Why not a hinged panel?

As many of you may recall, we had the Skycraft landing lights installed
in our 235 last month. During our first night flight with them last
week we popped the 5 amp circuit breaker for the left side panel
lights.

This had no effect on the landing lights, which continued to work
perfectly (and, wow, are they terrific!), but after re-setting the
breaker once -- and smelling hot wiring -- we decided to have it
checked by the shop who installed the landing lights.

Sure enough, there is a transistor on the side of the box holding the
"bank" of switches in the panel that was intermittently touching a
screw head, causing it to short out. This was evidently caused by a
slight shifting of the assembly during installation of the Skycraft
switch, and was easily fixed by moving the assembly 1/4 inch and
re-tightening the screw a few more turns. They also put a dab of
silicone on the end of the screw -- just in case.

It's amazing. No matter what I have done in the panel, or which shop I
use, this kind of "collateral damage" always seems to happen. And,
after working under the panel for a few hours myself, it's hard to
really blame anyone -- there is just NO room to maneuver behind that
panel!

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone came up with an STC'd Cherokee panel
that had a piano hinge at the bottom, so that we could simply flip the
panel down, and get at the back of the radios, instruments and
switches?

Is there some reason this hasn't been attempted?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"