Nothing new, I guess

I took the advice of someone on this group to have my interior
refurbishing done by Airborne Upholstery at Stoudsburg/Pocono (N53).
They are (BTW) excellent and do a fabubulous (and very fair-priced)
job. No complaint there and I am VERY pleased.

But in replacing the headliner, we decided that it was best to replace
the plastic housing that fits over the red cockpit-lighting and
instrument lighting rheostat. This is just a thin plastic cover that
had a break at the point where the screws hold it in place.

Now, we aren't talking about the guts of the light, the rheostats, the
fixture or wiring . . . JUST the cover.

Cessna charged me $300.00 for it. I know I shouldn't bitch, and I
should know by now (7 years of ownership) . . . but man that seems
out of whack to me.

:-(

On 7-Apr-2005, " wrote:

Now, we aren't talking about the guts of the light, the rheostats, the
fixture or wiring . . . JUST the cover.

Cessna charged me $300.00 for it. I know I shouldn't bitch, and I
should know by now (7 years of ownership) . . . but man that seems
out of whack to me.



Did you check with outfits like Planeplastics.com to see if you could get a
PMA replacement for less money? Since such parts are not related to safety
or airworthiness, there is little risk in selecting a lower cost alternative
if it looks OK.

--
-Elliott Drucker

The guy doing the refurbishing work told me that the after-market
pieces were total crap and wouldn't last a year. I had no reason to
doubt or question his expertise, and certainly no experience to
challenge his assertion. That might have been a mistake.

wrote:

The guy doing the refurbishing work told me that the after-market
pieces were total crap and wouldn't last a year. I had no reason to
doubt or question his expertise, and certainly no experience to
challenge his assertion. That might have been a mistake.



Mine is cracked also. I am thinking of laying one up in fiberglass and
using the existing one for the "mold". Or build a mold out of foam. I
have access to a great fiberglass shop.

(Another)Ross(pilot)
N7905U

The guy doing the refurbishing work told me that the after-market
pieces were total crap and wouldn't last a year. I had no reason to
doubt or question his expertise, and certainly no experience to
challenge his assertion. That might have been a mistake.

I agree that the aftermarket pieces are total crap in the sense that you
have to do a LOT of trimming and test fits before you can put the part to
use. But the material seems thicker than the original Cessna parts I've
replaced. Guess I'll see how it holds up over the next 30 years.

--
Ben
C-172 - N13258 @ 87Y

wrote:
The guy doing the refurbishing work told me that the after-market
pieces were total crap and wouldn't last a year.

That was not my experience with the stuff I bought for my 150. The Texas
Aeroplastics stuff was about the same quality as the original Cessna parts, and
I got some side panels from another outfit (can't remember who) that were much
better than stock.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

Ummm,....... mine, (from plane plastics) are in great shape after 14
months..

As far as I am concerned, that advice is crap..

I will gladly eat crow later if necessary, but so be it...

The plane plastics stuff was NOT cheap, but was noticably thicker and
more flexable that the originals, but they were 30 yrs old, so I know
that is not a fair comparison..

So far, we happy with the aftermarket stuff...

YMMV...

Dave


On Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:17:31 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

wrote:
The guy doing the refurbishing work told me that the after-market
pieces were total crap and wouldn't last a year.

That was not my experience with the stuff I bought for my 150. The Texas
Aeroplastics stuff was about the same quality as the original Cessna parts, and
I got some side panels from another outfit (can't remember who) that were much
better than stock.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

LOL . .. yeah, I probably got a piece that has been sitting in a box in
a warehouse for 30 years!

Oh well . . . :-)

Lee,

That may have been me. Glad you're happy. We use the avionics shop in the
same hangar. Nice people and very competent.

Too bad about the plastic piece, though. I discovered that the completely
deteriorated plastic louvers in the overhead vent duct in our 74 Archer were
only available from some outfit called Precision, that apparently bought all
the Piper parts when Piper went bankrupt years ago. They wanted $1,100 each
for original (Grimes) louvers! I bought some plastic eyeball vents from the
outfit that supplies them to Aircraft Spruce for $18 each and installed
them. They work perfectly and look a lot better than the originals. I
figure my partners owe me over $2,100 :-)

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


wrote in message
oups.com...
I took the advice of someone on this group to have my interior
refurbishing done by Airborne Upholstery at Stoudsburg/Pocono (N53).
They are (BTW) excellent and do a fabubulous (and very fair-priced)
job. No complaint there and I am VERY pleased.

But in replacing the headliner, we decided that it was best to replace
the plastic housing that fits over the red cockpit-lighting and
instrument lighting rheostat. This is just a thin plastic cover that
had a break at the point where the screws hold it in place.

Now, we aren't talking about the guts of the light, the rheostats, the
fixture or wiring . . . JUST the cover.

Cessna charged me $300.00 for it. I know I shouldn't bitch, and I
should know by now (7 years of ownership) . . . but man that seems
out of whack to me.

:-(