Yet another new Mooniac

[AndreiC]

OK, I bought her and brought her home. N9351V, from Jimmy Garrison at GMax. The whole experience was quite good, though getting back home Monday was a loooong day (2 hours of flying with the instructor to get the insurance checkout, and 7 hours to fly her from San Antonio, TX to Madison, WI). But all is well.

Now I am going to start asking newbie questions about the Mooney. To be precise it is a 1970 M20E Chaparral model, electric gear and flaps. Here are my first few questions, I am sure there will be more...

1) All the interior plastic is shot. Many many cracks, it is not repairable. (Well, the good news is that the instrument panel plastic is in good shape.) I was going to buy replacement parts from planeplastic.com, but what they have listed there for a 1970 M20E does not look at all like what I have in my plane. Should I look at other years/models? Or do you guys have any other suggestions for sourcing the plastic trim parts?

2) The mechanic who did the prepurchase inspection sent me many photos of what the plane looks like with the inspection panels removed. What struck me is that the control tubes have a lot of the paint chipped off of them, and are kind of dirty and greasy. Do people do something about this? Clean them up? Repaint them? The primer underneath the paint seems in good shape.

3) While I was flying back, a constant very strong stream of air came into the cabin from the louvered vent that is in the middle console, between the pilot and copilot. (It is the one that is controlled by one of the two levers that are in the center console; the other one selects ram induction air.) My impression was that one should be able to shut it off using the push-pull cable called "cabin air" (which is next to the cabin heat), at the bottom of the instrument panel. But pushing and pulling that cable does absolutely nothing to alter the flow of air. Moreover, the louvered vent has one of the louvers missing, so closing it does not change much. I don't mind it if the temperature outside is ok, but if it gets colder this could be a problem. My question is -- what valve does the "cabin air" cable control?

OK, that's it for now, and I'll ask more questions as they come. Thanks! Andrei.
 

[Fly Boomer]

45 minutes ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

OK, that's it for now, and I'll ask more questions as they come. Thanks! Andrei.

I don't know much about the M20E, but I wanted to welcome you to MooneySpace!  I'm certain someone will be along to answer your questions.  BTW, I have only flown two M20Es, but that was enough to convince me that I needed electric gear.

[rwabdu]

congratulations on the beautiful airplane! 

I have a poor interior on my 68C. Looked at many options to repair the plastics, From what I hear its better to repair the old ones with fiberglass and repaint then buy new. A few people have told me it took them about 40 hours of work to do.. You can also have a company do it if you have the funds, A few companies I looked at were SCS ( https://scs-interiors.com/ ) Jaeger ( https://www.jaegeraviation.com/ ) Areocomfort ( https://aerocomfort.com/ ) and Airtex (https://www.airtexinteriors.com/index.php) to name a few. In the end I have neither the time nor money for something that doesn't make the airplane fly any better so holding off for now. 

Enjoy the new plane! congratulations. it looks awesome! 

[Fly Boomer]

1 hour ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

Or do you guys have any other suggestions for sourcing the plastic trim parts?

See if these offer any ideas:

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/38857-interior-plastic-door-cracked-on-my-mooney/

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/1611-glareshield-repair-plastic/

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/21913-mooney-interior-repairs/

We lost a bunch of files a while back, so there may be broken links.

Also, the best way to search MooneySpace is to use your favorite search engine, and specify the web site like this:

site:mooneyspace.com interior plastic repair

 

 

[Niko182]

You can fly it right back to SAT and have hector at aerocomfort repair and fix up the interior. From what I've heard he does a very good job fixing everything up.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Niko182

[Huckster79]

18 hours ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

OK, I bought her and brought her home. N9351V, from Jimmy Garrison at GMax. The whole experience was quite good, though getting back home Monday was a loooong day (2 hours of flying with the instructor to get the insurance checkout, and 7 hours to fly her from San Antonio, TX to Madison, WI). But all is well.

Now I am going to start asking newbie questions about the Mooney. To be precise it is a 1970 M20E Chaparral model, electric gear and flaps. Here are my first few questions, I am sure there will be more...

1) All the interior plastic is shot. Many many cracks, it is not repairable. (Well, the good news is that the instrument panel plastic is in good shape.) I was going to buy replacement parts from planeplastic.com, but what they have listed there for a 1970 M20E does not look at all like what I have in my plane. Should I look at other years/models? Or do you guys have any other suggestions for sourcing the plastic trim parts?

2) The mechanic who did the prepurchase inspection sent me many photos of what the plane looks like with the inspection panels removed. What struck me is that the control tubes have a lot of the paint chipped off of them, and are kind of dirty and greasy. Do people do something about this? Clean them up? Repaint them? The primer underneath the paint seems in good shape.

3) While I was flying back, a constant very strong stream of air came into the cabin from the louvered vent that is in the middle console, between the pilot and copilot. (It is the one that is controlled by one of the two levers that are in the center console; the other one selects ram induction air.) My impression was that one should be able to shut it off using the push-pull cable called "cabin air" (which is next to the cabin heat), at the bottom of the instrument panel. But pushing and pulling that cable does absolutely nothing to alter the flow of air. Moreover, the louvered vent has one of the louvers missing, so closing it does not change much. I don't mind it if the temperature outside is ok, but if it gets colder this could be a problem. My question is -- what valve does the "cabin air" cable control?

OK, that's it for now, and I'll ask more questions as they come. Thanks! Andrei.
 

welcome from the other Newbie here! I just bought my F, waiting on delivery…

I too will need to do some work on the plastics.  So keep anything ya find posted and I’ll do the same.  

[Utah20Gflyer]

You would be surprised what can be repaired when it comes to interior plastic.  

