Choosing Interior Colors

MuseChaser

MuseChaser

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MuseChaser
Well... things are going well in the '65 PA28-140 Cherokee revitalization saga.. New Stratus ESG to satisfy ADSB mandate and replace aging Narco AT150, rebuilt nose strut, rebuilt brake master cylinders, some new fuel lines, and she's flying great. YAY!! Still a couple little things to address, but have taken my wife up for a short XC or two and she's all in again.. DOUBLE YAY!!!

Soooo.. we spent some time pouring over the sample fabric/carpet card I ordered from Airtex a while ago. I know choosing interior colors can come down to personal preference, but would still love to get the collective's thoughts on a few things.

Quite a few of my cars have had solid black interiors, and I've always liked them. I see almost zero aircraft with black interiors. Guessing that's due to the lack of air conditioning and serious heat soak when parked in the sun for more than a few minutes, taxiing, runups, and other ground ops. Is that the case, or is the effect not that strong?

Right now, the interior metal and plastic trim pieces are all dark brown. We reupholstered the pilot and copilot seats, which are still in excellent, almost-new condition, in a light gray vinyl with grey cloth inserts in the butt and lower back areas. The back seats are in bad cosmetic shape, and an amalgam of tan and white vinyl backs with dark brown vinly-trimmed darker tan cloth bottoms. We are not planning on doing either the front or back seats right away.

One of the reasons I'm asking is, at least for the Pipers we looked at on the Airtex "portfolio" page, pretty much EVERY aircraft they showed was some version of grey on grey.. looks nice, but not real.. well, real anything. Just kinda safely blah. I'm sure there's a reason (easy resale? Too scared to try something other than gray, just in case you hate it?.. I dunno). For anyone who has the Airtex color card, or has the time and inclination to check this out at the airtexinteriors.com site, here's a couple combinations we thought would look nice. Besides just saying "Ewwww, that's awful," any comments, suggestions, or warnings would be very helpful. "Ewwww, that's awful BECAUSE...." would be welcome, too. We're trying to find something that would look good, not show dirt or stains easily, and interface fairly well with the front seats and dark brown trim as-is, and then we could slowly repaint plastic and metal trim and do the seats at another date.

Scheme #1 - DW-12 Oak Duraweave cloth w/ DT-72 Cinnamon vinyl trim, Sandalwood 321 headliner, and either Saddle or Brown carpeting. This is mostly a sort of tan/golden/natural undyed leather color scheme (but not in leather). We both think it would go well with both the existing dark brown trim AND the newish light gray seats until we got around to addressing those. Can't recall seeing anything like this in a plane. Bad idea? Nice? Why?

Scheme #2 - DW -3062 Onyx Duraweave cloth w/ DT-74 Coal vinyl trim, Mica 320 headliner, Black carpeting. This is the black interior idea mentioned above. Really bad idea for heat reasons? Or.. other reasons?

Scheme #3 - DW-16 Raspberry Duraweave cloth w/ DT-82 Slate vinyl trim, Mica 320 headliner, Navy carpeting. I can't see this one, personally, but my wife liked it and she generally has a really good eye for this stuff and I trust her. Sure would be ...ummm.... active? Thoughts?

Scheme #4 - Go gray, young man. Would be easy and goof-proof. Would be a tough sell to the decorator half of the family.

I kinda suck at this. My clothes are all various shades of dirt, and every time we go pick out drapes, carpeting, or whatever, I usually point to things that are dirt colored. Seriously.. any thoughts would be great. Looking forward to the project.. especially now that's she's kind of excited about it, too. Pics posted of your interior colors, especially if close to any of these schemes, would be great.
 
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I don’t have a wife, so I ended up shades of gray:
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Tom
 
Light colors. Your legs and fanny will thank you any time you are parked in the sun. Light colors also make the interior feel bigger.
 
Black interior will be very hot to the touch in the sun. Black carpets are OK, and will hide dirt. I went with saddle or cinnamon and a light brown cloth, can't remember. Its a very handsome neutral color set that will coordinate with various exterior paint colors. My exterior is brown/gold trim so it works well. The cloth is a light enough color to stay cool in the sun. My carpeting is still black. The plastic and headliner are an off white.

