182P dash panel cosmetic repairs?

455 Bravo Uniform

455 Bravo Uniform

Final Approach
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As an owner (not an A&P mechanic) can I remove the plastic instrument panel cover, repair chips and cracks, paint, and reinstall? Can I also replace the placards?

I know I "can", but is it legal is what I'm asking. And if I can, any advice?
 
Yes you can so long as you do not disconecct anything or remove any instruments. A PPL can refurbish trim and upholstery. The Faa has a list of preventative maintenence otems you can perform and I believe it speaks to interieor work. Use SEM PAINT. It works fantastic and lasts a long time. Some very thin pieces of fiberglass cloth on the back side will strenthen weak and cracked areas. Clean it very well and wipe with alcohol before painting.
 
(c)(11). Thanks! Was not sure what the dash panel cover was ("decorative").
 
Dumb question since I am not by the airplane right now....lets say removing the panel cover also required removing the yoke handles if the yoke shaft goes through the panel cover. Legally, could a owner still do this?

FYI - I think on the 182P there is cut just below this area so that the yoke handle does not need to be removed.
 
The kicker with the panel cover is the lights if you have the individual bulb instrument lights in yours. Otherwise it would be fully cosmetic to remove and fix it up. They also tend to get very brittle over many years in the sun, due to outgassing of the plastic used, and many times they'll snap off pieces while trying to remove and replace them.

We found one at the airplane junkyard / restorer for a lot cheaper than anywhere else when ours started losing chunks of plastic and looked bad. They'd ordered it new and got the wrong one, and it had been on a shelf for a few years.
 
My lights appear to be in the instruments themselves, rather than the pedestal lights in the plastic panel.

This is an interesting article that shows a pretty much garbage can worthy piece (to my ignorant mind) that was redone. Makes me worry less about it falling apart when I go to remove it. Mine has the yoke cutout.

https://www.polyvance.com/pfxinstrumentpanel.php
 
If you get the panel off in one piece, I've had good luck rejuvinating brittle plastics by applying a thin coating of ABS plastic glue thinned with MEK (applied to the back side if possible). I've always rolled it on with a small trim roller, but I've also wanted to try thinning it enough so that it would be sprayable with one of those little spray bombs. Of course a well ventilated area and appropriate PPE are a must when working with this stuff (charcoal-filtered air, with lots of fresh air). I've recently purchased a 3D Pen for my kids, and I think with some black abs filament you could do some nice work with it... I have found that the self-adhesive fiberglass tape used for wallboard joints works pretty well, and stays in place well enough to wet out and let the bonding action work...

I have some pics of the panel overlays that I repaired after rearranging the panel on our plane, check out the This Old Airplane facebook page...

Cheers!
 
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