My 4 seat Mooney is getting long in the tooth and I’m curious what people typically pay for interiors - be they leather or not. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I did not go leather....summers in Colorado .... I was happy with AirTex. What I chose is now in the premium category, but not back then. I took the seats to the local auto upholstery shop, and they did the update with the AirTex stuff, I did the interior myself while the engine was down for overhaul. The headliner was ok, so that wasn't replaced. I had done the back bulkhead the year before, so that wasn't in the big price tag. Numerous criteria you need to consider. In my case, a 50+ yr old Cherokee really didn't need a really expensive price tag for an interior. I did this back in 2011, so I don't remember the overall price, but it was definitely under $2000.
My dad just had his interior done for $6500 cash. That was the entire interior, door panels, seats, headliner. He has a 182.
Depends on what route you want to take. If you personally want to remove your interior and take it to a local upholstery shop you can save a few nickels. You'll need an A&P to sign for the actual recover work and the W&B correction but all other work can usually be signed off under prevent mx by you provided you don't need to disconnect flight controls, etc. to remove/install the interior. It was the preferred method for my owner-assist clients.
Did my Cherokee interior just over a year ago. Well, not the entire interior - the leather seats were (and still are) in "as new" shape so I kept them. Other than that, redid everything else. Spent about $2,500 parts and labor. The biggest ticket item was the "hat rack" bulkhead. I bought the side panels used from TAS but honestly, they looked like new and were the exact color I wanted (really modern looking blue/grey). I bought the matching blue carpet new from SCS. The white headliner was still good after cleaning it so I ended up not replacing it. Other little items here and there were plastics (arm rests, knobs, etc.) that didn't add up to much.
Very nice looking. If I can only figure out how to do similar for my Archer for less. Who/where was this done?
I got my carpet samples from SCS from a year ago. How much work was it to install the carpet, if you did it yourself?
I didn’t do it myself but my mechanic said it was no big deal at all. It was all cut to fit right in.
I just redid the seats in my Cherokee with Airtex leather. Full leather total cost was $3100. The quality of the material and stitching is really good. Very happy with what I got for the price. My carpet side panels and headliner were in good shape so I kept them.But I did refinish the interior plastics and arm rests to match. Took me about 10 hours to do the actual upholstery tear off and install. Still waiting on the embroidery for my headrests but here are a few pictures
The gold standard for Mooney is Aero Comfort. A full up interior is around $20K - $22K My FBO says they can do an Airtex interior, paint all the plastic, and fix/replace some things for about $12K. If you remove everything and reinstall it yourself, you can save several grand. There is a shop near me that get good reviews by people at my field. FYI, I contact Oregon Aero about doing my seats, $4800. PER SEAT.
I did my interior 2 years ago at “Best Aircraft Interiors” located in North Houston, TX (Hooks Airport KDWH) and Jorge did an amazing job on a full interior install. It came with the burn certs and A&P logbook entry. $16k for a 31310 with 6 seats.
in my motorhome a few years ago (on a Ford E-450 chassis) I replaced the cab seat covers. I found some Ford OEM covers on e-bay brand new that some RV manufacturer has stripped from a new chassis to put whatever upholstery they use to match the rest of the coach. I had found companies out there that sold new aftermarket covers too, that were custom made to fit..... but I just went the e-bay route to get them. Anyway, a few minutes on youtube university to learn a new skill, ordered a pair of hog-ring pliers, and not very long at all I had the covers swapped out. Would have been a bit more work if I'd needed to change the foam but that would have been doable too. I didn't get all the tucking perfect for a show quality job but 98% of 'normal' people would think it's factory. Is that a thing for aircraft.....Getting pre-sewn seat covers and DIY install? IF you're at all handy it might be a way to save some costs..... edit: I should add, the primary reason I did it was because there aren't many upholstery shops convenient to where I live...so with the inconvenience of hiring out comes low competition and higher price. If there would have been profession options for me I probably would never have gone down the road of learning the new skill.
Airtex sells interior kits. Carpet is precut, seats you remove the existing upholstery, and for many airplanes the foam, then install the precut foam and precut/sewn seat covers.
Yes. But not all providers are equal. In my experience, you don't always get a 100% fit with pre-made covers due to the variances in seats and in some cases the underlying foam. If its your only economical option then its the next best thing. However, in the past we've removed all the seats, headliners, etc. and brought them to a shop for a "custom" fit. If you take them to a CRS shop then all the work can be signed by you per prevent mx except any EWB changes if applicable.
Different aircraft have different levels of skill required, and different expectations on fit and finish. A Citabria or older 172 is going to look fine with fairly elementary DIY products. A 6 seat twin deserves a professional job.
Talking to the shop on my field, the AirTex can vary how they fit. But with some work, they look quite good. He said they did one recently that was the most effort to get it looking good, but they managed. Having them do AirTex and painting the plastic pieces is about half the price of a high end job with everything covered in ultra thin leather.