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chemgeek said:
Black interior will be very hot to the touch in the sun. Black carpets are OK, and will hide dirt. I went with saddle or cinnamon and a light brown cloth, can't remember. Its a very handsome neutral color set that will coordinate with various exterior paint colors. My exterior is brown/gold trim so it works well. The cloth is a light enough color to stay cool in the sun. My carpeting is still black. The plastic and headliner are an off white.
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Wow...thank you so much, that helps a lot, and pretty cool that what you chose is pretty much identical to what we had in mind. Great to actually see it...looks beautiful!
 
Airtex? So you’re going for the winnebago look?

Why not go find a good hotrod and custom shop and get a good interior done up?

I’d stick with the classics, black, tan, etc.

Here are a few things to read

https://www.avweb.com/ownership/interiors-legalities-and-part-91-aircraft/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tijuana-body-paint-and-upholstery.796439/

And check out kangaroo leather too

https://maverickleathercompany.com/product/kangaroo-lhg/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_leather
 
Because budget. Because DIY. Because hassle. Because faster. Lots of reasons. Mostly because budget and faster. An autoshop DID do our front seats, and did a great job. I'm aware of that possibility. Mostly, just would like some help w/ color schemes, but thanks for your input.
 
MuseChaser said:
Because budget. Because DIY. Because hassle. Because faster. Lots of reasons. Mostly because budget and faster. An autoshop DID do our front seats, and did a great job. I'm aware of that possibility. Mostly, just would like some help w/ color schemes, but thanks for your input.
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For sure, think you’ll get a better value from a hotrod place.

But real world I’d look at auto upholstery schemes to get ideas, for whatever reason aviation upholstery jobs suck for the most part

The new Cessna canyon style looks pretty good though, especially if you used saddle style leather for the tan

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MuseChaser said:
Any pics of the interior? Wanna make sure I incorporate all of the colors necessary... ;)
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My vomit was strategically contained within the collar of my shirt and wasteline. I had just, and I mean just put in a brand new real-deal custom leather interior. I was not gonna puke on it. Down the shirt it went. CFI was like OK>.. you are good, my airplane, foggles off and look outside. No arguments from me.
 
Unit74 said:
My vomit was strategically contained within the collar of my shirt and wasteline. I had just, and I mean just put in a brand new real-deal custom leather interior. I was not gonna puke on it. Down the shirt it went. CFI was like OK>.. you are good, my airplane, foggles off and look outside. No arguments from me.
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Wooof... that sounds like an ordeal. I gather the rest of the IPC went well.. at least, I hope it did. I guess I'm just lucky... the only time I've EVER felt even remotely a little queasy was during the "put your head down and close your eyes" drills for as my CFII proceeded to make like a rollercoaster w/ the plane in recover-from-unusual-attitude practice. Even that pretty much just made me smile.. I love that stuff. You've earned a tough guy point... don't know if I could deal with it if I felt that bad.
 
MuseChaser said:
Wooof... that sounds like an ordeal. I gather the rest of the IPC went well.. at least, I hope it did. I guess I'm just lucky... the only time I've EVER felt even remotely a little queasy was during the "put your head down and close your eyes" drills as my CFII proceeded to make like a rollercoaster w/ the plane. Even that pretty much just made me smile.. I love that stuff. You've earned a tough guy point... don't know if I could deal with it if I felt that bad.
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We did it on a hot Arkansas summer day, continuous mod chop, convection building in the area and the very last thing was unusual attitudes. First one left me feeling like I was in a left spin. Recovery perfect but head still spinning. Right into a roller coaster and I recovered, I yelled "Your aircraft!" and that was that. Whole day sucked over all. Worst conditions short of flying into a TS build up. I did fly an approach on Foreflight only with all instruments covered up just to see how it would go. Went pretty good. Good enough to get down out of soup.
 
James331 said:
I’d also look at non carpet options.
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Now that IS interesting. I've already been wondering, given my previous issues w/ hydraulic fluid leaking from the master cylinders onto my feet and the floor, if there was anything "WeatherTec"-like that would be appropriate, safe, and approved for airplanes. Will definitely look into that.. thanks.
 
