"Mike Spera" wrote in message
ink.net...
Day 48 (The Seats)
[snip great narrative]
Next challenge, the carpeting!

End of Day 48.

Very informative, fascinating, and well-written, Mike. Thanks! A couple
of us are doing a 172 and so following watchfully along with you. We are
removing an Airtex interior and replacing it with another brand, and I wish
we had gone with a new Airtex because it is much better quality, especially
the carpet. We have used more than three cans of brush-on contact cement
and should have bought a gallon, which would have been cheaper.

We bought some SEM at $7 a can, but went to Krylon Fusion in paloma blanca
(cream color) at $4 a can. 8 rattle-cans used so far for the interior
plastic, and we are very satisfied with the results. If we had this to do
over again, we would have had a good auto paint store mix a quart or so of
SEM and shot it with a Binks gun. SEM has reputation as a quality paint or
dye for plastic.

Where we had cracks in the interior plastic we patched them on the back side
with paper-thin fiberglas and epoxy then filled any imperfections with ABS
glue from the hardware store and bits of ABS filings. Sometimes we did
just a bit of sanding or filing.