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Interior refurb ideas please....


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Simple:  remove, clean, patch, repair and repaint what you have.

Nicer:  buy new panels from Plane Plastics. Trim to fit, paint your favorite color and install.

Fancy:  replace all panels with Bruce Jaeger's interior for a little more elbow room. U forget what he calls it, but @Marauder has it, I believe. 

Caution:  too nice interior panels will make you want to redo the seats. Then the instrument panel looks bad . . . . Wouldn't fancy yokes look sweet? How does the top of your panel look? Wouldn't that piece of tubing with the compass on it look sweet wrapped in leather . . . . Then there's the headliner, carpets, how about the hat rack or that rusty hanger in the ceiling? Do your Seattle's look old and worn against those newly-redone seats? What do the windows look like--cloudy? Crazed? Wouldn't solar gray be nice and cooler too?

There's no end to this. Tread carefully at the beginning lest a misstep send you farther than you intended!

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1 hour ago, Hank said:

Simple:  remove, clean, patch, repair and repaint what you have.

Nicer:  buy new panels from Plane Plastics. Trim to fit, paint your favorite color and install.

Fancy:  replace all panels with Bruce Jaeger's interior for a little more elbow room. U forget what he calls it, but @Marauder has it, I believe. 

Caution:  too nice interior panels will make you want to redo the seats. Then the instrument panel looks bad . . . . Wouldn't fancy yokes look sweet? How does the top of your panel look? Wouldn't that piece of tubing with the compass on it look sweet wrapped in leather . . . . Then there's the headliner, carpets, how about the hat rack or that rusty hanger in the ceiling? Do your Seattle's look old and worn against those newly-redone seats? What do the windows look like--cloudy? Crazed? Wouldn't solar gray be nice and cooler too?

There's no end to this. Tread carefully at the beginning lest a misstep send you farther than you intended!

Porsche/Ferrari Fancy: Drop the Mooney off in San Antonio at AeroComfort. Have a chat with Hector and make sure you've got a large credit card. It will include carpet, seats, yokes, glare shield, center post, headliner, etc, etc, etc.

As @Hank says, there is a knock on effect. After returning from Hector's, you'll be shopping for better paint.

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9 minutes ago, Htmlkid said:

I already have a place I’m just looking for pictures of what other# have done

There are some nice interiors around here... in my case, the nice interior is still in my head and not yet in my Mooney :(

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35 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

Porsche/Ferrari Fancy: Drop the Mooney off in San Antonio at AeroComfort. Have a chat with Hector and make sure you've got a large credit card. It will include carpet, seats, yokes, glare shield, center post, headliner, etc, etc, etc.

As @Hank says, there is a knock on effect. After returning from Hector's, you'll be shopping for better paint.

Didn’t know you could get credit cards larger than 3-1/2” x 2-1/2”. 
Are they like those large checks you see at golf tournaments???

 

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On 5/2/2021 at 9:48 AM, Htmlkid said:

I’m about to redo our interior and looking for ideas. If you have a sharp interior or have recently done it please post pictures to help with ideas.

 

thanks....

 

On 5/2/2021 at 12:52 PM, gsxrpilot said:

Porsche/Ferrari Fancy: Drop the Mooney off in San Antonio at AeroComfort. Have a chat with Hector and make sure you've got a large credit card. It will include carpet, seats, yokes, glare shield, center post, headliner, etc, etc, etc.

As @Hank says, there is a knock on effect. After returning from Hector's, you'll be shopping for better paint.

At the end of 2015 when I bought N134JF I started out by removing the seats. I was going to use a local upholstery shop and get burn certs, etc. Then I removed the interior panels, etc. I was going to paint them and go through that entire process. Once I realized how much work it was to remove the interior and I got a quote from a local upholstery place, who tried talking me into a hideous looking vinyl,  I came to my senses and told myself that I was going to do it once and do it right. I was going to be closely involved and stay on budget but not cheap out and regret it later. 

Hector at Aero Comfort had done one Mooney for me a few years back and it turned out very well so i let him know that I wanted to do it on a budget and asked where I could save some money*. He and I had developed trust on that first job. In fact I had the privilege of taking him up for his first ride ever in a Mooney after we were done. On this one I saved quite a bit by removing the interior and reinstalling it myself and learned a lot about the airplane. That being said, since I've done it once now, I only want to do that once in my lifetime. It's a lot of work and those guys earn every dime they make. Since I lived in San Antonio that made it easier. He loaned me an older Mooney seat so i could still use the airplane in the meantime since I planned the initial avionics work while the interior was out, saving money on that as well. I had Hector cover the panels and headliner in off white (very light gray) ultra leather.  The ultra leather really makes the panels a lot more durable. Mine were in great shape with no cracks, but yellowed and still getting brittle. (I have seen some that he has done that come in all cracked and in pieces - they repair them, cover them and they look brand new.) I had him do the glareshield and make up the carpet as well for me to install. At the end of the day I was very pleased with what we worked out and felt like I got a good deal and he did too.

Later on he had a set of the new style Mooney yokes already covered in black leather. He worked out a deal where I traded in my painted yokes. (He trusted me enough to allow me a week to go to the avionics shop and have them swap the yokes out in a couple hours so the airplane wouldn't be down.)

(*Just a general observation: Offering to pay the owner of a business with a method that he prefers (e.g. a large wad of cash instead of a large credit card) can sometimes save you money as well :))

There are probably a lot of shops that will do good work, but Hector gets the highest recommendation from me.

 

 

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So what do people think the "best seats" are that are out there???  (Guess I better limit the comments to 20 words or less!!! :D )

Years ago on my first X-US I was pretty stiff after the first day (we usually take at least 2-4 days to stop at places along the way).  The next year I had Tempur-Pedic seat cushions and lumbar cushions for our backs.  It made a HUGE difference.

So I'm trying to figure out if I should redo ours (orig. 1980 K) with memory foam, look at Oregon Aeros (which I haven't looked at in years) or if there is someone else out there now?

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We have so few choices...

1) Start with the best seat available for Mooneys...

2) Get the adjustable height and crank for tilt...

3) add layered foam... Oregon has details on how to select the various stiffnesses...

4) Get it covered by Hector...

If you have the seat already... see Hector for step two....

If you need the seat... there is a list for that too...

Best regards,

-a-

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On 5/2/2021 at 11:22 AM, Hank said:

 

Fancy:  replace all panels with Bruce Jaeger's interior for a little more elbow room. U forget what he calls it, but @Marauder has it, I believe. 

 

My memory finally worked:  Spatial Interiors. Bruce sold it to someone. Trained a few MSCs to do it, too. AGL at KMRN comes to mind.

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A couple hundred AMU and a $70 sewing machine will get you going.     The lower leather side panels and cargo area have held up really well and don't need cleaning like carpet does.    I have a walking foot machine now and the seats could be much better.   But they work for now.

 

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The Rustolem paint has held up well.   Even where I painted the leather trim pieces and leather arm rests with it.   Still need to paint the vents.   was going to do them in the plane vs. trying to get to the nut to take them out.

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Airtex, see some of my previous posts.  Yes the carpet is not the best you could buy.  My carpet is now a year and a half old, it has a couple grease spots on it.  Some of it from me using a little too much grease on the articulating seat screw, other from either a mechanic or radio shop.  Light tan shows that stuff. Most of it cleaned up with some spray carpet cleaner.  Wear is fine, Airtex puts the scuff pads in the correct position.  I view carpets being almost like tires.  Use 'em, wear 'em, replace 'em every few years.

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