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Posted

Gentlemen:

I bought a new (to me) 1996 Mooney Ovation.  One of the things I would like to do is refurbish the interior.  It’s nice for 27 years old….but its 27 years old.  Hector at Aero Comfort has informed me that they will no longer remove and reinstall the interiors for 2025.  They want you to remove the interior, ship it to them, and then you have to reinstall it when you get it back.  I like the one stop shopping solution but now if I am into the project for my labor I’m going to look into doing it all myself……..or source it locally.

Has anyone removed an Ovation Interior?  How hard was it and what kind of time did it take?  Did you repair and repaint the “plastic” panels?  How is it repaired and/ or painted?  If not, who did you send it to?

Insulation/ soundproofing:  Does it get replaced?

Seats:  Who does them?  How much?  Where did you source the foam?  How about the leather?

Carpet:  Same

Headliner: Same

Did you, or should you replace the windows while you are in there?

Anything else to do while you are in there?

I’m just getting started so any advice in any area is welcome.

Thank you for your time.

Posted

I can see why Hector no longer wants to do this. He probably loses money on the removal and installation. These things were all hand built and no two are exactly the same. I've done this a couple of times. 

Plastic: you can repair it and paint it. Lots of threads here on how to do that. SEM Color Coat Phantom White is a good match for painting the plastic. You can buy it in rattle cans. There are Youtube videos on how to prep the plastic and apply it. The first one I painted with rattle cans in my garage. The last one I took to a local paint shop and they sprayed it all in their paint booth. You will be amazed at how much plastic there is when you get it all out.

Most of the sheet metal screws are #4 but you will want to replace the ones that are stripped out with #6 and paint them to match.

You can get carpet made to size from SCS or Airtex.

The side insulation will be metalized foam on the side panels and probably fiberglass everywhere else. Replacing the fiberglass with foam will be an improvement for temperature control and somewhat for noise.

The first one I did was many years ago and I bought an Airtex interior. I had the foam in the seats rebuilt by a local aircraft upholsterer and contoured to match an orthopedic back support and then covered with Airtex covers. They were really comfortable. If you want really top end, have the seats done by Oregon Aero. So, there are lots of options depending on how you want it to look and your budget.

If you are planning an avionics upgrade, that is the time to do it because all the wiring runs down the left side and much of the interior has to come out depending on what you are having done.

Skip

 

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, William Munney said:

Has anyone removed an Ovation Interior?  How hard was it and what kind of time did it take?  Did you repair and repaint the “plastic” panels?  How is it repaired and/ or painted?  If not, who did you send it to?

All Ovations have the highly desirable fiberglass interior panels that were covered with Ultraleather at the factory. They should clean up well. Post some pictures please.

You do not want to paint them. The headliner pieces in your year Ovation were covered with Eurostretch cloth that usually sags after 10 or more years. They should be re-covered in cloth or preferably ultraleather - not difficult for a local upholstery shop.

  • Like 1
Posted

If it has fiberglass panels you definitely don't want to paint them. I have seen the fiberglass panels that have the ultra leather coming loose. If that's what is happening, then any good upholstery shop should be able to redo that.

Posted
8 hours ago, William Munney said:

Gentlemen:

I bought a new (to me) 1996 Mooney Ovation.  One of the things I would like to do is refurbish the interior.  It’s nice for 27 years old….but its 27 years old.  Hector at Aero Comfort has informed me that they will no longer remove and reinstall the interiors for 2025.  They want you to remove the interior, ship it to them, and then you have to reinstall it when you get it back.  I like the one stop shopping solution but now if I am into the project for my labor I’m going to look into doing it all myself……..or source it locally.

Has anyone removed an Ovation Interior?  How hard was it and what kind of time did it take?  Did you repair and repaint the “plastic” panels?  How is it repaired and/ or painted?  If not, who did you send it to?

Insulation/ soundproofing:  Does it get replaced?

