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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. |
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("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 |
#3
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Now a word of warning about the snap locations
they are way off! Industrial strength velcro and ignore the snaps. |
#4
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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. |
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