7 months later...
Flyin Bullfrog Contributor

Flyin Bullfrog

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Realized that I never responded to your email.  My apologies.

These aviation grade hides.  I use multiple vendors: Omnavia, Perrone, Reliatex to name a few. The all come with FAA certificates of conformance.

Foam name is Airflex-my apologies. Hope this helps.

 

  • Like 1
  • 11 months later...

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