Are you repainting the plane, the interior colors might affect your exterior colors you can have.


Tom
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Brown trim? Future tan upholstery? Carpet to match.
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Yep...in the first scheme in the OP, we had picked either "Saddle" or brown as the matching carpet color...they're both brown, with Saddle being slightly lighter. Also thought about black..seems like that would match anything?
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
Are you repainting the plane, the interior colors might affect your exterior colors you can have.


Tom
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Repainting is definitely something that would majorly improve the tired look of this plane, but if/when we do it, it'll be after installing a panel gps..probably years away if ever. However, definitely a good point. It's white w/ light and dark brownish trim stripes now...standard Cherokee fare. We figure if we stuck w/ autumn colors (browns, tans, muted oranges, reds, greens, and yellows, etc.) outside the plane, we'd be pretty safe avoiding clashes w/ the interior... but I could be wrong? To my eye, going with bright colors anywhere, especially blues, reds, and greens, tend to limit your choices for second colors or shades, but like I said I'm not exactly "on my home turf" w/ this stuff. "Red" means synthetic grease or hydraulic fluid to me.
 
MuseChaser said:
Yep...in the first scheme in the OP, we had picked either "Saddle" or brown as the matching carpet color...they're both brown, with Saddle being slightly lighter. Also thought about black..seems like that would match anything?
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Darker is better up to a point, as it won’t show stains as well, but then it just shows surface dirt/debris and always gets dirty. I wouldn’t do black personally.
 
Greys and browns are at least “timeless” colors as my wife tells me. With the long cycle time between redoing an interior, I would want something that is trendy today and still looks good in 20 years when who knows what is the color flavor of the day. My wife used to work in the biz jet mod business and still tells stories of some interesting interior choices by the owners.

@aftCG I’m guessing your seats look pretty awesome with the overall paint scheme.
 
Random tip: Match your interior colors to the exterior color in terms of warm and cool; reds/oranges/yellows/browns/tans = warm while blues, greens, greys = cool.



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Very light Airtex interior. P1020057.JPG

8 Years later it's starting to show the dirt especially on the pilot's side door but has otherwise held up well. I am admittedly tough on an interior.
 
Bill Watson said:
Random tip: Match your interior colors to the exterior color in terms of warm and cool; reds/oranges/yellows/browns/tans = warm while blues, greens, greys = cool.
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Pardon my lack of knowledge here...are you suggesting to pair, for instance, a warm interior w/ a cool exterior, or to stick with colors within each classification throughout? Thanks for chiming in...
 
I have a PA32. Exterior is Green and whit with gold and red trim. The interior is green carpet with medium tan seats and panels.

I wasn’t a big fan of green before I bought the plane. Love it now, love my plane.

My point is to gold bold. Even if you’re not sure of it. Planes can handle a little extra flare.


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Initial Fix said:
Greys and browns are at least “timeless” colors as my wife tells me. With the long cycle time between redoing an interior, I would want something that is trendy today and still looks good in 20 years when who knows what is the color flavor of the day. My wife used to work in the biz jet mod business and still tells stories of some interesting interior choices by the owners.
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Those are exactly the issues we're considering. My wife came up with a new scheme this morning that's increasingly growing on me...
DW-15 Lagoon Duraweave fabric (sort of a muted darkish blue), DT-82 Slate vinyl trim, and Navy carpeting. According to her, navy is classy. Not sure it would work w/ existing dark brown plastic and metal but most of that stuff needs repairing, replacing, or painting anyway.
Since your wife did this stuff professionally, we'd love to get her take on this, too, if you're both willing.
 
drjcustis said:
....

I wasn’t a big fan of green before I bought the plane. Love it now, love my plane.

My point is to gold bold. Even if you’re not sure of it. Planes can handle a little extra flare.
..
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That is VERY reassuring...thanks!
 
MuseChaser said:
Pardon my lack of knowledge here...are you suggesting to pair, for instance, a warm interior w/ a cool exterior, or to stick with colors within each classification throughout? Thanks for chiming in...
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I’m suggesting sticking with the colors in classification.

