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Partial panel cover


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My intention is to not do too much with 3RM immediately; want to see what shakes out of the avionics industry over the next year or so (Dynon SkyView HDX STC for the Mooney? Or Aspen + EDM-900 + some other autopilot? ...), but, one thing that really kinda must get tended to immediately is this unfortunate piece of trim around the strip gauges and tach/fuel-MP gauges (etc):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XqAjCHqnn9sjECmAFM6YXQETp6dM42_r/view?usp=sharing

(Here it is, isolated: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atcsjzIRantFmvFFcjMM9cL8zC0XogEP/view?usp=sharing ... And here's what it mounts over: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mg0FWU-TLYiwOl20WDhrYdkcGxy3z_2V/view?usp=sharing)

Can anyone recommend a shop that could fabricate (and black powdercoat? Paint?) just that cover? Etching in the placard(s) would be nice (not sure if the "strobes" placard is required; the compass correction I'd keep as a card, the tach placard is required...), but not essential.

This feels like it should be fairly simple, I'd like to keep it under four figures if possible.

Would something cosmetic like that need an A&P involved?

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Chris. I looked for that piece and never found one, I reinforced it and it cracked again.   Plane plastics has the pilot side, did not have the engine side though, check again, maybe now.
Ron


Yeah, I think I'm just going to have to have something fabricated.


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27 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

I think it would be cheaper... and much nicer just to throw it away and paint the panel with some black textured paint.  See @Marauder's panel.

I don't think so, looking at it. There's a lot of disparate hardware to hide, rough edges, avionics tray edges, etc. It was never meant to be out in the open, and it shows. Eventually, the plan is to rip out the entire right side and redo it all around a digital engine monitor and STC'd digital gauge replacements, just want something to cover up the screws, etc., in the meantime.

 

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I don't think so, looking at it. There's a lot of disparate hardware to hide, rough edges, avionics tray edges, etc. It was never meant to be out in the open, and it shows. Eventually, the plan is to rip out the entire right side and redo it all around a digital engine monitor and STC'd digital gauge replacements, just want something to cover up the screws, etc., in the meantime.

 

 

I went through the piecemeal process of working on a portion of the panel at a time. I did it that way to accommodate the avionic changes I was making at the time. Best to wait until you have a high probability of knowing what you are planing to install and do the whole panel at the same time.

 

The piecemeal approach is okay but if add/remove stuff you have additional holes to contend with. On my plane I also had that Naugahyde stuff on the panel. It kept peeling and it never matched the powder coated side.

 

06f30b0179ddb9a1145a6d441380c94a.jpg

You can see the left side certainly wasn’t a perfect match for the right side.

 

Having the entire panel done really makes the panel tied together.

 

36d1e83ce68623e508dc1ddcfb48ed80.jpg

 

 

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Yeah, I don't plan to piecemeal anything else, but that existing plastic piece is really an eyesore. It doesn't attach on one side at all and just sort of flaps around, it's cracked, it's been hand-altered. It's fugly. It really detracts from what's otherwise a gorgeous interior. If I can throw a couple hundred bucks at it now and then redo the whole panel later, great. But it's definitely worth it to me to throw those Benjamins at it today, before the Grand Master Plan is finalized and under way. Painted / powdercoated black metal (matching or replacing the metal the circuit breakers, ELT, and suction gauge are mounted in) will be fine, for now. Eventually everything will be homogenized.

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Vacuforming isn't hard. Find someone with a vacuforming machine. Make a tool out of MDF. Cut out the holes with hole saws and jig saws. Router the bevels and then sand it smooth. Make it all a little big to account for the plastic. Have the vacuforming guy suck a sheet of plastic down on it. 

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Chrixx,

Looks like somebody used a big piece of temperature sensitive tape to hide some minor surgery(s) of the past... temperature sensitive, meaning it shrank when it got hot...

Doing it right, once isn’t so bad... repeating the work is when it gets expensive...

Especially when removing and replacing the same instruments, the hours add up one amu at a time...

Hendricks had an early start as an MSer.  He has personal Mooney experience and a machine shop...

His website includes some nice pics of actual Mooney IPs...

If you know which direction you are most likely going... it may make sense to define your end product and get a panel or two cut...

With an F, I think I would go with the Marauder model... then fill in the hardware as the hardware becomes available...

Or an E, Bob has a pretty snazzy panel layout...

Or a C, there is a really cool Swiss layout...

Or an O, Steven has the panel I would start with....

GSXR, Our 252 friend in TX has the best hardware acquisition strategy... one piece at a time...from various sources...

The panel sheet metal is pretty low cost if you can do the one and done routine... get new mounting hardware, select the color...

Always make forward progress, not enough dough to do things twice... my own CB philosophy...

really great if you have a working relationship with a mechanic...

PP thoughts only, not a mechanic.

Best regards,

-a-

 

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Hendricks had an early start as an MSer.  He has personal Mooney experience and a machine shop...

His website includes some nice pics of actual Mooney IPs...

If you know which direction you are most likely going... it may make sense to define your end product and get a panel or two cut...

I'm aware re Hendricks. In fact, I linked to the page where he's posted his Mooney panels.

The reason I'm piecemealing, as I explained, is I *don't* know what direction I'm ultimately going in. It could be Aspen + TruTrak + EDM-900, but if it's STC'd for the Mooney, it more likely will be Dynon Skyview HDX. If Garmin gets their act together, it could even be G500 + GFC500. I know I want an engine monitor more modern than the EDM-700, an autopilot with altitude preselect and approach capture (with heading, VOR/LOC/ILS tracking, and GPSS/vertical guidance; S-TEC 55X or equivalent, TruTrak + Aspen may be moving that direction...), and some sort of EFIS or, better yet, PFD. I can fly steam. I prefer to fly glass, single pilot IFR.

So I'm not ready to lay out everything and start working on a grand master plan. I just want to clean up that right panel for the next year or so, while I wait for the avionics world to settle down a bit. This is mostly an overlay - it will frame the strip gauges, the tach, and the MAP/FP gauge, while holding the suction gauge and one set of circuit breakers. (Ultimately, a whole right panel will be done, with all the breakers consolidated, etc., but until I know what - if anything - I'm hanging on that right panel, doing that would be incredibly premature.)

 

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