Seats:  Who does them?  How much?  Where did you source the foam?  How about the leather?

Carpet:  Same

Headliner: Same

Did you, or should you replace the windows while you are in there?

Anything else to do while you are in there?

I’m just getting started so any advice in any area is welcome.

Thank you for your time.

In spite of now having to R&R the panels yourself, or source the work locally, I would still suggest having Aerocomfort do the work. Their work is excellent. I plan on doing it as well.

  • Like 1
Posted

There are lots of capable people who can do high-quality upholstery work, usually on automobiles, and some on aircraft.  The only difference is the materials used.  I do not believe that one needs any special certification to sew.  You do need to be able to produce flame certifications.  Leather can be bought inexpensively provided you look and do your homework.  I bought the leather I used for my plane from an aircraft salvage yard that had new, unused hides from a company that had been doing jet interiors.  You can get your leather hides flame tested for not a lot of money.

Eurostretch is a good cloth to cover the headliner.  It used to be made in tweed colors, but now just a single color.  Comes from England.  It does have some stretch.  Mooney said that the lower side panels could not be covered in leather.  They are wrong.  My complete interior is covered in leather.

John Breda

Posted

As someone who has just redone the lower 2/3 of the interior, I know why Hector is out of the actual remove and reinstall.  It is a skinny young mans game.

My 53 y.o. fat self was tired of climbing in and out and bending and contorting.

Here is what I did.

SCS for the carpet, I bought the higher dollar wool blend material, I think it provides a higher quality look than the polyster/plastic carpet blend.  The old carpet was glued in which took several hours to remove, I reinstalled using velcro, the instructions from SCS weren't brilliant.  Basically glued the velcro to the carpet with contact cement, I used the stick off glue that was already on the velcro to attach to airframe, will see how that holds up, but it is not like it is removed ever.    

For the sidewalls I stripped the old ultraleather from the fiberglass panels, removed the old glue which was a PITA basically removing any left over glue which will telegraph through the new material.  I used ultraleather.  I did the work myself, started with copilot side as experiment, it came out perfect, the key is to plan how to stretch the material around the curves.  I did it by myself and guess I got lucky as I am happy with the job.  I have a "friend" who claims to be an "expert" do the larger pilot panel.  Her work wasn't nearly as good as mine and it took her forever, once the 3M 90 adhesive is sprayed on, the actual laying of the material doesn't take long, it is also unforgiving, maybe plan to have people to hold the corners as the material is stretched around the contours.  

The few plastic parts I painted with SEM plastic paint.  I am not sure about the durability of this product.  Time will tell.  I painted the rear seat pan and the other associated parts to match or contrast as necessary.  

The headliner and seats have yet to be redone.....so the airplane looks worse now, new sidewalls and carpet with aging seats and headliner, makes the old parts look spectacularly crappy.

 

 

 

Posted (edited)

I’ll post some pictures as I go along for everyone.  The airplane is down now for about 4 months waiting on the factory new IO550G and the prop so i thought this would be a good time to get to the interior but that may have to wait for last.  Hector is out until 2025 and I want to get a feel for the scope of the interior project before i tear it all apart.

The panel is done.  Completely new.  Garmin G500 TXi/ GTN 750 WAAS and 530 WAAS/ KFC 150/ L3 backup AI/  Remote Xponder/ Remote  Bluetooth Audio/ Sirius XM Weather and music/ Flightstream/ Synthetic Vision and Terrain/ Onboard Charts/ Safe Taxi and a bunch of USB ports.

I will do the LED lights conversion, the gear donuts, tires, and a new O2 bottle just before the engine arrives.  My fuel tanks are getting stripped and resealed December 2024.

