Airtex Interior Refurbishment - Day 50

Day 50 (Carpeting)

Once the seats were done and the wall kit was due to arrive soon, I
decided to go ahead with the carpeting. The Airtex guys insist the walls
are shipped “long”, so I should just butt the carpeting up against the
side wall aluminum. The wall kit will then fit on top of that, hiding
any imperfections in the carpeting cut.

Well, they were not kidding about the carpeting needing a “trim”. It
took about 5 hours to get these few strips of carpet fitting right. The
first place I tackled was the front pilot and copilot footwells. The
vinyl/rubber wear pads they sew on fit VERY close to the heating channel
on the inside and the sidewall on the outside. I thought that this could
not be right so I looked on their website for some pictures of installed
carpeting in a Warrior. In the pictures at the Airtex website, the very
front outside edge/corner of the wear pad actually disappears under the
sidewall and the inside edge runs RIGHT up against the heating channel.
The old carpet set was an older version of the Airtex stuff and the pad
was narrower and longer so this was not an issue. I tried to split the
difference and the wear pad almost touches the heating channel. Tough
fit. I wish they would relocate the wear pad back an inch or two so this
would not be such a difficult fit. I tried to shift the carpet back but
that left a gap in the front. So, I did it like the picture and spent a
lot of time taking off 1/8 of an inch at a time to get them to fit right.

The floor strips on the old carpet and insulation boards between the
seat tracks were not glued down and they never interfered with the seats
and the carpet did not slide around. So, I just laid the new ones in the
same way. I left the edge binding that runs along the seat tracks a bit
“loose”. In other words, they are not tight up against the seat tracks.
That is how the old carpet fit. I put a front seat in to try the fit
with all the strips in and the seats slide back and forth without any
binding.

Now a word of warning about the snap locations… they are way off! Seems
Piper did not put the snaps on the center piece and on the spar box in
exactly the same place from one plane to another. Airtex installs the
snaps on their carpet at their facility, so you must move the locations
of the “male” part of the snap in the airplane (if you can). The slim
center piece that covers the tunnel (where the floor trim resides) has a
cutout for the flaps, but not for the trim assembly. That is because
they use the same pattern for planes with overhead trim. The cutout is
close, but had to be modified. In fact, wherever there was a cutout or a
marking (like for the seat belt slots), you need to actually fit the
piece up and remark and/or recut. The marks are not accurate! They may
be close, but you really need to carefully measure everything before
cutting.

If I worked REALLY hard to stretch and pull the center piece, I could
get it to fit all the snaps. That’s good because you really cannot move
any of the top snaps that are just ahead of the flap handle. I did pull
out the flap handle and paint it. Could not help it – it looked awful.
The snaps along the spar box that hold the upright carpet piece have
their “female” snap counterparts along the edge of the big piece of
carpet that covers the top of the rear seat deck. Again, you cannot move
the snaps in the carpet, so you have to see which existing holes in the
spar box will fit (if any). Seems that if I snapped in the left 4 or 5,
the piece was off center. If I snapped in the right/center 4 or 5, the
piece would center, but I had to relocate about 7 others. That gave
about the best fit. I left the upright piece that covers the front of
the spar box long on the sides because I did not know how the walls
would fit and I did not want to leave a gap. Turns out that a flush cut
will probably work after I did a test fit of the sidewalls (but that
description is for the next installment).

After the large rear deck piece was snapped on and creased over the top
corner and folded back, I put a little tension on it and punched the
holes for the rear seat back mounting bolts and the cutout for the
center seat belts. I did not glue the big piece on the deck down because
the rear seat bottoms and the seat backs cover up and secure most of the
surface area. Airtex ran the piece about 5 inches longer in the back. I
really would have preferred they made it long enough to go to the back
of the luggage area (leaving about a foot). That area is actually the
bottom of the hat shelf, made of fiberglass and stuff rattles around
back there. Carpeting would quiet things up tremendously. I did purchase
extra carpeting so I will probably cut my own piece and put it down back
there.

The 2 small pieces on the sides of the center console are a real pain to
fit. The old ones were glued on completely and did not need to be. There
is a channel along the top that holds the edge in, along the front, and
along the bottom. If you put glue on all the edges, you cannot slide the
piece up and into the top or other channels. I just glued the center.
You have to work bent over on you knees for about 40-60 minutes to get
these 2 pieces in and it is a challenge for us old timers. You must be
VERY careful having an open glue can on new carpet.

After putting down the carpet and installing the back seats, the old
side panels REALLY looked like crap. Since Airtex said they had already
shipped the sidewalls, I decided to pull out the old ones. I found a
surprise mystery guest… an old dried up tiny mouse was up in the
sidewall under the instrument panel. Could have been there for a week or
30 years. Hard to tell. Once the old sidewalls were out and on the ramp,
they REALLY, REALLY looked like crap!! Rotting, deteriorating 70s loop
pile navy blue carpet with various faded shades all over. The vinyl was
worn shiny baby blue with pinholes here and there. Cheesy looking chrome
strips and ashtrays.

I had broken the door release plastic back plate and was going to look
up the part number and get raped for a new one. The part itself looked
awfully familiar so I looked it over for any clues as to who made it.
The part number molded on the back was easily recognized as a VW part
number (I owned a few bugs). Upon closer inspection (this time with my
reading glasses on) revealed the VW emblem. Typed up the part number on
the ’Net and sure enough, a pair can be had for around $19. Fits lots of
years of bugs and busses. The little finger backstop was another $5. Ah,
the sweet taste of victory…

Next up, the WALLS!

End of Day 50.

("Mike Spera" wrote)
[snip]
After putting down the carpet and installing the back seats, the old side
panels REALLY looked like crap. Since Airtex said they had already shipped
the sidewalls, I decided to pull out the old ones. I found a surprise
mystery guest… an old dried up tiny mouse was up in the sidewall under the
instrument panel. Could have been there for a week or 30 years. Hard to
tell.


My sister bought a new Honda Pilot. A mouse got in and ate things last fall.
Honda was great about it - replacing, under warranty, the chewed up wires.
She now puts Downy dryer sheets in her vehicle to repel mice.

I still don't with my vehicles. Tempting fate I guess.

What do plane owners do to keep the mice away?


Montblack

Now a word of warning about the snap locations
they are way off!

Industrial strength velcro and ignore the snaps.

Check out
Aircraft UpholsteryTips and Techniques

http://www.bitchin-stitchin.com/trimtips.htm

This is an excellent website with lots of tips which really help.