PA-28-180D Dash Panel Removal

[Koby Sronce]

Hey Guys,

Today I got a little stir crazy and decided to do a few things to my PA28-180. One of them included pulling the plastic instrument overlay panels and deciding to give them a nice coat of paint. the factory red from '69 was a little overwhelming.

I ran into a few problems though. I can't get 3 panels off. 2 "center" panels because of the yokes on each side and the bottom right panel because of the PTT switch/cable.

On a side note - Does anybody know of any compatible GS/LOC indicators for the TKM Michells MX12 (Slide in replacement for Narco MK12). The shop told me I can't have GS because the GS computer is missing but I found a MX12 GS adapter that I *think* will allow me to have GS. Any info on that would be fantastic.

Here are the pictures of the Problem Panels.

 

[Chris Scherry]

Koby, I just refinished my panel. I have a 1973 180 Challenger. What I did for panels 1 and 3 is pop them out of their aluminum trim at the top and bottom. You kind of have to squeeze it top and bottom to get it out of the channel. I slid the panel out the control shaft, turned them upside down and cut through the plastic with a razor saw. Then popped them off the shaft painted and reinstalled. The only other option is to pull the yokes and mine has PTT, auto pilot and trim buttons in them so disconnecting all that wasn't an option.
I think panel 2 was screwed on from the underside.

 

[Koby Sronce]

Thanks Chris,
I ended up doing the same thing as you. There really was no reason to disconnect the yokes for what little work there was to be done. How did you panels turn put? Im thinking of different color schemes to do. Seems like everybody just does all black but I don't wanna do that and be boring, Thinking of black upper panel and white lower panel/trim boot.

 

[Chris Scherry]

I think mine came out great compared to what it looked like. I used a wrinkle finish because I had a lot of broken pieces etc and I wanted to make sure the fixes didn't show.
I hate to disappoint but I did mine in all black. I did see one that was done in an off white that looked neat.