Repairing Plastic Instrument Panel Overlay

I recently saw an article in KitPlanes or maybe Sport Pilot about how
to repair / rebuild a plastic instrument panel overlay. Whichever mag
I saw it
in, I've managed to throw away. Anyone know what issue this was?
Could you email me a copy?

Thanks for the help.

Jeff

I think it was 'Sport Aviation' but I also traded it.

Jim

Jerry Mader makes a product called POLYFIX.
He sells it in kit form.
My father and Jerry used to demonstrate it in the Aircraft Spruce booth
at Sun N Fun and at Oshkosh.
For information, go to www.redam.com

Thanks for the help.

There is a very fine product called "JB Weld" that my A&P recommended to me.
It works extremely well on the plastic instrument panel parts.

JB Weld is amazing stuff. It comes in two separate tubes, and you mix it
together like epoxy. It stays workable for over an hour, and "gravity
smoothes" itself into a very nice surface.

When it is fully cured (overnight) you can drill it, sand it, saw it -- just
like the original plastic. I have used it to repair several parts, and --
after painting -- you can't see the repair at all.

On the last thing I repaired (the stupidly designed fuel sump access door
that every back-seat passenger seems to step on and break) I actually used
it to not only fix the break, but I was able to get it to "surround" and
encapsulate a small piece of aluminum sheet metal, to act as a
reinforcement. To further strengthen the piece, I drilled and pop-riveted
the aluminum piece to the plastic before gluing. The JB Weld fills voids
extremely well.

(Every time I fix this stupid part, I make it stronger. This is my third
attempt -- if my kids break it again, I'm installing a piano hinge on the
danged door!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it? Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges). Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly where it
belongs.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Thanks for the help.

There is a very fine product called "JB Weld" that my A&P recommended to me.
It works extremely well on the plastic instrument panel parts.

JB Weld is amazing stuff. It comes in two separate tubes, and you mix it
together like epoxy. It stays workable for over an hour, and "gravity
smoothes" itself into a very nice surface.

When it is fully cured (overnight) you can drill it, sand it, saw it -- just
like the original plastic. I have used it to repair several parts, and --
after painting -- you can't see the repair at all.

On the last thing I repaired (the stupidly designed fuel sump access door
that every back-seat passenger seems to step on and break) I actually used
it to not only fix the break, but I was able to get it to "surround" and
encapsulate a small piece of aluminum sheet metal, to act as a
reinforcement. To further strengthen the piece, I drilled and pop-riveted
the aluminum piece to the plastic before gluing. The JB Weld fills voids
extremely well.

(Every time I fix this stupid part, I make it stronger. This is my third
attempt -- if my kids break it again, I'm installing a piano hinge on the
danged door!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Do you guys carry a bucket to catch the gas you drain if you remain
overnight somewhere? Eleven seconds minimum for each tip and six
seconds for each main spills a lot of gas.

Don

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:51:48 -0500, Ray Andraka
wrote:

Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it? Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges). Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly where it
belongs.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Thanks for the help.

There is a very fine product called "JB Weld" that my A&P recommended to me.
It works extremely well on the plastic instrument panel parts.

JB Weld is amazing stuff. It comes in two separate tubes, and you mix it
together like epoxy. It stays workable for over an hour, and "gravity
smoothes" itself into a very nice surface.

When it is fully cured (overnight) you can drill it, sand it, saw it -- just
like the original plastic. I have used it to repair several parts, and --
after painting -- you can't see the repair at all.

On the last thing I repaired (the stupidly designed fuel sump access door
that every back-seat passenger seems to step on and break) I actually used
it to not only fix the break, but I was able to get it to "surround" and
encapsulate a small piece of aluminum sheet metal, to act as a
reinforcement. To further strengthen the piece, I drilled and pop-riveted
the aluminum piece to the plastic before gluing. The JB Weld fills voids
extremely well.

(Every time I fix this stupid part, I make it stronger. This is my third
attempt -- if my kids break it again, I'm installing a piano hinge on the
danged door!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on
the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it?
Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots
on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the
push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges).
Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly
where it
belongs.

Amen, Ray!

Because of the absurd location, we simply don't drain the main sump as often
as we should. (We, of course, sump the wing tanks before each flight.)

Unless you've got another person who is willing to lay on their back in the
snow, that central sump is darn near impossible to check. Sure, you can
just "pee the plane" and dump it on the tarmac, but that ruins the asphalt
and ****es off the Greenies. If the sump actuator were on the bottom of the
plane near the drain, I'm sure we'd do it before every flight.