2025 will see paint and interior if I don’t do the interior sooner.  This is todays plan.  Ha ha

Edited by William Munney
  • Like 1
Posted
On 11/1/2023 at 9:56 PM, William Munney said:

Gentlemen:

I bought a new (to me) 1996 Mooney Ovation.  One of the things I would like to do is refurbish the interior.  It’s nice for 27 years old….but its 27 years old.  Hector at Aero Comfort has informed me that they will no longer remove and reinstall the interiors for 2025.  They want you to remove the interior, ship it to them, and then you have to reinstall it when you get it back.  I like the one stop shopping solution but now if I am into the project for my labor I’m going to look into doing it all myself……..or source it locally.

Has anyone removed an Ovation Interior?  How hard was it and what kind of time did it take?  Did you repair and repaint the “plastic” panels?  How is it repaired and/ or painted?  If not, who did you send it to?

Insulation/ soundproofing:  Does it get replaced?

Seats:  Who does them?  How much?  Where did you source the foam?  How about the leather?

Carpet:  Same

Headliner: Same

Did you, or should you replace the windows while you are in there?

Anything else to do while you are in there?

I’m just getting started so any advice in any area is welcome.

Thank you for your time.

The Ovation interior is the easiest and most desirable interior of the Mooney line.  The fiberglass panels have minimal screws, and come out readily once the front seats are removed.  The Center ceiling panel is more work because of all the stuff mounted there.

John Breda

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Thanks John!  A first good look around in there confirms what you have said.  Ceiling center console is going to take some time.  The remainder does not look too difficult.  I bet that clean up, once the interior is removed will take a bit of time to do it right.

Posted

A few pictures as it sits waiting for the engine.  These are after 9 hours of work with a buffer, wool pads and a heavy cutting compound.  The bottom of the wings and fuselage still need done.  The completed areas have a ceramic coat on them.

Converting to all LED lighting.  Doing the gear pucks and tires soon.  Interior next.

IMG_1288.jpeg

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Posted

I know Hector is the gold standard, but there are a lot of other aviation shops that do interiors.  I am having mine done by a local shop.  Several people on my field have have work done there and it looks nice.

I am having mine done while the avionics are done.  He will go to the avionics shop (not too far away) and remove the interior, take it to his shop, do the work, and return and reinstall the interior. 

I am not having all the plastic covered with ultra leather, but repaired and painted.  And the seating parts of the seat will be fabric (cooler in summer, warmer in winter).  Yokes will be two tone leather and the headrests with the Mooney logo embroidered

But overall price is half of what Hector would cost.

There is another shop on the same field as the avionics shop.  They quoted a full up interior with all Ultraleather for about the same price as Hector.  I tried to get a quote for the level I wanted, but they are too busy to answer.

My on field FBO has done a number of planes with Airtex interiors and painting the plastic.  They quoted a few AMU less than the shop doing my work.

Bottom line, there are other shops out there, shop around.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 11/16/2023 at 1:57 PM, William Munney said:

A few pictures as it sits waiting for the engine.  These are after 9 hours of work with a buffer, wool pads and a heavy cutting compound.  The bottom of the wings and fuselage still need done.  The completed areas have a ceramic coat on them.

Converting to all LED lighting.  Doing the gear pucks and tires soon.  Interior next.

IMG_1288.jpeg

IMG_1286.jpeg

IMG_1285.jpeg

IMG_1287.jpeg

What are the paint codes please?  I’m looking to change to Maroon. 

Posted
34 minutes ago, Jetpilot86 said:
What are the paint codes please?  I’m looking to change to Maroon. 

His Ovation is a 1996 model, so it falls under the serial numbers mentioned here in the Illustrated Parts Catalog, where it shows the paint codes. That looks like Claret (WS-550).

30e199b946503c43e3fec1ded568719d.jpg

  • Like 1
Posted

Hi, I am doing the same job. Just started a few weeks ago and I'm also looking for the materials. One very important thing to check is the vacuum tube, it runs along the left side, it looks like a transparent water hose. If it feels oily you should replace it, it can damage the pump. It's a pita but while all is out is easier to replace. You know where you start but not where you end... 

 

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