Interior Refresh

[dogone]

I put aircraft door seals in a few months ago. It replaced the combination of house door seals. Is now quieter and no draft. The wipe of silicone keeps them supple. Several hours with solvent , spray nine and wire brush plus removing some original rivets gave me a great glue base.

[rschreiber]

I just installed the Airtex baggage compartment in my 170B. It wasn't quite as straightforward as i'd hoped, so here's the play-by-play:

1) Just like any of the other interior pieces, taking your time to prep the underlying surface and install the included foam installation took a majority of my time and effort.

2) My kit was the carpeted version, covered with carpet to match the rest of the floor in the airplane. The two side panels had an unfinished edge, but the aft baggage compartment panel had nicely finished seams all the way around. Unfortunately, my first trial fit revealed the entire kit was about an inch and a half too tall. Airtex was a huge help. Unfortunately, not every plane is configured the same, and apparently my hat shelf was lower than standard. Airtex guided me through the process to trim the panels, and offered to have them sent back to get the affected edge on the aft bulkhead refinished at no charge. I also had to trim around my ELT bracket.

2a) I tried several methods to cut the panels. You're looking at a layer of corrugated plastic backing, a layer of foam, and a layer of carpet. The best method was using a new blade in a standard box cutter. Place the piece to be cut carpet-side-down on your (clean) bench and make the required cuts using a straightedge. I also had a "pizza cutter" type rotary blade that I used to clean up the edge of the carpet. These tools worked the best and left the cleanest edge.

3) The holes used for attaching the old side panels were not going to work for the new panels. I measured and trimmed the side panels, then drilled new holes into the forward and aft bulkheads in order to accommodate the new panels. Because of the construction method used, the new panels will require several screws to get the contour to match that of the aft bulkheads. I ended up using #6 oval head crews with finish washers. Even with the washers, the majority of the fasteners are hidden by the carpet.

I didn't expect to have to do this much trimming, but once I wrapped my head around the scope of the project, it went quickly and easily. It was probably 6 hours total time.

[interstellardust]

I thought I'd chime in here. I had pretty much the exact same experience with the Airtex baggage compartment as Ryan did. Both the side panels and the back cover were about an inch and a half too tall. I cut them down but did not return the back cover to have the top edge refinished. You can't really see it up under the hat rack.

The carpet was also not a great fit but I managed to get it installed. The main problem is that it is much thicker than the original carpet. It is bonded to foam backing which is not shown in the samples Airtex sends. That makes the flap tunnel fatter so it is very difficult to remove and install the cover over the rudder mechanism. That will now be a battle every year at annual inspection.

Then the side panels showed up. I was shocked to find the the front kick panels and door panels arrived without backing material. in an email exchange, Dodd at Airtex told me my year plane has aluminum backing so I would need to strip the original panels and glue the new upholstery to them. In other words do a bunch of their work for them. Brian Olsen did not have the same experience so things have changed at Airtex or maybe the A model is different. They are also much thicker than original so the kick panels will also fight with the rudder pedal cover.

Worse yet, the side panels which go next the the back seat which are cemented to a poly back board were almost 2 inches too short to reach the headliner. From the back window down they fit but there was no way to make them reach the top.

The other thing that seems to have changed at Airtex is that they say just call them if you need help and they will talk you through the installation. No written instructions are provided. I left half a dozen phone messages over the course of a month which were never returned. Then I sent a series of emails with photos of the issues and questions about how to proceed. These also got no response.

I finally sent an email demanding my money back. Magically I gat an email (not a phone call) response an hour later.

Dodd wrote that he looked at the pictures and admitted they had made the back panels too short. He said he'd remake that panels with the top unfinished so I could trim them to fit myself and send it with the seats which would ship next week.

A month went by without contact. Then I got an email from Dodd asking me what I decided to do. I thought that had been settled and told him so. I also referred to the other how to questions I had asked and sent more photos. How do I get these thicker wall panels to fit into the top door channel and kick panel rear channel? His response was to say we needed to part ways and he would refund the money for the seats, which still hadn't shipped, and the wall panels. He wanted the seat webbing back but did not refund the money I paid for them. Fine, keep it we are done.

I do not recommend Airtex.

I am now working with sport aircraft seats of Alaska. Daniel there has been very responsive and helpful. I'll post more about that experience later.