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April 2, 2007 Day 331, 2226.5 hours It was very interesting watching Jeff, our interior expert, do this work. The interior shapes and surfaces of the aircraft are a very difficult problem, with many compound curves, strange angles abrupt changes in direction, moving parts, and the need for removable parts and access for inspection. |
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April 2, 2007 Day 331, 2226.5 hours These six materials were involved, from left to right:
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April 3, 2007 Day 332, 2233.5 hours The center keel was one of the more interesting challenges. After applying landau foam to the keel with contact cement, the vinyl was stretched over the foam, formed with a heat gun, and glued down. Inspection covers were covered with vinyl and then re-installed. You can see one of these just to the left below the speaker grille. |
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April 5. 2007 Day 334, 2247 hours Most aircraft interiors are pretty stark and/or in bad taste. The worst I ever saw was in a corporate jet that looked like the reception area of a cheap massage parlor. We wanted a more finished, car-like feeling, and Jeff was able to do that for us. Here is the recess at the wing root, which is lined with perforated suede and equipped with a foam arm rest. |
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April 7, 2007 Day 335, 2254 hours Here is the overhead duct with the reading lights and air vents re-installed. The perforated suede headliner came out very well. We expect that the aircraft interior will be very quiet with all the foam that was used under the upholstery. We were very glad we used push-on connectors on all of the electrical items! |
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April 8, 2007 Day 336, 2259 hours In some places, the complex compound curves were too extreme to form the vinyl, and Jeff had to sew special fitted pieces. The overhead panel area was one such place. You can see one of the seams in the right upper corner of the picture. |
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April 9, 2007 Day 337, 2264.5 hours There is a saying that, "The devil is in the details." Those particular devils continue to visit us on a daily basis. We had to make a custom bracket for the fire extinguisher. It was driving us crazy because it wasn't parallel to its mounting bracket. Ok, Ok! I know. It's really "anal." We can't help it! |
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April 10, 2007 Day 338, 2272 hours We decided that the aluminum position lights looked tacky, so we took them off and painted them. Looks much better, doesn't it?
Before painting |
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April 11, 2007 Day 339, 2280 hours Many items had to be painted individually. The front landing gear fork was removed, cleaned, sanded, filled, primed and painted two times before we got it the way we wanted it. Scott Swing helped us with this; it was quite a job.
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Next
session, we will be taking on another small army of "detail
devils." I hear them hissing and laughing in the dark corners
of the hangar.