PIREP Needed - Aircraft Door Seals Instrument Panel cover

[Mike Spera]

Anyone purchase one of these for their Cherokee? They tell me that
removal of the existing panel is easy and the total job (including
remounting the defroster ducts) will take no more than 2 hours.

For the life of me, I cannot see how it can be that easy. The padded lip
is mounted SOLIDLY to the instrument panel, although I cannot see how.
The padded underside lip material was stretched and riveted. Where are
the mounting screws? Do you have to crawl under the instrument panel to
get at them? If so, there is no way 2 hours would cover the R&R of this
beast. I can see the front lip is pushed into the extruded aluminum
molding. They say this can stay. So, it appears their solution
completely covers the irregular top forward surface with a smooth flat
top. Getting at the defroster 6/32 screws look like a real adventure.

How about it? Anyone been through this?

Thanks,
Mike

[Mike Noel]

I've been as far as removing the padded dash. The screws are under the
plastic that covers the front of the instrument panel. You need to remove
all the screws holding the plastic onto the panel, then work the plastic
free from around stuff like the knobs on the DG etc. Then you should see
the screws holding the padding to the top of the panel.

--
Best Regards,
Mike
http://photoshow.comcast.net/mikenoel

'The first rule of intelligent tinkering is save all the pieces.' - Aldo
Leopold
"Mike Spera" > wrote in message
k.net...
> Anyone purchase one of these for their Cherokee? They tell me that removal
> of the existing panel is easy and the total job (including remounting the
> defroster ducts) will take no more than 2 hours.
>
> For the life of me, I cannot see how it can be that easy. The padded lip
> is mounted SOLIDLY to the instrument panel, although I cannot see how. The
> padded underside lip material was stretched and riveted. Where are the
> mounting screws? Do you have to crawl under the instrument panel to get at
> them? If so, there is no way 2 hours would cover the R&R of this beast. I
> can see the front lip is pushed into the extruded aluminum molding. They
> say this can stay. So, it appears their solution completely covers the
> irregular top forward surface with a smooth flat top. Getting at the
> defroster 6/32 screws look like a real adventure.
>
> How about it? Anyone been through this?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike

[Mike Spera]

Mike Noel wrote:

> I've been as far as removing the padded dash. The screws are under the
> plastic that covers the front of the instrument panel. You need to remove
> all the screws holding the plastic onto the panel, then work the plastic
> free from around stuff like the knobs on the DG etc. Then you should see
> the screws holding the padding to the top of the panel.
>
Yeah, now that you mention it, I seem to recall them being there. On my
plastic overlays (which have all been replaced), I need to take most of
the knobs off first.

Thanks,
Mike