When planning paint and interior for my RV-10, we spent an Oskosh trip scanning many dozens of paint schemes. The good ones immediately split along the warm/cool color scheme lines. I wanted blue/gray, she wanted red/tan. Very few people seemed to cross that line and when it was crossed, it wasn’t as appealing.
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
I'd go with your wife's color choices. You already know my stance on it but I'll mention it again. You mentioned "budget" in response to James' suggestion for a hot rod shop or local upholstery place. You will spend less than half of your AirTex budget using local talent. I spent less than a third and as you know, I have all leather which is blue and gray including the side panels with dark gray carpet from Airtex. Also, if you ever choose to paint it, I would go with whatever color will eventually match the exterior. Who cares if its another color, it will be new and smell and look great.
 
Thanks, Tim. You've given me a LOT of great advice and help in the past. There are two good shops in town; one that did the front seats already about ten years ago, and one that I used for a convertible softtop (car, obviously) that has a great rep and does all of the classic stuff around here. My biggest fear is that, as you know, one panel is completely missing and some of the others are so misshapen and warped that I'm not sure I have the skills to make accurate templates of the panels for the shop. I guess there's certainly no harm in trying. I'll take some more pics, give the shops a call, and see what they have to say. At this point in my life, easy and faster is worth a little extra dough.. but not two or three times the price. If that's really what it is in my locale, then maybe I need to listen to you and James on this one.
 
I'll be up in your neck of the woods in November. How close are you to Watertown/Adams/Rodman?

I have the skills to make adequate templates
 
Watertown's just under an hour flight north from Cortland where I'm based. Templates or not, it'd be great to have the opportunity to buy you a beer!
 
I will be there from the 15th through the 24th. I'm up for deer hunting with my buddies as I do every year, but could take a day to meet you and give you some pointers. Weather might be pretty crappy for flying as it always is while I'm there but I'd really like to meet you and see what you're working with. There is a CFI that I'd like to meet as well based in Watertown and also on this forum. @rookie1255

In the meantime, what you can do is go buy some large sheets of heavy paper such as what kids use for science projects. Get stuff that can be easily cut with scissors. You have 4 side panels in your airplane. Two in the back (which would be a good place to start because they are smaller and easier to handle) and two larger ones for the front. Measure, transfer to the paper and then check the fit for any adjustments. Once you have it fitted, tape it to the side where you want it and move on to the next basing the next panel on your previous one. You are going to be tired and sore from hopping in and out of the plane, fair warning. Once you get the paper fitted (you will probably have to tape two or more pieces together to make a piece large enough for the front panels) you can transfer the paper onto your backing material which I'll tell you what and where to get it. You can use screws with the decorative washers or you can do like I did which is to use automotive plastic push fasteners (I covered these with leather left over from the scraps.) There are a number of people on this forum that have seen my interior who will vouch for how it looks.
 
MuseChaser said:
Thanks, Tim. You've given me a LOT of great advice and help in the past. There are two good shops in town; one that did the front seats already about ten years ago, and one that I used for a convertible softtop (car, obviously) that has a great rep and does all of the classic stuff around here. My biggest fear is that, as you know, one panel is completely missing and some of the others are so misshapen and warped that I'm not sure I have the skills to make accurate templates of the panels for the shop. I guess there's certainly no harm in trying. I'll take some more pics, give the shops a call, and see what they have to say. At this point in my life, easy and faster is worth a little extra dough.. but not two or three times the price. If that's really what it is in my locale, then maybe I need to listen to you and James on this one.
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I’d get on jalopy (one of the sites I linked) and ask them where they recommend, the hot rod guys really are the ones I’d ask as they tend to demand high standards for their interior work, I don’t know how many in aviation would even know the difference between real tuck and roll and a cheap tuck roll job.

Pull your seats, panels, etc and bring them to the shop, all is a easy remove and reinstall, the only hard part you might want to outsource install wise is the headliner.

If you’re in NY, remember that Canada has a major discount with America $$$ wise. Ottawa, MTL, Cornwall are all a short hop from you.
 
Where do people recommend getting material with burn certs for a local auto upholsterer to use when covering aircraft seats?
 
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