And the LEAST that Piper could have done was design the sump door properly.
As it is now, the door isn't even held on with a hinge -- it's simply got a
tab that is stuck through a slot in the plastic trim piece, and then held in
place with a piece of spring steel.

When the spring weakens over time, the door hangs open a tiny bit, which
catches a back-seat passenger's shoe when they're stepping down into the
plane. That puts an impossible bending force on the plastic, and tears the
door right out.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Do you guys carry a bucket to catch the gas you drain if you remain
overnight somewhere? Eleven seconds minimum for each tip and six
seconds for each main spills a lot of gas.

Where did you get those numbers?

Never heard that before -- we sump them into the clear plastic tube, check
for debris and water, and go on our merry way...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 23:54:34 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Do you guys carry a bucket to catch the gas you drain if you remain
overnight somewhere? Eleven seconds minimum for each tip and six
seconds for each main spills a lot of gas.

Where did you get those numbers?

Never heard that before -- we sump them into the clear plastic tube, check
for debris and water, and go on our merry way...

Bear in mind ours is a '69.

While going through old W&B stuff, I found this Piper document that
says it's supposed to be kept with the aircraft. The last page and a
half contains a description of how to drain the tanks through the
belly so that you collect all the water that might be in the gas lines
between the tanks and the sump. Goes: start with the selector on OFF,
then left-tip, left-main, right-main, right-tip, 11-seconds,
6-seconds, 6-seconds, 11-seconds. The times are minimums, for when
the tanks are full -- it says it might take more time if the tanks
aren't full.

Makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it. You can have
gas in the belly-drain sump and water in a tank line where the water's
below the level of the tank drain, but is blocked from entering the
selector valve by its check-valve. When you select a new tank, the
check-valve is opened, and yes water will flow down the line and into
the sump, displacing the gas that's there, but it won't happen
instantaneously.

The procedure should apply to all Cherokees with four tanks. I'll
look up chapter and verse tomorrow. I bet the procedure isn't well
known, and it wouldn't be well liked, because you wind up draining
close to a pint of gas -- onto the ramp if you don't have a bucket and
a Gatt jar.

I'll bring it up on the 235 BBS after I see what responses come up
here on the NG.

Don

Nope, I have a gats jar and send one of the kids under there to catch it or let it
pee onto the ground and look for water bubbles in the plane pee. I usually sump all
the tanks at the tank, then drain just from the tank I'm taking off with from the
center, figuring If water did get in there I'd have time once at altitude (I also
don't make a habit of changing tanks at less than 3000 AGL, usually much higher).
That 11 seconds makes quite a puddle on the ground.

Don Tuite wrote:

Do you guys carry a bucket to catch the gas you drain if you remain
overnight somewhere? Eleven seconds minimum for each tip and six
seconds for each main spills a lot of gas.

Don

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:51:48 -0500, Ray Andraka
wrote:

Would have been nice if Piper had put the sump drain actuator *outside* on the
belly near where you need to hold the collection bottle, wouldn't it? Even if
it were behind some sort of door (like it is on the inside), it would have
avoided all the passenger induced damage, as well as many of the gas spots on
asphalt ramps. (I assume the 235 has a similar set up as a Six with the push
down lever thingy behind the cheesy plastic door with the spring hinges). Maybe
someone can come up with an STC to put the drain actuator on the belly where it
belongs.

Jay Honeck wrote:

Thanks for the help.

There is a very fine product called "JB Weld" that my A&P recommended to me.
It works extremely well on the plastic instrument panel parts.

JB Weld is amazing stuff. It comes in two separate tubes, and you mix it
together like epoxy. It stays workable for over an hour, and "gravity
smoothes" itself into a very nice surface.

When it is fully cured (overnight) you can drill it, sand it, saw it -- just
like the original plastic. I have used it to repair several parts, and --
after painting -- you can't see the repair at all.

On the last thing I repaired (the stupidly designed fuel sump access door
that every back-seat passenger seems to step on and break) I actually used
it to not only fix the break, but I was able to get it to "surround" and
encapsulate a small piece of aluminum sheet metal, to act as a
reinforcement. To further strengthen the piece, I drilled and pop-riveted
the aluminum piece to the plastic before gluing. The JB Weld fills voids
extremely well.

(Every time I fix this stupid part, I make it stronger. This is my third
attempt -- if my kids break it again, I'm installing a piano hinge on the
danged door!)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759