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My DIY Interior Seats—Yea or Nay?

William Munney
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William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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Okey Dokey.  The front seats are done.  I think they turned out well.  Copy of an Audi seat…..maybe Porsche….can’t remember.  All leather.  I used the old Mooney Logo as that’s what was on the yokes.  And i like it better.  The foam is the three layer memory stuff from Spruce.  Stripped then repainted the baffles in high temp/ hot rod red before reattaching the silicone.  The new IO-550 is in.

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Edited by William Munney
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KSMooniac Grand Master

KSMooniac

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Nice work! Here are mine from last summer... Similar design but ultra leather and alcantara, plus the same memory foam build up you did. I love em! e08bfd0b97bc4bf77df318fbbf8320e9.jpg

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William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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1 hour ago, KSMooniac said:

Nice work! Here are mine from last summer... Similar design but ultra leather and alcantara, plus the same memory foam build up you did. I love em! e08bfd0b97bc4bf77df318fbbf8320e9.jpg

Thank you.  I see you like the diamond stitch as well!  Looks nice.  To be honest, the interior is a DIY project in that I am either doing the work myself or finding vendors to work to my specs.  I am using a local custom upholstery shop for the seats, sidewalls, some plastic repair and the carpet.  They mostly work on all kinds of boats and custom car and truck projects but they have done a few local airplanes as well.

I like ultra leather.  It is a nice looking and durable vinyl product.  I went with real leather hides.  Either one would have worked.

I am very happy to hear you liked the foam.  It’s kind of weird to sit on at first….very firm but then you sink in….and sink in.  Once the foam settles it’s comfortable.  I’ll see how it feels on longer flights before I can give an opinion.
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KSMooniac Grand Master

KSMooniac

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I went with ultraleather to protect my useful load, and hope the alcantara will be a comfy seating material... If not I still have my sheepskins that can go right back on. Nothing beats the feel and smell of real quality leather, though! I bought a bunch of hides years ago, but decided to save weight instead.

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Igor_U Mentor

Igor_U

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14 hours ago, KSMooniac said:

I went with ultraleather to protect my useful load, and hope the alcantara will be a comfy seating material... If not I still have my sheepskins that can go right back on. Nothing beats the feel and smell of real quality leather, though! I bought a bunch of hides years ago, but decided to save weight instead.

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Scot,

Your seats are looking Could you estimate what the weight difference is? 

It sometimes surprising that interior weights are significantly different. Few years ago I installed Airtex carpet kit in my F and it was 10-15lb lighter then the one I had! Maybe was all the dirt collected in it in previous 20-30 years? :D

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Jetpilot86 Rising Star

Jetpilot86

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17 hours ago, William Munney said:

Okey Dokey.  The front seats are done.  I think they turned out well.  Copy of an Audi seat…..maybe Porsche….can’t remember.  All leather.  I used the old Mooney Logo as that’s what was on the yokes.  And i like it better.  The foam is the three layer memory stuff from Spruce.  Stripped then repainted the baffles in high temp/ hot rod red before reattaching the silicone.  The new IO-550 is in.

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They look horrible!  I'd be happy to take them off your hands to save you the shame of showing them off.  ;)

William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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On 3/7/2024 at 12:54 PM, Jetpilot86 said:

They look horrible!  I'd be happy to take them off your hands to save you the shame of showing them off.  ;)

Ha ha.  Thank you.  I’ll quote them for you if you want yours done.  

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William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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On 3/6/2024 at 9:52 PM, KSMooniac said:

I went with ultraleather to protect my useful load, and hope the alcantara will be a comfy seating material... If not I still have my sheepskins that can go right back on. Nothing beats the feel and smell of real quality leather, though! I bought a bunch of hides years ago, but decided to save weight instead.

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I like ultra leather.  Mine was worn out or I would have kept it.  I cannot imagine the difference in weight to be anything at all really.  It’s not racing leathers weight.  Just automotive weight.

William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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Front seats and rear seat backrests.  The seat pan has also been plastic welded to repair a crack and then covered in leather.  I should reinstall the interior in a week or two as work permits.  I was hoping for the first flight in March but its looking like April now.

Propeller is on.  Polished spinner as well.  The air intake repair went really well and is installed.  (Original part repaired by a boat builder)

New tires and tubes are on.

All new gear pucks (donuts) are on.

First engine run next week to set up timing and fuel injection specs.

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Mark89114 Experienced

Mark89114

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Can you elaborate and provide pictures on how you built up the seat cushions?  That is next on my never ending project list.

 

  • 2 weeks later...
William Munney Collaborator

William Munney

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First, I have a custom car shop I have worked with building the seats to my specs.  So, I can’t elaborate on specific upholstery techniques.  I also did not have the time to learn all the trades required in that project.  I wanted it finished by the time my new engine arrived and there was a long list of other items on the airplane that needed attention.  There are a lot of details involved in the interior.  I encourage you to source a local vendor as I did unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

Also, taking the interior out is at least half a day and there is a bit of technique involved.  Getting it back in will be a bit longer I believe.

Because of the limited space inside the airplanes any seats that are reupholstered need to be copies of the seats that were removed more or less.  The leather was cut using the existing ultra suede covers as a pattern.  Existing foam was used where it was still good, replaced if bad and augmented with new where we wanted it stiffer or fuller.  I used burn certified leather.

I used the 3 layer memory foam, and “back saver” foam from Aircraft Spruce.  I’m sure there are plenty of other types.  It had good reviews and is already burn certified so that was good enough for me.

I took advantage of the rebuild to clean, paint and lubricate the seat as well.

Doing the interior yourself is totally doable and you learn a lot about your airplane as well.  I highly recommend hiring out the seats and anything else that you are recovering.  If you are just doing the seat foam and reusing the covers you will have to research foam types and use trial and error to get it right.  It sounds like some time invested would be required but I think that is doable on your own.

If you want me to quote your seats for you message me.

Hope that helps.

Edited by William Munney
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Danb Grand Master

Danb

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William the paint scheme and color combo gets more remarks actually from the towers and ground than my other planes. It’s awesome looking although I’m a little biased.

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KSMooniac Grand Master

KSMooniac

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Scot,
Your seats are looking Could you estimate what the weight difference is? 
It sometimes surprising that interior weights are significantly different. Few years ago I installed Airtex carpet kit in my F and it was 10-15lb lighter then the one I had! Maybe was all the dirt collected in it in previous 20-30 years? 
Sorry I missed this earlier... I'm not sure how much lighter a typical 4 seat interior would be between real leather and ultra leather. Depends on the hide thickness, of course, and if sidewalls, arm rests, head rests, etc are included. I suspect it would be in the neighborhood of 20 lbs, maybe a bit more.

In my case, I went from first-gen Mooney seats with no head rests, to fully articulating fronts and removable rears, plug head rests, so I wanted to minimize the weight gain. Not an apples-to-apples comparison...

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Ragsf15e Grand Master

Ragsf15e

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On 3/22/2024 at 9:50 AM, Danb said:

William the paint scheme and color combo gets more remarks actually from the towers and ground than my other planes. It’s awesome looking although I’m a little biased.

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Awesome looking airplane!

carusoam Grand Master

carusoam

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+1 yea!

and a question…

If the air intake on an Ovation was made of a carbon fiber part….

How many pounds could we save, compared to the original aluminum part?

 

There are a few Mooneys with the IO550 that are just a bit nose heavy… by a couple of pounds.

 

Nice work William!

Best regards,

-a-

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