Airtex Interiors (Again)

Mike;
A friend just had the entire (excluding the headliner) interior redone
for his Bonanza for a little less than $1400. He did the ass work
himself, removing the seats, side panels and carpeting. Brought the
seats to an auto/boat upholstery shop where he picked the materials
and had them recover the seats (new foam included) and make up the
goods for the side panels. Carpets were all duplicated. He removed
the old side panels, cleaned the aluminum and applied the goods.
Looks fantastic. If you're doing the majority of the job yourself
anyway, look hard at this option!

Now you may have been scared into the burn test thing, so if you buy
into that, feel free to do it with samples supplied to you by the
shop. You may also find that you are not subject to the burn test
regs, and that the material proposed to you will already have higher
manufacturing standards than the simple burn tests some guys like to
do.

Lastly, I am almost sure you can find an airplane interior shop that
would take on this job for that kind of money, or VERY close to it.

Good luck

On 15 Mar 2004 03:13:56 GMT, Mike Spera wrote:

Well, finally decided the old Cherokee 140 interior is due for an
overhaul. Again, I am considering the Airtex route. Since I have done
upholstery work in the past, I am not shy about taking on the job.
Airtex will send out the new side panel upholstery already glued to new
coroplast (corrugated plastic a.k.a. "plastic cardboard") and that is
just what I need to replace the disintegrating fiberboard that I have
now. Also, I have reskinned seats before and know how to "adjust" new
skins with hog rings.

But, I still have some reservations. First, new seat covers, side
panels, and carpeting is somewhere North of $2400 for this bird (using
their "premium" materials). I have seen some Airtex jobs and they looked
awful. Granted, they were the "standard" materials and the persons doing
the work probably should have enlisted experienced help. But, even their
web site photos don't look great. Then again, I can always spend $6k+ at
an airplane upholstery shop and get a perfect job. So, I won't fool
myself into thinking the Airtex stuff will look that good. I also don't
want the plane down for weeks or months while an aircraft upholstery
shop gets around to getting it done. Still, for $2400 for materials
alone, I would like a little more confidence than their pictures instill.

Also, I am wrestling with the specific fabrics. Their "Duraweave" looks
tough, but a bit "coarse". Their "Duraplush" has a sheen that might look
pretty chintzy on a large area. I absolutely HATE the stock Piper
Warrior velour. Pure 70s disco. Yuch! I may buy a yard of each fabric we
are considering to get a better idea of what it really looks like out in
the sun and inside the plane.

Next, they don't include new foam for PA-28 installations. This bird is
a '74 and I can assure you, the seat padding is shot. I cannot bring
myself to put time and money into recovering squashed padding. The new
covers will never fit right. Does Airtex have replacement foam for these
birds? Again, the $6k+ job includes multi-layered foam of different
densities depending on its position on the seat, but I really want to
avoid hauling even the seat frames to an upholstery shop (again, I don't
want to wait weeks, months, etc. to get it done). Then again, this
particular seat is pretty slab-like. There are no contours to speak of,
so I may just go to the upholstery shop and get some new stuff and shape
it myself (gotta love those electric knives for foam work).

Last, the "Navy" carpeting looks so close to black I'm not sure I will
like it. Is it really that dark when installed?

Anyway, anybody have experience installing their stuff, especially the
"premium" materials? I would love to see some (better) pictures. How is
the fit and finish? Their seam welting looked all over the place. How do
these materials wear? Was it WORTH IT????

Thanks for any feedback.
Mike


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