DIY interiors

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Paul_Havelka

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Paul_Havelka
So we’re slowly bringing our ugly duckling up to at least a good looking mallard and we are getting ready to start on the interior. For the side panels I was considering aluminum but plastic was also mentioned for the substrate. We’re doing simple and clean for the side panels and I’ll end up replacing our seat foam and recovering the seats ourselves. What are y’all using for the foam on the seats? I’d also love to see some of yalls diy interiors. Our bird is a PA28-180c.


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I did a full interior on my old 172 and have done a few sets of seats and headliners for friends. If you haven't yet take a look at sailrite.com, while its geared more toward boating sewing is still sewing and they have a TON of great tutorials. As far as foam goes, I like to laminate 1/2" scrim backed foam (https://www.sailrite.com/Fabric-Bac...MIh6ProMbS6AIVhqDsCh15RgbUEAAYAiAAEgLU4PD_BwE) to side panels and seats. For the main foam its personal preference but I just use 2" medium density sheet foam (https://www.sailrite.com/High-Density-Polyurethane-Foam-Medium-2-x-24-x-80). I personally hate memory foam, but if you like it you can glue a 1" piece of regular foam to 1" memory foam and use that. An electric kitchen knife makes cutting sheet foam a breeze. Attached are a few photo's of my old 172.
 

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Creekrat said:
So we’re slowly bringing our ugly duckling up to at least a good looking mallard and we are getting ready to start on the interior. For the side panels I was considering aluminum but plastic was also mentioned for the substrate. We’re doing simple and clean for the side panels and I’ll end up replacing our seat foam and recovering the seats ourselves. What are y’all using for the foam on the seats? I’d also love to see some of yalls diy interiors. Our bird is a PA28-180c.


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Don’t forget you need burn certs on the materials!
 
Absolutely. Already talking with my IA and he said he would certify whatever we came up with. Even offered to let me use his serger for when we do the carpets


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Jim Fixx offers the temperature sensitive foam with burn cert in slabs suitable for forming into seats.
 
you don't need a far 23 burn cert for a car-3 aircraft, all you need is a manufactures statement that the materials meet astm standard and the A&P statement to that effect in the log books. any auto materials or marine materials should have that available. If the material meets FAR23 appendix F, it exceeds the requirement of CAR-3. here is a good article on the subject.

https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10389164/interior-confusion
 
We were going to go fabric on the seats but after talking with my cfi he said he has 2 tan leather hides that he got from Lear a couple years ago with burn certs. Used 2 hides to do the interior of his skymaster and had 2 leftover. Gonna cost me $250 and I’ll have plenty left over. Now to just find an industrial sewing machine to use.


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We did an Airtex kit on the Navion (carpet, headliner). Wasn't too difficult. Also Margy helped a friend do a full Airtex redo (side panels, seats, etc...) on a 170.
 
anybody understand "hides"?? You can buy leather in "hides" — but how many hides equal how many square feet of material? Or asked more simply... how many hides to cover two front seats and a back seat in a C-182... just for instance?? THANKS
 
I used HR70 inch thick foam on my bottoms- nice firm and supportive...

I decided most upholstery gets outdated and ratty too quick and is just weight... I lost about 15lbs taking it to bare aluminum... primed and painted it. It’s no louder nor any colder. It was loud before it still is, it wasn’t crazy warm before it’s not crazy warm now.

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DKirkpatrick said:
anybody understand "hides"?? You can buy leather in "hides" — but how many hides equal how many square feet of material? Or asked more simply... how many hides to cover two front seats and a back seat in a C-182... just for instance?? THANKS
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im not sure if there is a standard for the sq footage of a cow, but I would guess two hides to do all three seats.
 
An average hide is 50 square feet. Layout is tougher than vinyl as you may have to work around bug bites and scars. If its your first time sewing upholstery I'd highly recommend trying a few with some cheap vinyl before committing to the nice leather. 2 hides will easily do the front and back seats, I'd be a bit nervous trying to get 4 seats and door panels though.
 
DKirkpatrick said:
anybody understand "hides"?? You can buy leather in "hides" — but how many hides equal how many square feet of material? Or asked more simply... how many hides to cover two front seats and a back seat in a C-182... just for instance?? THANKS
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I'm pretty sure the sum of the squaws on the two hides equals the squaw on the hippopotamus.
 
Well my CFI was able to get the 5 seats and all side panels of his Cessna 337 from 2 hides. How Lear used to do it was they would buy plenty of a colored lot to do their aircraft and once they had too little of that lot # to do an entire plane they would sell it to upholstery shops or whomever wanted them. They did not want to risk the colors being off even just a bit.

I’m definitely going to practice on some vinyl before I start cutting and stitching the leather.