A couple annuals ago my Mooney was in the shop for its first annual that lasted 3 and 1/2 months.  At one point a person turned a plane around in front of the hanger and my ceiling plastic got blown off my wing and broke into probably 30 pieces.  I thought initially I would just buy a new one but after quite a bit of looking I could never find anything I was confident was going to work.   So I spent probably 4-5 hours carefully putting everything back together including forming pieces that were lost to get it all together again,  Then I painted it.  now it looks better than it ever did and is actually significantly more structurally sound than before I started.  Personally I would just bite the bullet and fix what you have.   Attached is a pic of what it looked like after being resurrected. 

[pirate]

My heater / vent should be the same as yours.
For the pedestal, floor and defrost vent you should have one push pull for fresh air and one for heat, if the fresh air does not shut off then it’s either the cable or the fresh air / heater blend door. I’ve seen some not operate because the blend door was never lubricated in decades causing it to freeze. This is located on the co pilot side firewall and can easily be taken apart to check. 

[AndreiC]

Thanks to all. I flew her yesterday to Wisconsin Aviation Watertown, who bought the Jaeger business a couple of years ago. (They are only 30 miles away from me.) What we decided we would do was the following:

-- get their Spatial Interior for the lower half of the door and side panels. They convinced me that this adds substantially more shoulder/elbow space, which in a Mooney is at a premium. (~$2500)

-- buy from planeplastics the window trim around the windows and the top half of the door, also the baggage door (~$1000)

-- they would repair for me the overhead trim piece and re-cover the parts of the headliner that are covered in (now dirty) vinyl (~$1200)

-- they would cut and bind new carpet for the floor (now there is no carpet) (~$1500)

This would come up to about $6000, and it would be up to me to trim and cut and install all the pieces. This seems steep to me, but I don't know what else to do.

Has anyone had experience with the Spatial Interior? How hard is it to install it and the Plane Plastics pieces? I was kind of taken aback by the fact that they said it would take **them** about a week of work to get everything back in after the pieces are repaired and trimmed. I worry this will take me two whole weeks of work if for them it is one week, and it would also come out looking worse...

Any other ideas/comments? 

I also want to remove the old fiberglass insulation that is behind the panels, and replace it with some modern foam/aluminum backing material. Where does one buy this material from?

Thanks!

 

 

[MikeOH]

Just my humble opinion based only on reading various experiences here over the years.  The new parts really don't fit properly despite their very high prices and require a lot of trimming to fit well.  Personally, I wouldn't spend that kind of money and then have to pay someone 40 hours of labor (another $4000).

My plastics are not in great condition, but not horrible looking/destroyed.  My plan, also based on what I've read here, is to use ground up ABS and ABS cement to repair and then repaint (after I retire!).  Low cost, a bit of work, but will look like new and fit perfectly.

[Echo]

Congrats!  That is awesome that the purchase went through for you.  I renforced my plastics with fiberglass and repainted.  They were just fine.  I purchased ceiling material from airtex and used old pieces as templates.  Used fabric adhesive and it looked great.  Labor was NOT that bad.  you can buy royalite fabric and wrap the trim in it too.  Good luck with your pane.  Are you at Morley Field?  I used to fly in there quite a bit as I have family in vacinity.

[AndreiC]

Hey Echo! Yes, I am at Morey Field. 

In the end I decided to follow the advice of the members here and to try to repair my existing panels. I probably will end up buying two panels from Plane Plastics (the door cover and the baggage door cover), but the others I'll try to fix myself.

Pirate: are you saying that the two cables (cabin air and heat) go to the same mixing box? Is it the one on the **inside** of the plane, on the firewall, copilot side? I see a fairly complicated air box there with 4 or 5 air hoses going into it... Or is it something that is on the firewall, but on the engine side of it?

Thanks again, you guys are great.

Another maintenance question. How do I tell if the landing gear "pucks" or "biscuits" on the main gear are worn out? How much should they measure when compressed by the weight of the plane? Or is the only way to measure them is by jacking the plane up and measuring them with no weight on the wheels?

[Fly Boomer]

4 minutes ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

Hey Echo! Yes, I am at Morey Field. 

In the end I decided to follow the advice of the members here and to try to repair my existing panels. I probably will end up buying two panels from Plane Plastics (the door cover and the baggage door cover), but the others I'll try to fix myself.

Pirate: are you saying that the two cables (cabin air and heat) go to the same mixing box? Is it the one on the **inside** of the plane, on the firewall, copilot side? I see a fairly complicated air box there with 4 or 5 air hoses going into it... Or is it something that is on the firewall, but on the engine side of it?

Thanks again, you guys are great.

Another maintenance question. How do I tell if the landing gear "pucks" or "biscuits" on the main gear are worn out? How much should they measure when compressed by the weight of the plane? Or is the only way to measure them is by jacking the plane up and measuring them with no weight on the wheels?

To make sure someone is notified of your response, use their handle with the "at sign" and select from the list like this:

@Echo and @pirate

[pirate]

2 hours ago, Andrei Caldararu said:

Hey Echo! Yes, I am at Morey Field. 

In the end I decided to follow the advice of the members here and to try to repair my existing panels. I probably will end up buying two panels from Plane Plastics (the door cover and the baggage door cover), but the others I'll try to fix myself.

Pirate: are you saying that the two cables (cabin air and heat) go to the same mixing box? Is it the one on the **inside** of the plane, on the firewall, copilot side? I see a fairly complicated air box there with 4 or 5 air hoses going into it... Or is it something that is on the firewall, but on the engine side of it?

Thanks again, you guys are great.

Another maintenance question. How do I tell if the landing gear "pucks" or "biscuits" on the main gear are worn out? How much should they measure when compressed by the weight of the plane? Or is the only way to measure them is by jacking the plane up and measuring them with no weight on the wheels?

The box should be located is on the outside, co-pilot side.