Airtex PIREPs Please

MickYoumans

MickYoumans

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Jan 26, 2012
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2J5 / KBXG - Georgia
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MickYoumans
My plane goes in for annual in February. While its down I was planning on changing out the plexiglass (Great Lakes Aero) and installing a new interior. I have been looking at the Airtex components and my mechanic says he and his brother can do the install. I was planning on floors, walls, ceiling and leather seats. If you have used Airtex products in your plane please tell me what you think, both good and bad. Also if anyone has used Great Lakes Aero too. Thanks.
 
My wife did an Airtex kit (carpet, seats, headliner) on the Navion and helped a friend do one on her 170. Reasonably good stuff and not all that hard (they'll answer questions on the phone if you get stuck).

Nice thing about the Navion is you can take the canopy off to do the headliner :)
 
Our Bonanza came with an Airtex interior when we bought it several years ago. It has held up well, both to normal use and the remove/reinstall cycles inherent with annual inspections. So, no original installation experience, but we're happy with the interior as installed.

Scott
 
Hubby replaced the walls, floor, seats on C-172 with Airtex fabric. Relatively easy to do. He never did upholstery before. Looks nice. They answered all of his questions. It was a good way to go.
 
MickYoumans said:
My plane goes in for annual in February. While its down I was planning on changing out the plexiglass (Great Lakes Aero) and installing a new interior. I have been looking at the Airtex components and my mechanic says he and his brother can do the install. I was planning on floors, walls, ceiling and leather seats. If you have used Airtex products in your plane please tell me what you think, both good and bad. Also if anyone has used Great Lakes Aero too. Thanks.
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Looks like you're in a PA28 Variant, went through the same thing with my cherokee.

I wouldn't bother with the airtex, it's cheap stuff. The carpet is ummm very low quality. I would use airtex if i were trying to sell it :)

For the carpet, I'd call Shelby at TNWINGS.COM he might be able to help you on the other stuff too. He sells "real" stuff and nice quality. For the rest. I used felt paper from Home Depot and made patterns for my side walls, then cut new ones out of Kydex (2 sheets is ample and get the thinnest stuff you can find, it will roll up in a tube and can be sent via FedEx from Interstate Plastics), I cut large to start then whittled them down to size. After that I took the Kydex panels, some foam I got from Scandia and some material I got from (Umm I forget where, an aircraft fabric dealer in California) and shuttled them to the local hot rod restoration shop in town with my ideas on how i'd like for it to look. I shaved off a few lbs in the process. I'll post pics if you'd like to see how it turned out.

All in all I was out about $1K and 40 hours or so of my time.
 
Decent quality, easy to install, reasonably priced. You can get better for more money, but for an easy DIY job, it's a good choice.
 
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