Airtex Interior Refurbishment - Day 53

Day 53 (Final Big Box and End of the Road in Sight!)

Well, the final shipment has arrived! Along with it, the bill. Total was
$2771 plus another $70 for shipping all 3 boxes. Again I was struck by
the dramatic comparison between the new and old wall panels. I cannot
believe we tolerated the old stuff for so long. Once in the plane, I
noted that the walls were indeed “long” at the bottom. So, those would
need trimming as the Airtex folks said. I noticed all the vent holes
were precut with the upholstery and/or carpeting going over them and not
cut. A cinch, I figured since the holes were precut. BWAHAHAHAH, silly
fool! Those holes may or may not have the slightest thing to do with
where YOUR vents and such line up!. Every hole needed to be recut…
every one! The method I used for aligning the vents is to put the panel
up into position and press (well, pound) from the outside of the panel
over the vents to make an impression. I then cut out the impression. I
did try to match up the old panels as a template, but that would not
work either. The new panels were of a different size and shape so you
really had no ”reference”. The new walls were going to go on in a
slightly different place than the old ones did. Get over it.

After about 1.5 hours of taking the first panel in and out about 10
times and trimming and adjusting the thing, I thought about how I was
going to locate the screw holes. I wound up putting the nail part of 1/8
inch pop rivets into the screw holes and then putting the panel up into
place. Giving the panel a rap on the outside where the holes were would
make a nice dimple in the corrugated plastic or would imbed the rivet
into the stuff. I used a scratch awl to make the hole from the
upholstery side making sure I punched through and made a good-sized
hole. I then screwed in all the screws so they were partially sticking
out the back of the panel. Many lined up but a few still missed and I
had to play around with them. The next day, I spent a solid 8 hours
trying to complete the other 4 out of 5 panels and did not finish. It
will take another 5-10 hours to finalize the plane, but at this point, I
can reinstall the seats and fly the beast. One thing that takes so long
is that the panels just don’t fit precisely. Airplanes are truly
one-offs and stuff just does not match from one to the other.

One big challenge in fitting the wall panels has to do with the imbedded
plastic at the tops. In a Piper, the wall panels curve into the window
at the top and hook onto clips at the window base. The curve of this
plastic in no way matches the curve of the window surround plastic
pieces they butt into in any Piper I have ever looked at. Also, the
window surround plastic is mounted in a slightly different location on
each plane. Finally, the plastic top curved piece on the upholstery is
“off” in many ways. Trouble is, you cannot really trim the things after
the upholstery is applied. I did wind up undoing one edge and cutting it
about ½ inch. I then reglued the upholstery back on.

There are 2 “hard” location points that you cannot fuss with. One is at
upholstery seams themselves. If the front and back panels do not line up
where they overlap, it sticks out immediately. The other is the plastic
as I mentioned. The relationship between these seams and the top plastic
is also fixed. This stuff does not line up perfectly. So, you have so
split differences and make adjustments where you can. Where the panels
overlap, the material is left unfinished so you can trim it to fit the
panel position overlap. However, don’t assume that the “factory”
finished edges are all going to stay. I had to undo 2 of them and trim
the underlying panel and then reglue and rewrap the stuff. This was a
necessity at the bottom of the door panel. It absolutely would not fit
unless I took off ½ inch plus. I also had to redo the bottom curves at
the door corners. After 8 hours of putting in the 2 main sides, the door
panel, making some initial trims on the back walls, I then looked at ALL
the little stuff that needed to be finished. So, the whole shootin’
match took a few days under 2 months from placing the order to getting
it 95% done and to this point.

A few clean up items. I have to finalize the screw locations for the 2
back panels once I have the back-to-front overlaps worked out. Maybe
next weekend. I polished the heater channels with cleaner and screwed
them back in with a few screws to locate the things. I noticed that the
Airtex screws are really too long to go back into the heating channel
where it comes very close to the seat tracks. You wind up bunging up the
screw threads. So, I now need to locate about 2 dozen ½ inch number 4
oval head chrome screws or use some of the old ones in these spots.
Remember, do not use screws any longer than ½ inch on the trim plate for
the fuel selector!!!! Also, please TRY the fuel selector valve in all
directions (including “Off”) before flying the beast. If the trim plate
is improperly installed, it can inhibit movement of the valve. A word
about screws, 100 is not enough for the Cherokee 140. I wound up
ordering another 100. The local hardware stores and Home Depot do not
carry #4 stuff. In addition, I bought all new machine screws for the
vent plastic and the center console bottom plastic trim. The old stuff
was either inappropriate (mostly flat head), or was corroded.

I spent a little quality time figuring out how exactly to get the panels
trimmed so the seat belt mountings would a) look good; and b) afford
easy future removal and replacement. I found that cutting a small square
out of the panel and carpet aligned with the mount (they are on an
angle) with the top of the square about even with the top of the
mounting “tongue” worked well. Also, cutting back the panel about an
inch and leaving the carpet uncut just above the seat belt mounts made
getting the belts and bushings in place (in order to get the bolts in) a
lot easier.

Once the seats were reinstalled, I climbed in for a “test fit”. One
thing is immediately clear, you sit up about 3-4 inches higher than with
the old crushed seat foam. A 1 hour flight confirmed that you actually
did not sink at all. Over time the padding may compress some. But
initially the new height of the seats mean that you can actually let the
pilot’s seat DOWN some. Also, the pax may not need one or more booster
cushions to see above the glareshield. The seat bottoms are now
noticeably canted back so they shore up the thigh near the knee. Much
more comfortable. The seats do feel narrower because the old foam had
squashed outwards some. The overall feeling is that you are HIGH up on a
throne. The first thing the wife noticed was that the plane had the “new
car smell”. Never really noticed it because I was immersed in it for so
long, but it did hit me as I opened up the door after leaving the plane
closed for an hour. Cool unintended effect. So, for a price tag of just
north of 3 grand for all the parts, I get a new car smell in the plane.
Good thing, I could never bring myself to buy a new car! The overall
effect is that everything looks “right” with no obvious stuff sticking
out. Now that it has been a few days, I will “sneak up” on the plane to
see it anew.

I am still investigating how to put up the 4-5 dozen or so pictures I
have. They are about 800k each and I need to fiddle with them to see
what resolution will get the various points across on the screen without
being as large as they are (usually 150k is enough). I just started to
caption them and add arrows and such so folks can look in the right
place. Now that the interior is 95% done I can do some work on this
part. Will let you all know the link when I get it done!

If any brave souls want to tackle this job on a Cherokee and want to
chat, go ahead and e-mail me and we can link up.

Good Luck to all,
Mike

End of Day 53 (or so) and End of Project!!!!!.

End of Day 53 (or so) and End of Project!!!!!.

Congrats, Mike -- and thanks for posting all this.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"