There was a fellow on this site who redid the interior on is Cardinal. What I recall is it was a huge project, especially since once the interior was out there were a myriad of issues that had to be dealt with. Not for the faint of heart. I suppose if one is a die-hard do it yourselfer, one could save some coin. That said, many of the needed tasks, like fiberglass layup and upholstery, aren’t in everyone’s skill sets.
I think the decision as to whether or not to undertake the task yourself or hire it out is based upon a lot of things. I started this thread and labeled it "Budget interior" intentionally; my plane has a very low time engine in it, but minimal old avionics for basic IFR (one navcom/glideslope/CDI/audio panel/transponder), fair paint, and an absolutely trashed interior with one of the panels completely missing and a poorly-fabbed homebrew hatrack bulkhead. I can see sinking money into the avionics just for utility (almost done replacing AT150 transponder with Stratus ESG.. should finish up tomorrow... then a panel GPS at some point w/in the next year I hope), but spending a lot of money on cosmetics (interior, paint) just doesn't make any sense to me on a '65 Cherokee unless at some point I just have money to burn AND decide that this is not only my first plane, but my "forever" plane.
Can I make the interior a LOT more comfortable and a LOT more attractive by doing it myself, while savings thousands over paying someone else to do an admittedly (and potentially MUCH) better job than I can myself? Yes. Will the results be as good as someone w/ extensive experience, specialized equipment, and staff? Doubtful. OK... no. It'll still be WAY better than what I have now. Some improvement is a lot better than none.
I've got a spreadsheet going, and the cost of DIY is creeping up; a lot of the plastic trim pieces are very brittle and/or broken w/ small pieces missing, and the overhead trim/light/speaker console piece suffered yet a few MORE cracks while installing the GPS antenna for the ESG. Buying carpeting, interior panel set, insulating foam from Airtex, and rear hatrack bulkhead, glareshield, and replacing broken-beyond-repair-or-painting plastic trim pieces from various sources at this point would cost about $3500. The time I've spent working on the airplane and NOT flying over the past two months rebuilding three brake master cylinders, repairing a leaking fuel tank, and installing the ESG have pretty much dampened my enthusiasm for anything else right now that will keep me out of the skies. I also have a panel-mount intercom I wanted to install, but as soon as the ESG installation is complete (everything else is done), I'm going flying... enough is enough for a while. I know two months seems like a long time to do so little work, but my A/P's airport is a 75 minute drive from my house, I've got to coordinate with his schedule, the weather (plane is outside and his hangar isn't always available as he has a lot planes going constantly), my work schedule, discovering a missing-but-needed-part that requires time to track down or order, blah blah.. it's really only been about four full days of actual wrenching, coupled w/ some bench work time at home.
Towards late fall, I'll take another look at this and move forward. Kind of had my fill of fixing instead of using... and am in the same boat with a sailboat now, too, which has been on the hard for over a year waiting for me to repair the transom. Maybe just sucking it up, dropping off the plane at a decent local shop, and writing a check might be better for my sanity... just definitely not my bank account.
Sooo.. anyway... thanks for keeping the thread going. I'll keep going on this too, and will post pics as things happen... when they happen.
