Interior Materials

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Feb 23, 2005
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Tom-D
What is you preference?
Wool. & leather or what ?
If you were doing a interior for re-sale what would please most buyers?
 
Carbon fiber floor and interior panels. Fabric seat surfaces.
 
Nothing prevents you from producing CF parts and using commercially available upholstery fabrics. CF too difficult? Kydex works well, too. Most of you try to restore your old planes to 1950s glory. I prefer more modern materials and interior designs. Judging by the responses I get when other owners see my planes? I’d say more agree than disagree.
 
Personally, I hate leather. It's nothing more than expensive vinyl. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. I don't like it in any of my vehicles

My new truck has leather, because it's hard to find a vehicle that doesn't have it these days. And I hate it.

Give me cloth any day.

The only valid reason I can see for having leather is if you have a gaggle of rug rats who smear their greasy, germy, nasty crap everywhere. Leather is easier to clean in that situation.
 
Leather looks great, but I prefer the feel/comfort of a high-quality (and soft) fabric. My airplane has ultra leather in it now, but if I were to ever re-do it, I'd go with a good fabric on the seating surfaces. Maybe seat backs and side panels in leather, though.
 
My preference is wool, but I bet most people are wowed by new leather, especially if you're showing the airplane in a hangar where the leather isn't going to be hot. They aren't thinking ahead to cracking.

If you want to sell the plane, put leather in it. If you want the new owner to think well of you too, use wool.
 
The interior of my aircraft is old, tears in the headliner, distorted old cracking ABS plastic parts etc. I was wondering about just replacing the header with Gilliner 1066. It's about 0.1 lb/ft^2, and would look good enough for me (maybe give it a coat of paint). Haven't found anyone selling small lots of the stuff though.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
Well...it keeps em nice for a while.
Click to expand...
Late model C-150 that's about all you can use. I've seen a couple plastic interiors that were covered with a double knit wool and looked really great.
 
Tom-D said:
Didn't know that was a material?
Click to expand...
Well considering you said this...

Tom-D said:
If you were doing a interior for re-sale what would please most buyers?
Click to expand...
It would make all the difference in what material you used. Especially if your goal was to sell quickly and make money.

An antique like a C140 or a Stagger Wing: corduroy seats come to mind for a top shelf offering.
A workhorse like a C172: while I don't know if this is still current but 172s were scooped up by flight schools especially with a utility interior of Naugahyde seats, coin mat floor, and kydex trim.
A C182/206/210: which applied to your upgraded weekend traveler with money and a nice fabric or wool interior with carpet and a trim kit would make for a nice aircraft.
Or a flip project and the cheapest interior possible to make an extra 5%.

As for leather, in my opinion, really belongs in business/turbine class due to weight and cost.
 
Fabric for the seats is a must, the rest really doesn’t matter, what ever looks good.
 
Leather.... real leather, not the cheap ****. Depends on the plane and its use though.

I have a rubber flooring and I love it. I don't really get the point of carpet in most GA aircraft

This is the best pic I have of my interior
interior.jpg
 
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Before (2).jpg after2.jpg installed2.jpg installed.jpg I put cow in the Cherokee. I got two full hides for less than the same square footage of vinyl.
And it smells nice too. :)
The side panels came out about 8oz heavier than the old ones. But that was due to the added weight of the sculpting foam.
 
Leather. Cloth traps farts.

Blue Rooster - I just had my side panels re-upholstered with leather and carpet on the bottom. I used to have a pouch in the same place as yours. I relocated it higher and made it internal. I got tired of the seat catching on that pouch every time I had to remove or install it.
 
My seat doesn't catch on the pouch but the armrest seems to cause a bit of trouble when removing the seat.
 
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