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unsafervguy said:
you don't need a far 23 burn cert for a car-3 aircraft, all you need is a manufactures statement that the materials meet astm standard and the A&P statement to that effect in the log books. any auto materials or marine materials should have that available. If the material meets FAR23 appendix F, it exceeds the requirement of CAR-3. here is a good article on the subject.

https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10389164/interior-confusion
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You're playing with fire if you don't make sure they meet burn requirements. The whole point of those is to make sure you have enough time to vacate an aircraft when something bad is happening. This includes time to land as well as exit a parked craft.

In this case, regulations be damned, I'll take every margin of safety... well, maybe not as extreme as @Huckster79 and his 140 (love them, btw.)
 
wheaties said:
You're playing with fire if you don't make sure they meet burn requirements. The whole point of those is to make sure you have enough time to vacate an aircraft when something bad is happening. This includes time to land as well as exit a parked craft.

In this case, regulations be damned, I'll take every margin of safety... well, maybe not as extreme as @Huckster79 and his 140 (love them, btw.)
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while i admire your dedication to safety, the point was that you do not need to have a far23 burn certificate for a car-3 aircraft. because of the differences in requirements of far23 vs astm flame testing, the FAR23 materials are far more expensive than astm certified materials. having a far 23 cert does not automatically mean that the material is any more flame resistant than a astm certified material, it just means that it was tested with the procedures of far 23 vs astm procedures. both certified materials will still burn, they are just tested in a different manner.

here is a really good post in the short wing piper group that talks about the different standards that apply:
https://forum.shortwingpiperclub.org/showthread.php?3033-Interior-materials-and-regulations
 
I have Gerflor Batiflex in my 182. Highly recommend if you’re doing the floor
 
thanks for your help w my "hides" question... I ain't sewin' these... but I know a guy...
thanks
 
oh yeah, weighing in on burn certs? How much extra are we talking? I don't think it costs that much more to get burn cert material — and it could save your bacon, or keep you from looking same.
 
Bottom line, almost any type of material used in upholstery, whether auto, marine, or aviation will likely have some kind of burn cert... Just make sure that it meets your individual needs, if you decide CAR3, FAR23, ASTM, FMVSS302, etc...

Much of my previous interior came from perfectfit.com (but I lived pretty close to their Tukwila warehouse at the time). Some came from JoAnn's other materials came from various places. (headliner came from Spruce).

V/r,
-Dana
 
DKirkpatrick said:
anybody understand "hides"?? You can buy leather in "hides" — but how many hides equal how many square feet of material? Or asked more simply... how many hides to cover two front seats and a back seat in a C-182... just for instance?? THANKS
Click to expand...
I did this with 2 hides. And had to use a little nauga on the back seats around the sides. Other than that it's all 100% cow hide. Including the side panels.IMG_20190107_151529924.jpg installed3.jpg Leather is pretty easy to work with, especially the softer upholstery and garment hides. I stitched it all together with an old home use sewing machine.
 

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Lndwarrior said:
I'm pretty sure the sum of the squaws on the two hides equals the squaw on the hippopotamus.
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The joke is three pregnant native americans. One slept on a deer skin, one on a buffalo skin, and one on a hippopotamus skin, The one that slept on a deer skin had a baby boy, as did the one on the buffalo skin, but the one that slept on the hippopotamus skin had TWIN baby boys, thus proving that the squaw of the hippopotamus was equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.
 
This may be a stupid question, but as I understand it we are slaughtering about 10 pigs for each cow. We use pigskin for footballs, is it usable for upholstery? (Please, no jokes about certain religious sects not being able to use it :)

Jim
 
Actually they use cow hide for footballs. The pigskin that I've seen in Tandy's was much too thick and stiff for any upholstery. I'm in the Southwest - pigskin is used a lot for furniture and not the high end kind, more like the stuff you'd put on your patio and all of it I've seen is pretty rigid.
 
weirdjim said:
This may be a stupid question, but as I understand it we are slaughtering about 10 pigs for each cow. We use pigskin for footballs, is it usable for upholstery? (Please, no jokes about certain religious sects not being able to use it :)

Jim
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Yes, I've even used it for clothing. it can be quite soft and supple. In the hide industry they call it "butter soft". But that all depends on the hide, processing, and whether it was split, or not, among other things. I have some pig skin that is buttery soft, and nice to look at as well.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Actually they use cow hide for footballs. The pigskin that I've seen in Tandy's was much too thick and stiff for any upholstery. I'm in the Southwest - pigskin is used a lot for furniture and not the high end kind, more like the stuff you'd put on your patio and all of it I've seen is pretty rigid.
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What is used for furniture is meant to take more abuse than "fashion" garments. There are some very nice soft pig hides out there. But the most luxurious that I've seen has been "Cabretta" And that stuff is wayyyy 'spensive. But it is sho nuff nice. It would make very nice seat covers, but the hides are very small, and cost about the same as a way much larger cow hide. It's mostly used for high end gloves.
 
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