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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 |
#2
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I think it was 'Sport Aviation' but I also traded it.
Jim |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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" |
#5
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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 http://www.andraka.com "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759 |
#6
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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" |
#7
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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" |
#8
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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" |
#9
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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 |
#10
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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 http://www.andraka.com "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, 1759 |
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